Python for beginners 12-2025

The course will guide you to setup a development environment using VS Code together with Gitlab and creating a personal Git repository for the course. Afterwards, it will provide Python programming concepts, covering variables, functions, loops, lists, dictionaries, among others. During the process we will show you tools to help you keep the code clean and to enforce proper Python syntax and styling. Later, we will cover the basics of file handling in Python, gaining the ability to read/write files and to manipulate data. Finally, we will visualize data by using the packages matplotlib and seaborn by using practical examples.

Basic knowledge of programming will be given in the first day.

Topics that are going to be addressed:

• Setup of a development environment for Python and a git repository
• Introduction to Python programming
• Basics of Python: syntax, styling tools, code organisation
• Python flow control: if...else statements, for and while loops
• Data structures: lists and dictionaries
• File I/O - Read and Write Files in Python
• Introduction to plotting with Python

What NOT to expect:

• Advanced topics like Object Oriented Python programming, complex algorithms or complex data structures will not be covered
• Deep dives into specialized libraries like pandas, matplotlib or seaborn are out of the scope

Pre-requisite: Linux terminal for beginners course (or Linux experience)

AGENDA: 

Day 1. Programming Concepts

1. Variables
2. Loops / Nested loops
3. Conditional execution: if-elif else
4. Functions

Day 2. A quick tour of Python

1. Variables
2. Comments and docstrings
3. Types, help system
4. Operators
5. Printing with f-strings
6. User Input
7. Type conversion
8. Defining simple functions
9. Logical expressions
10. Conditional execution: if-elif else
11. Loops: for and while
12. Lists
13. Tuples
14. Dictionaries
15. Sets

Day 3

1. Standard library vs 3rd party libraries
2. Python File I/O
3. Introduction to plotting in Python: Matplotlib & Seaborn

Day 4

1. Introduction to Visual Studio Code
2. Python shell
3. Python virtual environments
4. Git and CRG Gitlab
5. Python linters and formatters
6. Boilerplate for development

Target audience: CRG & EMBL Barcelona staff
Instructor: Xanthi-Lida Katopodi, Clemente Borges and Emyr James
Dates: 4th, 5th, 9th & 10th of December (10:00-13:00)
Location: Bioinformatics room (CRG Training Centre) - Presential
Maximum number of participants: 18
Registration deadline: 14th November 2pm

Registration HERE

For any information, please send an email to CRG Training and Academic office (TAO): training@crg.eu