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Title: Write a Python Script (Video) – Real Python

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Description: Okay. It’s time to get started writing your Python script. You’re going to be using a program that comes with your installation of Python. It’s called IDLE, which stands for Integrated Development and Learning Environment. It has two main windows…

Open Graph Description: Okay. It’s time to get started writing your Python script. You’re going to be using a program that comes with your installation of Python. It’s called IDLE, which stands for Integrated Development and Learning Environment. It has two main windows…

Opengraph URL: https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/

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    "description": "Okay. It’s time to get started writing your Python script. You’re going to be using a program that comes with your installation of Python. It’s called IDLE, which stands for Integrated Development and Learning Environment. It has two main windows…",
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Contentshttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#description
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Discussion (11)https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#discussion
Getting Started With Python IDLEhttps://realpython.com/python-idle/
Interacting With Pythonhttps://realpython.com/interacting-with-python/
Your Guide to the Python print() Functionhttps://realpython.com/python-print/
00:00https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=0.48
Okay. It’s time to get started writing your Python script.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=0.48
00:05https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=5.41
You’re going to be using a program that comes with your installation of Python.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=5.41
It’s called IDLE,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=8.74
which stands for Integrated Development and Learning Environment.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=10.0
00:13https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=13.93
It has two main windows, and you’ll spend some time in both of them.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=13.93
The first is called the interactive window,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=18.16
and I’ll share that in just a second. Then the editor window,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=19.84
which is where you actually write scripts and programs that you’ll save and runhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=23.26
later. All right, let’s take a look at the interactive window.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=26.53
00:31https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=31.44
If you don’t already have IDLE open, then go ahead and open it.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=31.44
You can find it in the folder that the application was installed in.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=35.13
So in my case, I have several versions of Python here,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=38.67
and I’m going to choose Python 3.10https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=41.55
and double-click on the IDLE app. IDLE’shttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=45.18
interactive window contains a Python shell. You can see this name up here,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=49.66
IDLE Shell.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=53.29
00:55https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=55.51
It’s a textual user interface used to interact with the Python language.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=55.51
You can type a bit of Python code into the interactive window and press Enter tohttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=60.4
immediately see the result, hence the name interactive.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=65.2
01:08https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=68.86
When the window opens up, it’ll display this same text at the beginning.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=68.86
The text shows the version of Python that IDLE is runninghttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=73.42
and some of the commands you can use to get help or view information abouthttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=76.54
Python. This spot over here,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=80.38
this is called the prompt, and it’s where you’re going to be able to type code.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=83.11
01:27https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=87.61
So right in front of this cursor prompt,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=87.61
go ahead and type in 1 + 1 and then hit Enter.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=90.16
And you can see that it output 2. Python evaluates this expressionhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=95.26
of 1 + 1 and displays 2,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=100.21
and then it displays yet another prompt just below that. Every time that you runhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=103.93
code in the interactive window,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=108.22
a new prompt is going to appear directly below the result.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=109.9
01:55https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=115.2
When using the interactive window,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=115.2
it works as a loop and includes these three different steps.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=117.03
Python reads the code that you’ve entered at the prompt—that’s, again,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=120.96
the thing with the three different little greater than (>) symbols—https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=123.99
and then it evaluates the code.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=127.17
02:09https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=129.57
Python will print the result and wait for more input.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=129.57
This is referred to as a Read-Evaluate-Print Loop.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=133.41
We usually abbreviate it as REPL, R-E-P-L. Pythonhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=137.61
programmers typically refer to this Python shell as the Python REPL,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=142.56
or just REPL for short. Okay,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=147.93
let’s try something a little more interesting than just adding numbers.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=151.71
02:35https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=155.25
A rite of passage for every programmer is writing the program that prints thehttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=155.25
phrase Hello, World on the screen. At the prompt,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=159.54
go ahead and type in print,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=163.59
and then you can create a set of parentheses (()) here.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=166.29
02:49https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=169.89
So I’m opening the parentheses, and you can see it’s giving me a little bit ofhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=169.89
additional instruction here, which is kind of nice.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=173.76
And we’ll learn all about this stuff as we go throughout the courses.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=175.8
02:59https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=179.92
In this case, we’re going to print some text. So we want "Hello, World".https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=179.92
And if I hit Return,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=184.72
03:11https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=191.06
you can see that it outputs Hello, World.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=191.06
This bit of code that you typed in here, print(), is a function.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=193.76
A function is code that performs some task and can be invoked by its name.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=197.96
03:23https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=203.36
The above code invokes, or calls, the print() function with the texthttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=203.36
Hello, World inside of it and outputs it.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=207.71
