Python: Hello, World

Python is the most popular programming language in fields like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Space Exploration.

Python holds the first spot in the March 2025 TIOBE Index, unchanged from March 2024. Leading companies such as Amazon, Google, and Netflix employ Python extensively in their applications. Python is known for its simplicity, readability, and a huge supportive community.

NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) mission employs SPHERExLabTools (SLT)—a system built entirely in Python (Condon et al., 2022). This mission will collect data on millions of galaxies and stars to explore more about the origins of the Universe.

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Your First Python Program

Common Mistakes

#1: Your First Python Program

Having preluded so much, let's start by saying "Hello, world" in Python.

In Python, we use the print() function to display a message passed to it on the user's screen or terminal. The function requires parentheses (). We simply pass "Hello, world" inside a double quotation marks into the print() function as follows:

print("Hello, world")

In our web-based coding notebook, press Shift + Return (Mac) or Shift + Enter (Windows) to execute it. You’ll see:

Hello, world

Let's do this here.

🎉 Voila! You've written your first Python program!

But sometimes, programmers may miss parenthesis or quotation marks. Let's see.

#2: Common Mistakes

An error is shown in the Print Lab

Let's try this:

print("Hello, world)

You'll get a syntax error showing you didn't close the quotation marks.

You can try more such examples and quizzes here.

Now, try writing something about yourself and your family using the print() function here.

Continuously writing print statements can be inefficient. Therefore, we will explore variables and functions in the next post to streamline your code.

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