Additional Resources for Learning Python

In addition to the tutorials on this site, there are excellent resources available online and in publication for learning Python.

Tutorials/workshops

The Carpentries teaches foundational coding and data science skills to researchers worldwide. As an organization, they have created and fine-tuned many different workshops related to data science including shell/CLI skills, Git, SQL, R, and Python. Below are a few of the Python tutorials you can check out, with the datasets they use (some might be more applicable to you than others).

• Programming with Python
  • Uses arthritis flare (inflammation) data
• Plotting and Programming in Python
  • Uses gapminder dataset, which includes country-level data on life expectancy, GDP, and population
• Introduction to Python for Librarians [in review]
  • Uses circulation data from the Chicago Public Library system.
• Foundations of Astronomical Data Science
  • Uses data to reproduce part of the analysis of the article “Off the beaten path: Gaia reveals GD-1 stars outside of the mainstream”
• Data Analysis and Visualization in Python for Ecologists
  • Uses ecology data from the Portal Project Teaching Database
• Data Analysis and Visualization with Python for Social Scientists
  • Uses data from the SAFI Teaching Database and the Audit of Political Engagement
• Image Processing with Python
  • Uses images with a variety of different subjects

Books

In addition to a few classics I would always recommend to newcomers, the O’Reilly series of books is always an excellent resource to search for Python instructions. A few of my favorites are linked below. For University of Arizona users, search the library website as we have access to the O’Reilly collection online.

Beginner friendly:

• Python Crash Course (3rd Ed.) by Eric Matthes
• Automate the Boring Stuff with Python by Al Sweigart
• Python for Data Analysis by Wes McKinney (the creator of Pandas!)*
• Data Science from Scratch by Joel Grus
  • UArizona permalink

Machine Learning:

• Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and Tensorflow (3rd Ed.) by Aurélien Géron
  • UArizona permalink
• Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn and PyTorch by Aurélien Géron
  • UArizona permalink
  • Similar to the previous book, but more recent – published in 2025, covers PyTorch which is now a popular alternative to Keras/TensorFlow