The parentheses tell Python to call the print() function.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=211.52
03:35https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=215.96
If I just type print by itself, it won’t know that I want to call it.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=215.96
It’ll just tell me about it.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=220.16
It tells me that it’s a built-in function named print. In order to call thathttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=222.86
function,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=227.84
I need to put the parentheses and then tell it something, a value, as youhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=228.26
see it’s prompting me here to put in there. And last time we typed the same thing.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=233.09
03:57https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=237.83
So I’ll do it again. Great.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=237.83
Those parentheses also enclosehttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=241.19
everything that gets sent to the function, goes into it as an input.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=242.93
And the quotation marks ("") indicate that Hello, World is really text andhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=247.34
not something else that we might want to print. Inside of IDLE,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=252.23
you can kind of see some interesting highlighting going on with different colors.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=256.37
04:20https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=260.33
With the current setup that I have,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=260.33
you can see that a function is different than the output,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=261.92
and you can see that something that’s inside of quotation marks looks differenthttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=265.01
than, say, these numbers up here. By default, functions arehttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=269.15
highlighted in purple and text is highlighted in green.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=274.04
04:37https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=277.64
This interactive window is really useful for trying out small code examples andhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=277.64
exploring the Python language, but it has a big limitation.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=281.39
You have to enter the code one line at a time. So alternatively,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=285.89
you can save Python code in the text file and execute all that code in order tohttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=290.33
run an entire program.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=294.98
04:57https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=297.23
That’s where we’re going to switch into using the editor window.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=297.23
05:01https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=301.71
You’ll write your own Python files using IDLE’s editor window.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=301.71
You can open the editor window by selecting File and New File from the menu athttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=305.4
the top of the interactive window. Let me show you that.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=309.69
05:14https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=314.61
The interactive window is going to stay open when you open the editor window.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=314.61
It displays the output generated by code in the editor window.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=318.24
So you’ll want to arrange the two windows so that you can see them both at thehttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=322.02
same time.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=325.65
05:27https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=327.84
Inside the editor window, type in the same code you used to print Hello, World inhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=327.84
the interactive window. Note that IDLE highlights code typed into the editorhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=331.92
window just like it did in the interactive window.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=335.88
05:38https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=338.4
You don’t have to add the prompt as it was in the interactive window.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=338.4
It’s not required. Before you can run the program,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=341.82
you need to save it.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=346.39
So select File and Save from the menu, and save the file ashttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=347.44
hello_world.py.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=352.06
05:56https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=356.23
On some systems,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=356.23
it’ll use a default directory of where Python’s installed, the same place thathttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=357.41
IDLE is.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=362.24
Make sure that you don’t save your files in that directory. Instead save them tohttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=363.11
your desktop or to a folder in your user’s home directory.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=367.31
06:11https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=371.63
The .py extension indicates the file contains Python code. In fact,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=371.63
saving your file with any other extension is going to remove the codehttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=376.07
highlighting. IDLE only will highlight Python code when it’s stored in a .pyhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=379.73
file. To run the program, you can select Runhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=384.53
06:31https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=391.2
from the pull-down menu and Run Module.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=391.2
You also might notice some key commands being highlighted here. In this case,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=394.23
it’s the function key F5.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=398.43
06:44https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=404.3
So the program is going to output to the interactive window. You’ll seehttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=404.3
RESTARThttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=408.44
and then the directory and the name of the file that’s being run and itshttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=409.04
output. IDLE restarts the Python interpreter each time,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=413.78
which is the computer program that actually executes your codehttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=418.37
when you run a file.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=421.85
07:03https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=423.26
This makes sure that programs are executed the same way each time.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=423.26
07:07https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=427.88
If you wanted to open a file,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=427.88
you can go to File and Open.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=429.65
And in my case,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=434.51
I’m reopening the file that we just saved under my home directory,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=435.68
python_basics/, your_first_program/, and hello_world.py.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=440.18
07:25https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=445.65
You can also open a file from the file manager, such as Windows Explorerhttps://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=445.65
or the macOS Finder, by right-clicking on them and say Open with.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=449.52
07:35https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=455.6
All right,https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=455.6
you’ve made your first program. Next up, it’s time to make some mistakes.https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#t=456.08
Sept. 29, 2023https://realpython.com/videos/write-python-script/#comment-ebba07e7-b52d-4162-8ab7-589f7a4e086e
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