Beginner Question

This is a great question to ask.

In short, the dot is a syntactic element that separates a "namespace." A namespace is a hierarchy in Python. In Python, everything is an object-- don't worry if this doesn't make sense now, but you will learn more about this as you go further in your studies. So a namespace is closely related to Python's object-orientation.

In the first example, we will import a library (or package) namespace.

Here, I can import math, and then get the value of "pi" from that namespace.

import math # import a library (or namespace)
print(math.pi) # prints out 3.14159

The namespace might be associated with an instantiated object. In this case, the dot gives access to a named property or access to a method (or function of the object).

class Person:
    # this is an object with one property and one method
    name = 'George Washington'

    def greet(self):
        print("Hello " + self.name)

x = Person() # instantiate the Person object as x
print(x.name) # prints out George Washington

x.greet() # prints "Hello George Washington"

Good luck with your Computer Science studies. Python isn't the only language you will learn along the way, but could be the most important depending on your career path.