Bioinformatics Programming in Python

This first introductory book designed to train novice programmers is based on a student course taught by the author, and has been optimized for biology students without previous experience in programming.
By interspersing theory chapters with numerous small and large programming exercises, the author quickly shows readers how to do their own programming, and throughout uses anecdotes and real-life examples from the biosciences to 'spice up' the text.
This practical book thus teaches essential programming skills for life scientists who want -- or need -- to write their own bioinformatics software tools.Sie sind Biologe, Molekularbiologe oder Genetiker? Sie wollen Ihre eigene Bioinformatik-Software schreiben? Und Sie haben keine Programmiererfahrung? Für Sie wurde dieses Buch verfasst! Theoretische Kapitel und kurze Programmierübungen wechseln einander ab, das Ganze ist garniert mit witzigen Anekdötchen und Beispielen aus dem "wirklichen Leben". Die verwendete Programmiersprache heißt Python und kann kostenlos aus dem Web heruntergeladen werden. An die Arbeit! Classification of Programming Languages
Getting the Materials: Python program and documentation
Variables, Data Types, Assignments
Flow Control
Worked Example #1
Functions and Procedures
Worked Example #2
The Object-oriented World
Worked Example #3
Top-down Versus Bottom-up Strategies
Worked Example #4
Sorting and Searching
Welcome to the Library
Programming Exercise: Trimethizing a File
Dealing with Errors
Programming Exercise: Generating a Restriction Map
Advanced Techniques in Python
Programming Exercise: Python goes PCR
Rüdiger-Marcus Flaig studied Biology at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) where he obtained a Sc.D. degree, followed by a Ph.D. degree from the German Cancer Research Center. After postdoctoral work at the Universities of Gießen and Heidelberg he trained as a patent attorney and is now handling biotech patent applications for the European Patent Office in Munich. From 2003 to 2005 he developed and repeatedly taught a course on bioinformatics programming for biology students. In the post-genomic era, every biologist is faced with the task of complex data analysis and interpretation. Often a simple yet tailor-made computer algorithm can work wonders and make a complex task easy. As a consequence, more and more biologists have begun to write small programs, using such script-based languages as Perl and Python.
This first introductory book designed to train biology students without previous experience in programming is based on a student course given by the author, and teaches essential skills for life scientists who want -- or need -- to write their own bioinformatics software tools.
By interspersing theory chapters with numerous small and large programming exercises, the author quickly shows readers how to do their own programming, and makes use throughout of anecdotes and real-life examples from the biosciences to optimize the text for biologists.