Data visualization with Python course

© 2016 Randal S. Olson

In this repository, you will find course materials for teaching data visualization with Python. I'll be developing these teaching materials over time to provide a hands-on course that will take you from beginner to intermediate level of programming data visualizations.

Some of these materials are based on the video course I developed with O'Reilly called Data Visualization Basics with Python.

Course Prerequisites

I designed this course with the expectation that you will have a basic working knowledge of Python, pandas, and the Jupyter Notebook. If you're unfamiliar with any of these topics, I have provided links to free online learning materials for them below.

Python has many excellent tutorials and books to learn from, many of which are listed in the /r/LearnPython wiki.

pandas has several tutorials covering its myriad features.

The Jupyter Notebook has thorough documentation for how to install and use it.

Table of Contents

Section 1: Introduction

This section simply introduces the course, the presenter(s), and what to expect from the course. There are no instructional materials for this section.

Section 2: Basics of data visualization

This section covers the basics of data visualization and design, such as choosing the right chart type for your message, good practices, and common pitfalls in data visualization. You will learn the fundamental lessons that anyone aspiring to become a great data visualization practitioner must learn.

Section 3: Data visualization in Python - matplotlib

This section dives into coding data visualizations with Python, in particular with the matplotlib library. You will learn how to code bar charts, line charts, scatter plots, and many more basic chart types.

More sections are currently being developed, including sections on statistical visualization with Seaborn and interactive visualization with Bokeh.

Contributing

If you would like to contribute to this course, please file an issue to discuss what you'd like to contribute. We're generally open to contributions, but we also have a specific scope and purpose for this course that we would like to stick to.

License and Usage Terms

Instructional Material

All instructional material in this repository is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution license. The following is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the full legal text of the CC BY 4.0 license.

You are free to:

• Share—copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt—remix, transform, and build upon the material

for any purpose, even commercially.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

• Attribution—You must give appropriate credit (mentioning that your work is derived from work that is © Randal S. Olson and, where practical, linking to http://www.randalolson.com/), provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

No additional restrictions—You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

• You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
• No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Software

Except where otherwise noted, the example programs and other software provided in this repository are made available under the OSI-approved MIT license.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.