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Julia Basics Cheat Sheet

Learn all the fundamentals of Julia in this comprehensive cheat sheet.
Nov 2022  · 10 min read

Julia is proving to be one of the top contenders of the data science programming language landscape. This cheat sheet covers all you need to know to get started with Julia, from objects, operators, vectors, data frames, and more. 

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Accessing help

Accessing help files and documentation

# Access help mode with an empty ? 
? 

# Get help on a function with ?functionname
?first

# Search for help on a topic with ?topic
?function

Comments

# This is a single-line comment

#= This is a
multi-line comment =#

Information about objects

# Get the type of an object with typeof()—The below will return Int64
typeof(20)

Using packages

Packages are libraries of pre-written code (by other programmers) that we can add to our Julia installation, which help us solve specific problems. Here’s how to install and work with packages in Julia.

# Enter package mode with ] to be able to install and work with packages in Julia
]

# Install a new package with add
] # Enter package mode
add CSV # Add the CSV package

# Load a package with using
using CSV

# Load a package with import without an alias
import CSV

# Load a package with import with an alias
import DataFrames as df

The working directory

The working directory is a file path that Julia will use as the starting point for relative file paths. That is, it's the default location for importing and exporting files. An example of a working directory looks like ”C://file/path”

# Get current working director with pwd()

pwd()

"/home/programming_languages/julia"

# Set the current directory with cd()
cd("/home/programming_languages/julia/cheatsheets")

Operators

Arithmetic operators

# Add two numbers with +
37 + 102

# Substract two numbers with -
102 - 37

# Multiply two numbers with *
4 * 6

# Divide one number with another with /
21/7

# Integer divide one number by another with ÷; keyboard shortcut of \div TAB
22 ÷ 7 # This returns 3

# Inverse divide one number by another with \ — The below is equivalent to 0/5
5 \ 0 

# Raise one number to the power of another using ^
3 ^ 3

# Get the remainder after division with a % b
22 % 7

Assignment operators

# Assign a value to an object with =
a = 5

# Perform the addition of two objects and store them in the left-hand side object
a += 3 # This is the same as a = a + 3

# Perform the subtraction of two objects and store them in the left-hand side object
a -= 3 # This is the same as a = a - 3

Numeric comparison operators

# Test if two objects are equal with ==
3 == 3 # This returns true

# Test if two objects are not equal with !=
3 != 3 # This returns false

# Test if one object is greater than the other
3 > 1  

# Test if one object is greater or equal than the other
3 >= 3 

# Test if one object is less than the other
3 < 4

# Test if one object is less or equal than the other
3 <= 4  

Logical operators

# Logical not with ~
~(2 == 2) # This returns false

# Elementwise and with a & b
(1 != 1) & (1 < 1) # This returns false

# Elementwise or with a | b
(1 >= 1) | (1 < 1) # This returns true

# Elementwise xor (exclusive or) with a ⊻ b; keyboard shortcut of \xor TAB
(1 != 1) ⊻ (1 < 1) # This returns false

Other operators

# Determine if a value is in an array with x in arr
x = [11, 13, 19]
13 in x # This returns true

# Pipe values to a function with value |> fn
x |> (y -> length(y) + sum(y)) # This returns 43

Vectors

Vectors are one-dimensional arrays in Julia. They allow a collection of items such as floats, integers, strings or a mix that allows duplicate values. 

Creating vectors

# Creating vectors with square brackets, [x1, x2, x3]
x = [1, 2, 3]

# Creating vectors with specific element types using Vector{type}([x1, x2, x3])
Vector{Float64}([1, 2, 3])

# Creating a sequence of numbers from a to b with a:b
37:100

# Creating a sequence of numbers from a to b in steps with a:step:b
1:2:101

# Create a vector that repeats m times where each element repeats n times
repeat(vector, inner=n, outer=m)

Vector functions

# Sorting vectors with sort(x)
x = [9, 1, 4]
sort(x)

# Reversing vectors with reverse(x)
reverse(x)

# Reversing in-place with reverse!(x)
reverse!(x)

# Get unique elements of a vector with unique()
unique(x)

Selecting vector elements

# Selecting the 6th element of a vector with x[6]
x = [9, 1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 5]
x[6]

# Selecting the first element of a vector with x[begin]
x[begin] # This is the same as x[1]

# Selecting the last element of a vector with x[end]
x[end] # This is the same as x[7]

# Slicing elements two to six from a vector with x[2:6]
x[2:6]

# Selecting the 2nd and 6th element of a vector with x[[2, 6]]
x[[2,6]]

# Selecting elements equal to 5 with x[x .== 5]
x[x .== 5]

# Selecting elements less than 5 with x[x .< 5]
x[x .< 5]

# Selecting elements in the vector 2, 5, 8 with x[in([2, 5, 8]).(x)]
x[in([2, 5, 8]).(x)]

Math functions

# Example vector
x = [9, 1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 5] 

# Get the logarithm of a number with log()

log(2)

# Get the element-wise logarithm of a vector with log.()
log.(x)

# Get the exponential of a number with exp()
exp(2)

# Get the element-wise exponential of a vector with exp.()
exp.(x)

# Get the maximum of a vector with maximum()
maximum(x)

# Get the minimum of a vector with minimum()
minimum(x)

# Get the sum of a vector with sum()
sum(x)

Note: The following code requires installing and loading the Statistics and StatsBase packages. This can be done with the command below.

