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Wanting to Learn Python.....

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10-01-2012 10:40 AM
JamesReed1
by
Occasional Contributor
‎10-01-2012 10:40 AM
I would like to learn how to use Python, but I'm not sure what I would use it for. If anyone could direct me to a place to learn the basics of it, I would appreciate it. I am running an ArcView license so I am limited to what I can do with it?
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MathewCoyle
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Frequent Contributor
‎10-01-2012 11:00 AM
It's a way to replace almost anything you would regularly do manually with an automated script or tool. Geoprocessing, data management, logging, export PDF maps etc are all useful way to leverage python in a GIS environment.

This thread has some good resources on learning python.
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/67761-Python-Textbook
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TedCronin
by MVP Honored Contributor
MVP Honored Contributor
‎10-01-2012 03:12 PM
Other non GIS courses that can be taken to understand the basics beyond just doing arcpy, are through edX and coursera.org.

edX is a class at MIT that is free. It started last week, but I imagine it will be offered again.  Uses 2.7. https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/6.00x/2012_Fall/about

coursera is another online free offering, that has an online course starting up on the 14th of October through Rice University. Uses 3.2.x.
https://www.coursera.org/
https://www.coursera.org/#course/programming1 (University of Toronto)
https://www.coursera.org/#course/interactivepython (Rice)

These are computer science classes that use python, and should help you to learn the basics of python and thus arcpy as a python package.  The classes are not about arcpy, though, just the basics of python.  arcpy is currently supported with 2.7, so perhaps the MIT course would be best, but the 3x courses will help for what is coming from Esri.
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