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Course Summary
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Difficulty
Beginner
Duration
46m
Students
396
Ratings
4.7/5
Description

The road to mastering the Python programming language is paved with objects. Objects are Python’s foundational building block. The entire Python programming language is used to create and control objects. This course provides a high-level glimpse into the basic mechanics of objects. With the goal of providing you with a vocabulary and mental model for understanding Python.

Learning Objectives

Upon completing this course you’ll be familiar with the anatomy and behaviors of objects.

Intended Audience

This course was designed for first-time developers wanting to learn Python. Existing developers already familiar with the concept of an object may want to skip.

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course and doesn’t require any prior programming knowledge.

Transcript

Everything in Python is an object. In fact, the entire purpose of the Python programming language is to create and control objects. Which is why objects have been the focus of this course. 

In this lesson we’ll summarize the key takeaways from this course. So that you know what’s important to know before moving forward.

Python's underlying architecture is designed to make it easy for developers to work with data. How does it accomplish that? 

Python makes it easy for developers to work with data by using objects to model real world and abstract concepts.

Objects consist of attributes and methods. 

  • Attributes define meaningful data about the concept being modeled. 

  • Methods define meaningful behaviors of a concept. 

Attributes are kind of like a cubby storage system. Where each cubby is given a name. And we can store other objects inside these named cubby spots and access the objects by using the names. 

Methods are responsible for modeling behaviors. Methods can accept input, perform some action, interact with attributes, and return output. Methods are run when we call the method and provide any required input. 

The concept that an object models is referred to as an object’s type. Different types of objects are modeled after different concepts. Each with a specific use case. 

This entire notion of objects is the foundation for understanding Python. This singular building block is reused to create thousands of object types. Which provide us as developers a wide range of functionality. 

The Python runtime includes an entire library of object types. Which includes strings, integers, floats, and many more.

No matter how many attributes or methods an object might include, conceptually they’re all the same to Python. Attributes define data. Methods define behaviors. 

With this high-level understanding of objects, you’re now ready to take the next step, which is to begin understanding how to use the Python programming language to create and control objects. However, that’s the topic for another lesson. 

Okay, this seems like a natural stopping point. Your key takeaways for this course should be that:

  • Objects are a mechanism used to model real world and abstract concepts.

  • Objects consist of attributes and methods.

    • Attributes define meaningful data about a concept.

    • Methods define meaningful behaviors of a concept.

  • The concept that an object models is referred to as the object’s type.

  • Everything in Python is an object.

    • We’ve only reviewed a few object types in this course.

    • However, Python provides a standard library consisting of thousands of object types - which can be used to perform all kinds of tasks in code.

This baseline understanding of objects is going to serve as a foundational context for learning to program with Python. As you begin to learn more about Python try and keep these ideas in mind. 

That’s going to wrap up this course. Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you in another course!

 

 

About the Author
Students
100941
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44
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Ben Lambert is a software engineer and was previously the lead author for DevOps and Microsoft Azure training content at Cloud Academy. His courses and learning paths covered Cloud Ecosystem technologies such as DC/OS, configuration management tools, and containers. As a software engineer, Ben’s experience includes building highly available web and mobile apps. When he’s not building software, he’s hiking, camping, or creating video games.

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