Python Visual QuickStart Guide

by Fehily, Chris

• ISBN13: 9780201748840
• ISBN10: 0201748843
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-26
• Publisher: Peachpit Press

Summary

Untitled Named after the Monty Python comedy troupe, Python is an interpreted, open-source, object-oriented programming language. It's also free and runs portably on Windows, Mac OS, Unix, and other operating systems. Python can be used for all manner of programming tasks, from CGI scripts to full-fledged applications. It is gaining popularity among programmers in part because it is easier to read (and hence, debug) than most other programming languages, and it's generally simpler to install, learn, and use. Its line structure forces consistent indentation. Its syntax and semantics make it suitable for simple scripts and large programs. Its flexible data structures and dynamic typing allow you to get a lot done in a few lines. To learn it, you'll need is some basic programming experience and a copy of Python: Visual QuickStart Guide.In patented Visual QuickStart Guide fashion, the book doesn't just tell you how to use Python to develop applications, it shows you, breaking Python into easy-to-digest, step-by-step tasks and providing example code.Python: Visual QuickStart Guideemphasizes the core language and libraries, which are the building blocks for programs. Author Chris Fehily starts with the basics - expressions, statements, numbers, strings - then moves on to lists, dictionaries, functions, and modules before wrapping things up with straightforward discussions of exceptions and classes. Some additional topics covered include:- Object-oriented programming- Working in multiple operating systems- Structuring large programs- Comparing Python to C, Perl, and Java- Handling errors gracefully.

