Reader small image

You're reading from  Python for Finance

Product typeBook
Published inApr 2014
Reading LevelBeginner
Publisher
ISBN-139781783284375
Edition1st Edition
Languages
Tools
Right arrow
Author (1)
Yuxing Yan
Yuxing Yan
author image
Yuxing Yan

Yuxing Yan graduated from McGill University with a PhD in finance. Over the years, he has been teaching various finance courses at eight universities: McGill University and Wilfrid Laurier University (in Canada), Nanyang Technological University (in Singapore), Loyola University of Maryland, UMUC, Hofstra University, University at Buffalo, and Canisius College (in the US). His research and teaching areas include: market microstructure, open-source finance and financial data analytics. He has 22 publications including papers published in the Journal of Accounting and Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance, Real Estate Review, Pacific Basin Finance Journal, Applied Financial Economics, and Annals of Operations Research. He is good at several computer languages, such as SAS, R, Python, Matlab, and C. His four books are related to applying two pieces of open-source software to finance: Python for Finance (2014), Python for Finance (2nd ed., expected 2017), Python for Finance (Chinese version, expected 2017), and Financial Modeling Using R (2016). In addition, he is an expert on data, especially on financial databases. From 2003 to 2010, he worked at Wharton School as a consultant, helping researchers with their programs and data issues. In 2007, he published a book titled Financial Databases (with S.W. Zhu). This book is written in Chinese. Currently, he is writing a new book called Financial Modeling Using Excel — in an R-Assisted Learning Environment. The phrase "R-Assisted" distinguishes it from other similar books related to Excel and financial modeling. New features include using a huge amount of public data related to economics, finance, and accounting; an efficient way to retrieve data: 3 seconds for each time series; a free financial calculator, showing 50 financial formulas instantly, 300 websites, 100 YouTube videos, 80 references, paperless for homework, midterms, and final exams; easy to extend for instructors; and especially, no need to learn R.
Read more about Yuxing Yan

Right arrow

Finding the help window


After we launch Python, typing help() would initiate the help window (as shown in the following lines of code). The prompt of the help window is help>. To quit the help window, we simply press the Enter key once or type quit. After we quit the help window, the Python prompt of >>> would reappear. Now, we launch the help window as shown in the following lines of code:

>>>help()
Welcome to Python 3.3!  This is the interactive help utility.
If this is your first time using Python, you should definitely check out the tutorial on the Internet at http://docs.python.org/3.3/tutorial/.
Enter the name of any module, keyword, or topic to get help on writing Python programs and using Python modules.  To quit this help utility and return to the interpreter, just type "quit".
To get a list of available modules, keywords, or topics, type "modules", "keywords", or "topics".  Each module also comes with a one-line summary of what it does; to list the modules whose summaries contain a given word such as "spam", type "modules spam".
help>

After typing keywords, we will have the following information:

>>>help> keywords
Here is a list of the Python keywords.  Enter any keyword to get more help.
False       def         if               raise
None        del         import           return
True        elif        in               try
and         else        is               while
as          except     lambda            with
assert      finally    nonlocal          yield
break       for        not                 
class       from        or                  
continue    global      pass                

help>

On the other hand, after typing topics, we will see what is shown in the following screenshot:

At the moment, a new user doesn't need to understand those topics. Just remember that we have a command to show us all the topics we could use.

Previous PageNext Page
You have been reading a chapter from
Python for Finance
Published in: Apr 2014Publisher: ISBN-13: 9781783284375
Register for a free Packt account to unlock a world of extra content!
A free Packt account unlocks extra newsletters, articles, discounted offers, and much more. Start advancing your knowledge today.
undefined
Unlock this book and the full library FREE for 7 days
Get unlimited access to 7000+ expert-authored eBooks and videos courses covering every tech area you can think of
Renews at $15.99/month. Cancel anytime

Author (1)

author image
Yuxing Yan

Yuxing Yan graduated from McGill University with a PhD in finance. Over the years, he has been teaching various finance courses at eight universities: McGill University and Wilfrid Laurier University (in Canada), Nanyang Technological University (in Singapore), Loyola University of Maryland, UMUC, Hofstra University, University at Buffalo, and Canisius College (in the US). His research and teaching areas include: market microstructure, open-source finance and financial data analytics. He has 22 publications including papers published in the Journal of Accounting and Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance, Real Estate Review, Pacific Basin Finance Journal, Applied Financial Economics, and Annals of Operations Research. He is good at several computer languages, such as SAS, R, Python, Matlab, and C. His four books are related to applying two pieces of open-source software to finance: Python for Finance (2014), Python for Finance (2nd ed., expected 2017), Python for Finance (Chinese version, expected 2017), and Financial Modeling Using R (2016). In addition, he is an expert on data, especially on financial databases. From 2003 to 2010, he worked at Wharton School as a consultant, helping researchers with their programs and data issues. In 2007, he published a book titled Financial Databases (with S.W. Zhu). This book is written in Chinese. Currently, he is writing a new book called Financial Modeling Using Excel — in an R-Assisted Learning Environment. The phrase "R-Assisted" distinguishes it from other similar books related to Excel and financial modeling. New features include using a huge amount of public data related to economics, finance, and accounting; an efficient way to retrieve data: 3 seconds for each time series; a free financial calculator, showing 50 financial formulas instantly, 300 websites, 100 YouTube videos, 80 references, paperless for homework, midterms, and final exams; easy to extend for instructors; and especially, no need to learn R.
Read more about Yuxing Yan