This chapter is taken from the book A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python by H. P. Langtangen, 5th edition, Springer, 2016.
A particular convenient feature of Python is the ability to execute
statements and evaluate expressions interactively. The environments
where you work interactively with programming are commonly known as
Python shells. The simplest Python shell is invoked by just typing
python at the command line in a terminal window. Some messages about
Python are written out together with a prompt >>>, after which you
can issue commands. Let us try to use the interactive shell as a
calculator. Type in 3*4.5-0.5 and then press the Return key to see
Python's response to this expression:
Terminal> python
Python 2.7.5+ (default, Sep 19 2013, 13:48:49)
[GCC 4.8.1] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> 3*4.5-0.5
13.0
>>> is what we write (shell input) and the
text without the >>> prompt is the result that Python calculates
(shell output). It is easy, as explained below, to recover previous
input and edit the text. This editing feature makes it convenient to
experiment with statements and expressions.
The program from the section Using variables can be typed in line by line in the interactive shell:
>>> v0 = 5
>>> g = 9.81
>>> t = 0.6
>>> y = v0*t - 0.5*g*t**2
>>> print y
1.2342
y value corresponding to another
(say) v0 value: hit the up arrow key to recover previous
statements, repeat pressing this key until the v0 = 5 statement
is displayed. You can then edit the line, e.g., to
>>> v0 = 6
v0 by either typing just v0 or print v0:
>>> v0
6
>>> print v0
6
y with this new v0 value.
Hit the up arrow key multiple times to recover the statement where
y is assigned, press the Return key, and write y or
print y to see the result of the computation:
>>> y = v0*t - 0.5*g*t**2
>>> y
1.8341999999999996
>>> print y
1.8342
y prints out all the decimals that are
stored in the computer (16), while print y writes out y
with fewer decimals. As mentioned in the section A first glimpse of rounding errors
computations on a computer often suffer from rounding errors. The present
calculation is no exception. The correct answer is 1.8342, but
rounding errors lead to a number that is incorrect in the 16th decimal.
The error is here \( 4\cdot 10^{-16} \).
Often you can work with variables in Python without bothering about
the type of objects these variables refer to. Nevertheless, we
encountered a serious problem in the section Potential error: integer division with
integer division, which forced us to be careful about the types of
objects in a calculation. The interactive shell is very useful for
exploring types. The following example illustrates the type
function and how we can convert an object from one type to another.
First, we create an int object bound to the name C and
check its type by calling type(C):
>>> C = 21
>>> type(C)
<type 'int'>
int object to a corresponding float object:
>>> C = float(C) # type conversion
>>> type(C)
<type 'float'>
>>> C
21.0
C = float(C) we create a new object from the
original object referred to by the name C and bind it to the same
name C. That is, C refers to a different object after the
statement than before. The original int with value 21 cannot be
reached anymore (since we have no name for it) and will be
automatically deleted by Python.
We may also do the reverse operation, i.e., convert a particular
float object to a corresponding int object:
>>> C = 20.9
>>> type(C)
<type 'float'>
>>> D = int(C) # type conversion
>>> type(D)
<type 'int'>
>>> D
20 # decimals are truncated :-/
v to type MyType
by writing v=MyType(v), if it makes sense to do the conversion.
In the last input we tried to convert a float to an int, and this
operation implied stripping off the decimals. Correct conversion
according to mathematical rounding rules can be achieved with help of
the round function:
>>> round(20.9)
21.0
>>> int(round(20.9))
21
There exist several improvements of the standard Python shell
presented in the section Interactive computing. The author advocates
IPython as the preferred interactive shell. You will then need to have
IPython installed. Typing ipython in a terminal window starts the
shell. The (default) prompt in IPython is not >>> but In [X]:,
where X is the number of the present input command. The most widely
used features of IPython are summarized below.
Python programs can be run from within the shell:
In [1]: run ball2.py
1.2342
cd to
the folder where the ball2.py program is located
and started IPython from there.
