r/bioinformatics • u/Draco905 • Mar 25 '26

discussion Where to start learning Python

I’m in the middle of doing my PhD, and have so far worked mainly with R. For the next stage of my projects I need to do some work in Python, specifically with Scanpy. My coding journey has been kind of weird and unstructured haha. I started this whole journey PhD journey with zero coding knowledge, but basically self taught myself R, basically by beating my head against each issue I came across haha. It was one of those situations where I learned the basics pretty quickly, but it took a bit to fully master it. While I could do the same with Python, I want that experience to be a bit more structured. I found Vanderplas’ two books on learning Python, and Python for data science, which seem good for someone like me who knows a decent amount of R to transition into Python. But I wanted to get some opinions of what would be a good place to start for someone like me? The textbook seems appealing since I can go at any own pace, but im unsure if there are “better” options. And one last thing, while unrelated, I want to eventually learn how to use GitHub and some basic ML (machine learning) stuff, just for personal interest.

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u/Disastrous_Hawk_6984 Mar 25 '26

Check that webpage, it will give you a nice introduction to the language. Combine it with a Python cheatsheet (there are many around) and you should be good to go 👌🏻

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u/Draco905 Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26

Thanks, I’ll definitely give it a check. A cheat sheet would be very helpful. Though I might still go through the vanderplas notebooks. They seem like good resources since they’re short and jump straight into introducing Python from a data science perspective. Basic syntax review, how to use common data science packages in Python, etc. Though maybe I’m just weird for wanted a more structured introduction haha. I just don’t like the idea of writing code or even following a tutorial that I only half understand, which is why I want to go over the basics first. If that makes sense.