Learn Python Programming: A Beginner's Guide To Learning .

Learn Python ProgrammingSecond EditionA beginner's guide to learning the fundamentals of Python language to writeefficient, high-quality codeFabrizio Romano

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Learn Python Programming SecondEditionCopyright 2018 Packt PublishingAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted inany form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of briefquotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the informationpresented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express orimplied. Neither the author(s), nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable forany damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and productsmentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee theaccuracy of this information.Commissioning Editor: Richa TripathiAcquisition Editor: Karan SadawanaContent Development Editor: Rohit SinghTechnical Editor: Romy DiasCopy Editor: Safis EditingProject Coordinator: Vaidehi SawantProofreader: Safis EditingIndexer: Mariammal ChettiyarGraphics: Jason MonteiroProduction Coordinator: Shantanu ZagadeFirst published: December 2015Second edition: June 2018Production reference: 1280618Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.Livery Place35 Livery StreetBirminghamB3 2PB, UK.ISBN 978-1-78899-666-2www.packtpub.com

To my dear dear friend and mentor, Torsten Alexander Lange.Thank you for all the love and support.

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ForewordI first got to know Fabrizio when he became our lead developer a few years ago.It was quickly apparent that he was one of those rare people who combinerigorous technical expertise with a genuine care for the people around him and atrue passion to mentor and teach. Whether it was designing a system, pairing towrite code, doing code reviews, or even organizing team card games at lunch,Fab was always thinking not only about the best way to do the job, but alsoabout how to make sure that the entire team had the skills and motivation to dotheir best.You'll meet the same wise and caring guide in this book. Every chapter, everyexample, every explanation has been carefully thought out, driven by a desire toimpart the best and most accurate understanding of the technology, and to do itwith kindness. Fab takes you under his wing to teach you both Python's syntaxand its best practices.I'm also impressed with the scope of this book. Python has grown and evolvedover the years, and it now spans an enormous ecosystem, being used for webdevelopment, routine data handling, and ETL, and increasingly for data science.If you are new to the Python ecosystem, it's often hard to know what to study toachieve your goals. In this book, you will find useful examples exposing you tomany different uses of Python, which will help guide you as you move throughthe breadth that Python offers.I hope you will enjoy learning Python and become a member of our globalcommunity. I'm proud to have been asked to write this, but above all, I'm pleasedthat Fab will be your guide.Naomi CederPython Software Foundation Fellow

Contributors

About the authorFabrizio Romano was born in Italy in 1975. He holds a master's degree incomputer science engineering from the University of Padova. He is also acertified scrum master, Reiki master and teacher, and a member of CNHC.He moved to London in 2011 to work for companies such as Glasses Direct,TBG/Sprinklr, and student.com. He now works at Sohonet as a PrincipalEngineer/Team Lead.He has given talks on Teaching Python and TDD at two editions of EuroPython,and at Skillsmatter and ProgSCon, in London.I'm grateful to all those who helped me create this book. Special thanks to Dr. Naomi Ceder for writing theforeword to this edition, and to Heinrich Kruger and Julio Trigo for reviewing this volume. To my friendsand family, who love me and support me every day, thank you. And to Petra Lange, for always being solovely to me, thank you.

About the reviewersHeinrich Kruger was born in South Africa in 1981. He obtained a bachelor'sdegree with honors from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa in2005 and a master's degree in computer science from Utrecht University in theNetherlands in 2008.He worked as a research assistant at Utrecht University from 2009 until 2013and has been working as a professional software developer developer since2014. He has been using Python for personal and projects and in his studiessince 2004, and professionally since 2014.Julio Vicente Trigo Guijarro is a computer scientist and software engineer withover a decade of experience in software development. He completed his studiesat the University of Alicante, Spain, in 2007. He has worked with severaltechnologies and languages, including Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Java,JavaScript, and Python. He is a certified Scrum Master. He has been usingPython since 2012, and he is passionate about software design, quality, andcoding standards. He currently works as senior software developer and team leadat Sohonet, developing real-time collaboration applications.I would like to thank my parents for their love, good advice, and continuous support. I would also like tothank all the friends I have met along the way, who enriched my life, for keeping up my motivation, andmake me progress.

