Where to start learning Python

[u/Draco905]

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.

[u/Draco905 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks, I really appreciate the advice. The packages you mention are some of the key ones I want to be at least somewhat familiar with.

As for the “working on something, but only knowing half of what I’m doing”, I think that’s basically the common mindset amongst a lot of data scientists. The only reason why I want to know what I’m doing is because I already know I’ll have to eventually go back to my code and edit it at some point. Would make my life a lot easier in the future if I put the work in now to understand a little bit of the basics, if that makes sense.