]# Enter package mode
add Statistics # Add the Statistics package
add StatsBase # Add the StatsBase package
using Statistics # Load the package with using
using StatsBase # Load the package with using

# Get the mean of a vector with mean()
mean(x)

# Get the median of a vector with median()
median(x)

# Get quantiles of a vector with quantile(x, p)
quantiles(x, 4)

# Round values of a vector with round.(x, digits = n)
round.(x, 2)

# Round values of a vector with round.(x, digits = n)
round.(x, 4)

# Get the ranking of vector elements with StatsBase; ordinalrank()
ordinalrank(x)

# Get the variance of a vector with var()
var(x)

# Get the standard deviation of a vector with std()
std(x)

# Get the correlation between two vectors with cor(x, y)
y = [1, 4, 2, 10, 23, 16, 5]
cor(x, y)

Getting started with characters and strings

Characters and strings are text data types in Julia. Characters refer to text data with exactly one character, and is referenced with single quotes `’ ‘`. Strings are sequences of characters, and are referenced with double or triple-double quotes `” “`.

# Creating a character variable with single quotes
char = ‘a’

# Creating a string variable with double quotes
string = “Hello World!”

# Creating a string variable with triple double quotes
string = “””Hello
                  World!”””

# Extract a single character from a string
string = “Hello World!”

string[1] # This extracts the first character
string[begin] # This extracts the first character
string[end] # This extracts the last character

# Extract a string from a string
string[1:3] # Extract first three characters as a string
string[begin:4] # Extract first four characters as a string
string[end-2: end] # Extract last three characters as a string

Combining and splitting strings

# Combine strings using string()
string(“Hello ”, “World!”) # This returns Hello World!

# Interpolating strings with “$value” syntax
greet = “Hello”; whom = “World!”
“$greet, $whom” # Returns Hello, World!”

# Repeating strings with ^
"Hello! " ^ 3 # Returns Hello! Hello! Hello!

# Splitting strings on a delimiter with split()
split(“Hello, World!”, “,”)

Finding and mutating strings

# Detecting the presence of a pattern in a string with occursin()
occursin(“Julia”, “Julia for data science is cool”) # This returns true

# Find the position of the first match in a string with findfirst()
findfirst(“Julia”, “Julia for data science is cool”) # This returns 1:5

# Convert a string to upper case with uppercase()
uppercase(“Julia”) # Returns JULIA

# Convert a string to lower case with lowercase()
uppercase(“JULIA”) # Returns julia

# Convert a string to title case case with titlecase()
titlecase(“JULIA programming”) # Returns Julia Programming 

# Replace matches of a pattern with a new string with replace()
replace(“Learn Python on DataCamp.”, "Python" => "Julia") # Replaces Python with Julia

Getting started with DataFrames

# Install the DataFrames and CSV packages
]
add DataFrames
add CSV
using DataFrames
using CSV

# Create a DataFrame with DataFrame()

df = DataFrame(numeric_column=1:4, # Fill whole column with a vector of integers
    string_column= [‘M’, ‘F’, ‘F’, ‘M’], # Fill whole column with a vector of characters
    from_number = 0, # Fill whole column with one number
    from_string = "data frames” # Fill whole column with one string
) 

# Select a row from a data frame with [ and column number
df[3, :] # Return the third row and all columns

# Select a column from a DataFrame using . and column name
df.string_column 

# Select a column from a DataFrame using [ and column number
df[:, 2] # Return the second column and all rows

# Select an element from a data frame using [ and row and column numbers
df[1, 2] # Return the first row of the second column 

Manipulating data frames

# Concatenate two DataFraes horizontally with hcat()
df1= DataFrame(column_A= 1:3, column_B = 1:3)
df2 = DataFrame(column_C = 4:6, column_D = 4:6)
df3 = hcat(df1, df2) # Returns a four-column DataFrame with columns A, B, C, D

# Filter for rows of a data frame with filter() — Isolating all rows of df3 where column_A > 2
df_filter = filter(row -> row.column_A > 2, df3)

# Select columns of a data frame with select()
select(df3, 2) # Return the second column

# Select all columns of a data frame except those specified with select(Not())
select(df3, Not(2)) # Return everything except the second column

# Rename columns of a data frame with rename(old => new)
rename(df3, ["column_A" => "first_column"])

# Get rows of a data frame with distinct values in a column with unique(df, :col)
unique(df3, :column_A)

# Order the rows of a data frame with sort()
sort(df3, :numeric_column)

# Get DataFrame summary statistics with describe()
describe(df3)

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