Being a person exploring the infinite world of Python, I set myself a simple but useful project: a unit converter. Google, fitness apps, weather reports, we see converters everywhere. Writing mine, though, Owning a little portion of that universe felt like that.
Beginning with what most sense to me, I employed functions. Rather of dumping all the logic in one spot, I wanted the code to be simple and easy to read. One function to convert kilometers to miles, another to change Celsius to Fahrenheit, and one more for kilograms to pounds so I broke it down.
The formulae were easy. For example, 1 kilometer equates roughly 0.621371 miles. Celsius to Fahrenheit also adheres to the equation: (C x 9/5) + 32. To convert kilograms to pounds, simply multiply by 2.20462.
I wrote every function to accept one input and give back the translated value. Seeing how orderly and clean the code got by just enclosing logic into distinct blocks was amusing. It also meant I could reuse them anywhere, even plug them into a GUI or web app someday.
I created a little menu to enable users to select what they wished to convert once the tasks were over. I even included some input prompts and made sure it handled invalid entries gracefully. Though it wasn't great, it was mine, and it worked.
Seeing those right outputs printed on my terminal for the first time felt magical.
This little project brought to mind that even the most basic concepts can be effective teaching aids. Start modestly if you're just starting to learn coding. You will be amazed at how far a few Python lines can get you.
*Supplemental recommendation for you:
One little additional suggestion for anyone who wants to go this way is this before I finish:
- Consider including a loop allowing users to transform many values without program restart.
- Build a basic GUI using Tkinter, Python's own GUI toolset, or take it a step further.*
Though it is on my list, I haven't yet tried the GUI version myself. Tag me if you make something cooler on top of this; I would love to see it.