Summary

In this chapter, you were introduced to a few fundamental tools in Python for formalizing your knowledge. You learned how to write scripts and modules and save them appropriately. You were introduced to several different ways of writing functions, including iterative, recursive, and lambda functions. Additionally, common algorithms widely featured in basic computer science courses were presented, including bubble sort and binary search. You also learned why the DRY principle is important, and how general functions and helper functions help us to adhere to this principle to express the logical components of our code succinctly. Finally, you learned the importance of variable scope, timers, and dynamic programming.

In the next chapter, you will turn to Python applications that you will need in your Python toolkit, such as how to read and write files and how to plot visual graphs of data.