Dancing with Python: Learn Python software development from scratch and get started with quantum computing

Develop skills in Python by implementing exciting algorithms, including mathematical functions, classical searching, data analysis, plotting data, machine learning techniques, and quantum circuits

Key Features

• Learn Python basics to write elegant and efficient code
• Create quantum circuits and algorithms using Qiskit and run them on quantum computing hardware and simulators
• Delve into Python's advanced features, including machine learning, analyzing data, and searching

Book Description

Coding is the art and engineering of creating software, and Python has been one of the core coding languages for many years. This introductory Python book helps you learn classical and quantum computing in a unified and practical way. It will help you work with numbers, strings, collections, iterators, and files.

The book goes beyond functions and classes and teaches you how to use Python and Qiskit to create gates and circuits for classical and quantum computing. Learn how quantum extends classical techniques using the Grover search algorithm and the code that implements it. Dive into some advanced and widely used applications of Python and revisit strings with more sophisticated tools such as regular expressions and basic natural language processing (NLP). The final chapters introduce you to data analysis, visualizations, and supervised and unsupervised machine learning. By the end of the book, you will be proficient in classical coding and programming using the latest and most powerful quantum computers.

What you will learn

• Create Python code using numbers, strings, collections, classes, objects, functions, conditionals, loops, and operators
• Write succinct code the Pythonic way using magic methods, iterators, and generators
• Explore different quantum gates and use them to build quantum circuits
• Analyze data, build basic machine learning models, and plot the results
• Search for information using traditional methods and the quantum Grover search algorithm
• Optimize and test your code to run efficiently

Who this book is for

The book is for Python and coding beginners. Basic familiarity with algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and logarithms is required as the book does not cover the detailed mathematics and theory of quantum computing. You can check out the author’s Dancing with Qubits book, also published by Packt, for an approachable and comprehensive introduction to quantum computing.

Table of Contents

1. Doing The Things That Coders Do
2. Working with Expressions
3. Collecting Things Together
4. Stringing You Along
5. Computing and Calculating
6. Defining and Using Functions
7. Organizing Objects into Classes
8. Working with Files
9. Understanding Gates and Circuits
10. Optimizing and Testing Your Code
11. Searching for the Quantum Improvement
12. Searching and Changing Text
13. Creating Plots and Charts
14. Analyzing Data
15. Learning Briefly
16. Appendix A Tools
17. Appendix B. Staying Current
18. Appendix C The Complete UniPoly Class
19. Appendix D The Complete Guitar Class Hierarchy
20. Appendix E. Notices
21. Appendix F. Production Notes

Robert S. Sutor has been a technical leader and executive in the IT industry for over 35 years. More than two decades of that have been spent in IBM Research in New York. During his time there, he worked on and led efforts in symbolic mathematical computation, optimization, AI, blockchain, and quantum computing.

Sutor was an executive on the software side of the business in areas including emerging industry standards, software on Linux, mobile, and open source. He's a theoretical mathematician by training, has a Ph.D. from Princeton University, and an undergraduate degree from Harvard College. He started coding when he was 15 and has used most of the programming languages that have come along.