On Windows you may, as an alternative to starting IPython from a DOS
or PowerShell window, double click on the IPython desktop icon or use the Start
menu. In that case, you must move to the right folder where your
program is located. This is done by the os.chdir (change directory)
command. Typically, you write something like
In [1]: import os
In [2]: os.chdir(r'C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\div')
In [3]: run ball2.py
ball2.py program is located in the folder div under My
Documents of user me. Note the r before the quote in the string:
it is required to let a backslash really mean the backslash character.
If you end up typing the os.chdir command every time you enter
an IPython shell, this command (and others) can be placed in a
startup file such that they are automatically executed when you
launch IPython.
Inside IPython you can invoke any operating system command. This
allows us to navigate to the right folder above using Unix or Windows
(cd) rather than Python (os.chdir):
In [1]: cd C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\div
In [3]: run ball2.py
We recommend running all your Python programs from the IPython shell. Especially when something goes wrong, IPython can help you to examine the state of variables so that you become quicker to locate bugs.
In the rest of the document, we just write the program name and the output when we illustrate the execution of a program:
ball2.py
1.2342
run before the program name if you execute
the program in IPython, or if you prefer to run the program directly
in a terminal window, you need to write
python prior to the program name. The document Different ways of running
Python programs
[2] describes various other ways to run a
Python program.
The results of the previous statements in an interactive IPython
session are available in variables of the form _iX (underscore, i,
and a number X), where X is 1 for the last statement, 2 for the
second last statement, and so forth. Short forms are _ for _i1,
__ for _i2, and ___ for _i3. The output from the In [1]
input above is 1.2342. We can now refer to this number by an
underscore and, e.g., multiply it by 10:
In [2]: _*10
Out[2]: 12.341999999999999
Out[X] where X is the command number
corresponding to the previous In [X] prompt.
When programs are executed, as with the run command, or when
operating system commands are run (as shown below), the output is
from the operating system and then not preceded by any Out[X]
label.
The command history from previous IPython sessions is available in a new session. This feature makes it easy to modify work from a previous session by just hitting the up-arrow to recall commands and edit them as necessary.
Pressing the TAB key will complete an incompletely typed variable
name. For example, after defining my_long_variable_name = 4, write
just my at the In [4]: prompt below, and then hit the TAB key. You
will experience that my is immediately expanded to
my_long_variable_name. This automatic expansion feature is called
TAB completion and can save you from quite some typing.
In [3]: my_long_variable_name = 4
In [4]: my_long_variable_name
Out[4]: 4
You can walk through the command history by typing Ctrl+p or the up
arrow for going backward or Ctrl+n or the down arrow for going
forward. Any command you hit can be edited and re-executed. Also
commands from previous interactive sessions are stored in the command
history.
Operating system commands can be run from IPython. Below we run the
three Unix commands date, ls (list files), mkdir (make
directory), and cd (change directory):
In [5]: date
Thu Nov 18 11:06:16 CET 2010
In [6]: ls
myfile.py yourprog.py
In [7]: mkdir mytestdir
In [8]: cd mytestdir
date=30, you must write
!date to run the corresponding operating system command.
IPython can do much more than what is shown here, but the advanced features and the documentation of them probably do not make sense before you are more experienced with Python - and with reading manuals.
In the rest of the document we will apply the >>> prompt in
interactive sessions instead of the input and output prompts as used
by default by IPython, simply because most Python books and electronic manuals
use >>> to mark input in interactive shells.
However, when you sit by the computer and want to use an interactive
shell, we recommend using IPython, and then you will see
the In [X] prompt instead of >>>.
A particularly interesting feature of IPython is the notebook, which allows you to record and replay exploratory interactive sessions with a mix of text, mathematics, Python code, and graphics. See the document How to access Python for doing scientific computing [1] for a quick introduction to IPython notebooks.