Author Biography

Chris Fehily is a writer and consultant living in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
About Python	p. xii
About This Book	p. xvi
A Preview	p. xviii
Built-In Types	p. xxii
Getting Started	p. 1
Getting Python	p. 2
Reading Python Documentation	p. 5
Opening a Command-Prompt Window	p. 7
Setting Your Path	p. 8
Using Python Environment Variables	p. 11
Running Programs in Interactive Mode	p. 12
Running Programs in Script Mode	p. 14
Using IDLE	p. 16
Specifying Command-Line Options	p. 18
Passing Arguments to a Script	p. 19
Expressions and Statements	p. 21
Documenting Programs	p. 22
Naming Variables	p. 24
Creating Expressions	p. 25
Creating Expression Statements	p. 26
Creating Variables	p. 28
Deleting Variables	p. 31
Printing Objects	p. 32
Determining an Object's Identity	p. 34
Creating References to the Same Object	p. 35
Determining an Object's Type	p. 37
Using Boolean Operators	p. 41
Using Comparison Operators	p. 43
Chaining Comparisons	p. 46
Determining the Order of Evaluation	p. 47
Summarizing Objects	p. 48
Working with Numbers	p. 49
Understanding the Types of Numbers	p. 50
Understanding Promotion	p. 52
Performing Basic Arithmetic	p. 53
Raising a Number to a Power	p. 55
Getting the Remainder of a Division	p. 56
Getting the Quotient of a Division	p. 57
Controlling Calculation Order	p. 58
Making Augmented Assignments	p. 59
Converting Among Number Types	p. 60
Comparing Numbers	p. 61
Using Mathematical Functions	p. 62
Using Advanced Mathematical Functions	p. 64
Generating Random Numbers	p. 66
Working with Strings	p. 69
Creating a String	p. 70
Inserting Special Characters into a String	p. 72
Creating a Unicode String	p. 74
Finding the Length of a String	p. 80
Indexing a String (Extracting a Character)	p. 81
Slicing a String (Extracting a Substring)	p. 82
Concatenating Strings	p. 84
Repeating a String	p. 86
Using String Methods and Functions	p. 88
Changing String Case	p. 89
Testing a String	p. 91
Trimming and Justifying a String	p. 94
Searching for Substrings	p. 96
Replacing Substrings	p. 100
Translating a String	p. 102
Splitting and Joining Strings	p. 103
Performing List Operations on a String	p. 105
Converting a String	p. 106
Comparing Strings	p. 109
Printing Formatted Strings	p. 113
Working with Lists and Tuples	p. 117
Creating a List or Tuple	p. 118
Finding the Length of a List or Tuple	p. 120
Indexing a List or Tuple (Extracting an Item)	p. 121
Slicing a List or Tuple (Extracting a Segment)	p. 123
Copying a List or Tuple	p. 125
Concatenating Lists or Tuples	p. 128
Repeating a List or Tuple	p. 129
Converting a List or Tuple	p. 131
Comparing Lists or Tuples	p. 133
Testing List or Tuple Membership	p. 135
Modifying a List	p. 136
Replacing List Items	p. 137
Counting Matching List Values	p. 139
Searching a List	p. 140
Adding List Items	p. 141
Removing List Items	p. 143
Sorting a List	p. 146
Inserting Items into a Sorted List	p. 147
Defining a Custom List Sort Order	p. 149
Reversing a List	p. 151
Working with Dictionaries	p. 153
Using Dictionary Operators and Methods	p. 154
Creating a Dictionary	p. 155
Printing a Dictionary	p. 157
Getting a Value by Using a Key	p. 159
Getting All of a Dictionary's Values	p. 161
Getting All of a Dictionary's Keys	p. 162
Getting All of a Dictionary's Key-Value Pairs	p. 163
Determining Whether a Key Exists	p. 164
Counting a Dictionary's Key-Value Pairs	p. 165
Adding or Replacing a Key-Value Pair	p. 166
Removing a Key-Value Pair	p. 167
Removing a Random Key-Value Pair	p. 168
Clearing or Deleting a Dictionary	p. 169
Combining Dictionaries	p. 170
Copying a Dictionary	p. 171
Converting a Dictionary	p. 172
Comparing Dictionaries	p. 173
Sorting a Dictionary	p. 175
Storing Computed Values in a Dictionary	p. 176
Control Flow Statements	p. 179
Splitting Statements Across Lines	p. 180
Creating Compound Statements	p. 182
Using pass to Create a Null Statement	p. 183
Indenting Blocks of Statements	p. 184
Putting Multiple Statements on a Line	p. 186
Using if Conditionals	p. 187
Using if-else Conditionals	p. 188
Using if-elif-else Conditionals	p. 189
Using while Loops	p. 191
Using while-else Loops	p. 193
Using for Loops	p. 194
Using for-else Loops	p. 198
Looping over a Range of Integers	p. 199
Skipping Part of a Loop Iteration	p. 202
Exiting a Loop	p. 204
Functions	p. 207
Defining a Function	p. 208
Documenting a Function	p. 210
Calling a Function	p. 212
Returning a Value from a Function	p. 214
Returning Multiple Values from a Function	p. 218
Specifying Positional Arguments	p. 219
Specifying Default Parameter Values	p. 220
Specifying Keyword Arguments	p. 222
Specifying an Arbitrary Number of Positional Arguments	p. 224
Specifying an Arbitrary Number of Keyword Arguments	p. 226
Combining Argument-Passing Techniques	p. 227
Creating Recursive Functions	p. 228
Passing Mutable and Immutable Arguments to Functions	p. 230
Declaring Global Variables	p. 232
Assigning a Function to a Variable	p. 234
Using Functional Programming Tools	p. 236
Using lambda Expressions to Create Functions	p. 238
Using apply to Call a Function	p. 240
Using map to Apply a Function to Sequence Items	p. 242
Using zip to Group Sequence Items	p. 244
Using filter to Remove Sequence Items Conditionally	p. 245
Using reduce to Reduce a Sequence	p. 246
Using List Comprehensions to Create Lists	p. 247
Modules	p. 251
Structuring a Module	p. 252
Creating a Module	p. 253
Documenting a Module	p. 255
Loading a Module with import	p. 256
Accessing Attributes	p. 258
Listing an Object's Attributes	p. 260
Manipulating Attributes	p. 261
Loading Specific Module Names with from	p. 262
Loading a Module Under a Different Name with as	p. 265
Enabling Language Features	p. 266
Reloading a Module with reload	p. 267
Specifying the Module Search Path	p. 269
Determining Whether a Module Is Running As a Program	p. 270
Determining Which Modules Are Loaded	p. 272
Understanding Namespaces	p. 273
Accessing Namespaces	p. 275
Understanding Scoping Rules	p. 278
Nesting Functions	p. 279
Grouping Modules into Packages	p. 281
Terminating a Program Explicitly	p. 282
Running Code Programmatically	p. 283
Files	p. 285
Opening a File	p. 286
Reading from a File	p. 288
Writing to a File	p. 292
Closing a File	p. 294
Changing Position in a File	p. 295
Truncating a File	p. 297
Getting File Object Information	p. 298
Printing to a File	p. 299
Accessing Standard Input and Output Files	p. 300
Prompting for User Input	p. 304
Using the File System	p. 305
Accessing Environment Variables	p. 307
Changing the Working Directory	p. 308
Listing Directory Contents	p. 309
Creating a Directory	p. 310
Removing a Directory	p. 311
Renaming a File or Directory	p. 312
Removing a File	p. 313
Getting Path Information	p. 314
Getting File Information	p. 316
Splitting Paths	p. 318
Joining Paths	p. 320
Saving Objects As Files	p. 321
Exceptions	p. 325
Understanding the Exception Hierarchy	p. 327
Handling an Exception	p. 331
Ignoring an Exception	p. 336
Getting an Exception's Argument	p. 337
Handling All Exceptions	p. 339
Running Code in the Absence of an Exception	p. 340
Handling Multiple Exceptions	p. 341
Running Mandatory Cleanup Code	p. 344
Raising an Exception Explicitly	p. 345
Creating User-Defined Exceptions	p. 346
Making an Assertion	p. 349
Classes	p. 351
Understanding OOP Terminology	p. 352
Defining a Class	p. 353
Documenting a Class	p. 354
Accessing Built-In Class Attributes	p. 355
Creating an Instance	p. 356
Accessing Built-In Instance Attributes	p. 357
Creating Class Variables	p. 358
Using Special Methods to Overload Standard Behavior	p. 360
Creating Instance Variables with an Initialization Method	p. 362
Destroying an Instance	p. 365
Creating a String Representation of an Instance	p. 367
Setting the Truth Value of an Instance	p. 369
Comparing Instances	p. 370
Accessing Instance Attributes	p. 372
Treating an Instance Like a List or Dictionary	p. 374
Performing Mathematical Operations on Instances	p. 376
Calling an Instance	p. 379
Defining and Invoking a Custom Method	p. 380
Deriving New Classes from Existing Classes	p. 382
Hiding Private Data	p. 385
Determining Class Membership	p. 386
Appendix A	p. 387
Learning Python	p. 388
Getting Support	p. 389
Editing and Debugging Code	p. 391
Programming Resources	p. 392
Index	p. 395
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