Beginner wondering if his code is 'Pythonic' [closed]

Question

This is really the first thing that I have written in python. I come from Java background. I don't want to just learn how to program java code with Python syntax. I want to learn how to program in a pythonic paradigm.

Could you guys please comment on how I can make the following code more pythonic?

from math import sqrt  # recursively computes the factors of a number def factors(num):     factorList = []     numroot = int(sqrt(num)) + 1     numleft = num     # brute force divide the number until you find a factor     for i in range(2, numroot):         if num % i == 0:             # if we found a factor, add it to the list and compute the remainder             factorList.append(i)             numleft = num / i             break     # if we didn't find a factor, get out of here!     if numleft == num:          factorList.append(num)         return factorList     # now recursively find the rest of the factors     restFactors = factors(numleft)     factorList.extend(restFactors)      return factorList  # grabs  all of the twos in the list and puts them into 2 ^ x form def transformFactorList(factorList):     num2s = 0     # remove all twos, counting them as we go     while 2 in factorList:         factorList.remove(2)         num2s += 1     # simply return the list with the 2's back in the right spot     if num2s == 0: return factorList     if num2s == 1:         factorList.insert(0, 2)         return factorList     factorList.insert(0, '2 ^ ' + str(num2s))     return factorList  print transformFactorList(factors(#some number)) 

Answer 1

There is an excellent primer by David Goodger called "Code Like a Pythonista" here. A couple of things from that text re naming (quoting):

• joined_lower for functions, methods, attributes

• joined_lower or ALL_CAPS for constants

• StudlyCaps for classes

• camelCase only to conform to pre-existing conventions