Python Data Analysis Recommendations

[Ravi Narasimhan]

On 1/1/16 1:24 PM, Mark Lawrence wrote:
 > On 31/12/2015 17:15, Rob Gaddi wrote:
 >> I'm looking for some advice on handling data collection/analysis in
 >> Python.  ...
 >> The whole process feels a bit grindy; like I keep having to do a lot of
 >> ad-hoc stitching things together.  And I keep hearing about pandas,
 >> PyTables, and HDF5.  Would that be making my life notably easier?  If
 >> so, does anyone have any references on it that they've found
 >> particularly useful?  The tutorials I've seen so far seem to not give
 >> much detail on what the point of what they're doing is; it's all "how
 >> you write the code" rather than "why you write the code".  Paying money
 >> for books is acceptable; this is all on the company's time/dime.
 >>
 >> Thanks,
 >> Rob

Cyrille Rossant's books may meet your needs. The Interactive Computing 
and Visualization Cookbook offers more than just recipes. As the topics 
get advanced, he explains the whys in addition to the hows.  It may not 
have specific answers to parameter sweep experiments but I understood 
more about Python's internals and packages as they related to my work. 
It helped me to refine when to use Python and when to use other languages.

Currently US $5 via the publisher:
https://www.packtpub.com/books/info/authors/cyrille-rossant

(I have no affiliation with the author or publisher)


Mark Lawrence writes:
 > I don't understand your comment about tutorials.  Once they've given you
 > an introduction to the tool, isn't it your responsibility to manipulate
 > your data in the way that suits you?  If you can't do that, either
 > you're doing something wrong, or the tool is inadequate for the task.
 > For the latter I believe you've two options, find another tool or write
 > your own.

Without second-guessing the OP, I've found Python tutorials and 
documents to be helpful but not always complete in a way that beginners 
and casual users would need.  There is usually a package that will do 
some job but one first has to find it.  A lot of power can also be 
located deep within a hierarchy of dots: 
package.something.subsomething.subsubsomething ...

Some documentation sets are very complete, others aren't.  I often have 
the nagging feeling that if I just knew what question to ask and knew 
the right terminology, that I could benefit from code someone has 
already written and/or develop a smarter plan of attack.

Ravi Narasimhan
http://www.rettacs.org