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Table of Contents

Title PageCopyright and CreditsLearn Python ProgrammingSecond EditionDedicationPackt UpsellWhy subscribe?PacktPub.comForewordContributorsAbout the authorAbout the reviewersPackt is searching for authors like youPrefaceWho this book is forWhat this book coversTo get the most out of this bookDownload the example code filesConventions usedGet in touchReviews1.A Gentle Introduction to PythonA proper introductionEnter the PythonAbout PythonPortability

CoherenceDeveloper productivityAn extensive librarySoftware qualitySoftware integrationSatisfaction and enjoymentWhat are the drawbacks?Who is using Python today?Setting up the environmentPython 2 versus Python 3Installing PythonSetting up the Python interpreterAbout virtualenvYour first virtual environmentYour friend, the consoleHow you can run a Python programRunning Python scriptsRunning the Python interactive shellRunning Python as a serviceRunning Python as a GUI applicationHow is Python code organized?How do we use modules and packages?Python's execution modelNames and namespacesScopesObjects and classesGuidelines on how to write good code

The Python cultureA note on IDEsSummary

2.Built-in Data TypesEverything is an objectMutable or immutable? That is the questionNumbersIntegersBooleansReal numbersComplex numbersFractions and decimalsImmutable sequencesStrings and bytesEncoding and decoding stringsIndexing and slicing stringsString formattingTuplesMutable sequencesListsByte arraysSet typesMapping types – dictionariesThe collections modulenamedtupledefaultdictChainMapEnumsFinal considerations

Small values cachingHow to choose data structuresAbout indexing and slicingAbout the namesSummary

3.Iterating and Making DecisionsConditional programmingA specialized else – elifThe ternary operatorLoopingThe for loopIterating over a rangeIterating over a sequenceIterators and iterablesIterating over multiple sequencesThe while loopThe break and continue statementsA special else clausePutting all this togetherA prime generatorApplying discountsA quick peek at the itertools moduleInfinite iteratorsIterators terminating on the shortest input sequenceCombinatoric generatorsSummary

4.Functions, the Building Blocks of CodeWhy use functions?Reducing code duplicationSplitting a complex taskHiding implementation detailsImproving readabilityImproving traceabilityScopes and name resolutionThe global and nonlocal statementsInput parametersArgument-passingAssignment to argument names doesn't affect the callerChanging a mutable affects the callerHow to specify input parametersPositional argumentsKeyword arguments and default valuesVariable positional argumentsVariable keyword argumentsKeyword-only argumentsCombining input parametersAdditional unpacking generalizationsAvoid the trap! Mutable defaultsReturn valuesReturning multiple valuesA few useful tipsRecursive functions

Anonymous functionsFunction attributesBuilt-in functionsOne final exampleDocumenting your codeImporting objectsRelative importsSummary

5.Saving Time and MemoryThe map, zip, and filter functionsmapzipfilterComprehensionsNested comprehensionsFiltering a comprehensiondict comprehensionsset comprehensionsGeneratorsGenerator functionsGoing beyond nextThe yield from expressionGenerator expressionsSome performance considerationsDon't overdo comprehensions and generatorsName localizationGeneration behavior in built-insOne last exampleSummary

6.OOP, Decorators, and IteratorsDecoratorsA decorator factoryObject-oriented programming (OOP)The simplest Python classClass and object namespacesAttribute shadowingMe, myself, and I – using the self variableInitializing an instanceOOP is about code reuseInheritance and compositionAccessing a base classMultiple inheritanceMethod resolution orderClass and static methodsStatic methodsClass methodsPrivate methods and name manglingThe property decoratorOperator overloadingPolymorphism – a brief overviewData classesWriting a custom iteratorSummary

7.Files and Data PersistenceWorking with files and directoriesOpening filesUsing a context manager to open a fileReading and writing to a fileReading and writing in binary modeProtecting against overriding an existing fileChecking for file and directory existenceManipulating files and directoriesManipulating pathnamesTemporary files and directoriesDirectory contentFile and directory compressionData interchange formatsWorking with JSONCustom encoding/decoding with JSONIO, streams, and requestsUsing an in-memory streamMaking HTTP requestsPersisting data on diskSerializing data with pickleSaving data with shelveSaving data to a databaseSummary