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Weekly Learning Theme: Functions and Classes in Python This week was a major milestone in my Python journey: I finally wrapped my head around functions and classes! At first, I thought they were just fancier blocks of code, but after practicing, I realized they are the foundation of clean, powerful programs. Here’s what I learned, with real examples to make it stick. Functions: The First Big Step Functions are like small machines inside your program. You give them input (if needed), they do a job, and optionally give back a result. ...

Introduction Over the past few weeks, I’ve been diving into the first 7 chapters of Crash Course Python, and it’s been a fun, sometimes head-scratching, but always rewarding ride. To make the concepts stick, I built small projects using lists, dictionaries, conditionals, loops, and string manipulation. Here’s a breakdown of what I created and learned — and how I plan to build on this foundation. Hello Toolbox: Strings and User Input Here’s a snippet from my “Hello Toolbox” script, where I play around with user input and string formatting: ...

Introduction Today, I decided to apply my Python knowledge to tackle the first project in Impractical Python Projects: building a Pig Latin translator. This challenge was a fun way to practice string manipulation, loops, and conditional logic. Below, I’ve shared my solution and compared it to the book’s solution, reflecting on the differences and lessons learned. My Solution Here’s the code I wrote for the Pig Latin translator: vowels = ["a", "e", "i", "o", "u"] while True: word = input( "Please type a word to translate to pig latin (or type 'q' to exit): \n" ).lower() if word == "q": print("Goodbye") break char_list = list(word) if char_list[0] in vowels: print(f"{word}yay") else: f_letter = char_list.pop(0) char_list.append(f_letter) print(f"{''.join(char_list)}ay") How It Works: ...

Introduction Learning Python is like peeling an onion—every layer reveals something new, exciting, and occasionally tear-inducing (hello, off-by-one errors). Over the past week, I’ve delved deeper into lists, slicing, the range() function, conditional logic with if statements, and the powerful zip() function. Alongside learning PEP 8 and using Ruff as a linter, I also started building interactive tools and tackling challenges from Impractical Python Projects. These experiences have deepened my understanding of Python and emphasized the importance of writing clear, maintainable code. ...

Welcome to my very first post on CodingTides! I’m excited to begin documenting my journey of learning to code, sharing projects, and growing along the way. Why I Started This Journey Hi, I’m a husband, father of three, and a full-time professional working with data. My day-to-day involves a lot of qualitative and quantitative analysis, and I’ve decided to reignite my passion for coding to expand my skill set. Learning Python has been an exciting step forward in blending my professional expertise with new problem-solving techniques. ...