Over the past year I have become an everyday user of the programming language Python. I use it both at work and for personal projects. At work, I’m responsible for marketing analytics and primarily deal with the Salesforce database and Salesforce’s marketing automation platform Pardot. I use Python to solve problems not possible out of the box. Outside of work, I mainly use Python to analyze spots statistics.
I am not an expert programmer but I have programmed on and off for over a decade. I find Python easy to use, adept at data manipulation, and effective for accessing APIs. APIs are methods for communicating with particular services of products. For example, I built a tool at work that uses APIs to get data from accounts on Youtube, Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, and Pardot on a regular basis.
I first learned the basics of Python for free on Codecademy and then learned more by completing the Data Science with Python track on DataCamp, which cost me something like $60. The Codecademy course was a fine introduction although it wasn’t enough knowledge to do any projects truly on your own. More difficult for me than learning the actual Python language was learning how to set up a working environment. For most projects I now use Thonny, which I highly recommend to other beginners. For web apps and scripts that run daily, I use pythonanywhere.
While the Data Camp course involved lots of applied learning, taking on projects at work and for fun that use Python was what really solidified my knowledge. Here is a list of projects I have completed with Python:
- MLB playoff predictions
- NBA regular season win total predictions
- Graphing email campaign open rate over time
- Upgrading pypardot, the Python wrapper for the Pardot API, to version 4 of the API
- Script to intelligently graph the contents of a spreadsheet
- My NBA analysis website
- A connection between a Salesforce database and Youtube, Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, and Pardot
- A web tool to get Contact IDs from a Salesforce database using first name, last name, and email address
- A web tool to get additional fields from Salesforce for records with Contact ID
- Daily tracking of Overwatch rankings of myself and my friends
- Many custom connections between Pardot and Salesforce, including creating Pardot lists from any Salesforce criteria, pushing Salesforce info beyond Contact fields into Pardot prospect fields, and syncing Pardot list email stats into Salesforce campaigns
- A web app to follow a training plan
- Probably more that I’m forgetting!
I’m planning to keep blogging weekly to dive deeper into each of the projects and the various tools I have used along the way.