Hear Me Code Lesson 3

What you'll learn:

• Reading data from a text file
• Reading data from a spreadsheet
• Why dictionaries are useful for storing information in a structured way

Just a few practical examples:

• Reading data from a text file and turning it into a string
• Reading data from a text file and turning it into a list
• Reading data from a spreadsheet and looping over its contents to use the data
• Using dictionaries to store information in a structure like a phonebook

Examples in real projects:

• Open a text file containing a list of schools: Used in https://shannonvturner.com/seriously
• Build a dictionary with data about a school to turn it into GeoJSON used for mapping: Used in https://shannonvturner.com/seriously
• Ensure that a user-created Metro Map is a valid map (it has stations and rail lines) so that it can be saved and rebuilt: Used in https://metromapmaker.com
• If this movie's rating is disputed, display a caveat for the rating. Otherwise, don't edit the rating: Used in https://shannonvturner.com/bechdel

Code Samples:

• https://github.com/shannonturner/python-lessons/tree/master/section_07_(files)
• https://github.com/shannonturner/python-lessons/tree/master/section_10_(dictionaries)

Exercises:

• States: https://github.com/shannonturner/python-lessons/blob/master/playtime/lesson03_states.py
• Contacts: https://github.com/shannonturner/python-lessons/blob/master/playtime/lesson03_contacts.py

Vocabulary

Concepts Learned:

• File handling
• Dictionaries

Keywords learned:

• with
• as
• None

Functions learned:

• open()

File Methods learned:

• .read()
• .write()

Dictionary Methods learned:

• .get()
• .keys()
• .items()