Summary

In this chapter, you were introduced to a few of the fundamental tools in Python for formalizing your knowledge. You learned how to write scripts and modules instead of using the interactive shell. You were introduced to functions and several different popular ways of writing functions. Additionally, common algorithms that are discussed in basic computer science were presented, including bubble sort and binary search. You also learned about the importance of the DRY principle. You learned how functions help us to adhere to this principle, and how helper functions allow us to express the logical components of our code succinctly.

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