Python Tutorial

Guido van Rossum

Python Software Foundation
Email: docs@python.org

Fred L. Drake, Jr., editor

Release 2.5.4
23rd December, 2008

Front Matter
Contents
1. Whetting Your Appetite
2. Using the Python Interpreter
- 2.1 Invoking the Interpreter
  - 2.1.1 Argument Passing
  - 2.1.2 Interactive Mode
- 2.2 The Interpreter and Its Environment
3. An Informal Introduction to Python
- 3.1 Using Python as a Calculator
- 3.2 First Steps Towards Programming
4. More Control Flow Tools
- 4.1 if Statements
- 4.2 for Statements
- 4.3 The range() Function
- 4.4 break and continue Statements, and else Clauses on Loops
- 4.5 pass Statements
- 4.6 Defining Functions
- 4.7 More on Defining Functions
5. Data Structures
- 5.1 More on Lists
- 5.2 The del statement
- 5.3 Tuples and Sequences
- 5.4 Sets
- 5.5 Dictionaries
- 5.6 Looping Techniques
- 5.7 More on Conditions
- 5.8 Comparing Sequences and Other Types
6. Modules
- 6.1 More on Modules
- 6.2 Standard Modules
- 6.3 The dir() Function
- 6.4 Packages
7. Input and Output
- 7.1 Fancier Output Formatting
- 7.2 Reading and Writing Files
  - 7.2.1 Methods of File Objects
  - 7.2.2 The pickle Module
8. Errors and Exceptions
- 8.1 Syntax Errors
- 8.2 Exceptions
- 8.3 Handling Exceptions
- 8.4 Raising Exceptions
- 8.5 User-defined Exceptions
- 8.6 Defining Clean-up Actions
- 8.7 Predefined Clean-up Actions
9. Classes
- 9.1 A Word About Terminology
- 9.2 Python Scopes and Name Spaces
- 9.3 A First Look at Classes
- 9.4 Random Remarks
- 9.5 Inheritance
  - 9.5.1 Multiple Inheritance
- 9.6 Private Variables
- 9.7 Odds and Ends
- 9.8 Exceptions Are Classes Too
- 9.9 Iterators
- 9.10 Generators
- 9.11 Generator Expressions
10. Brief Tour of the Standard Library
- 10.1 Operating System Interface
- 10.2 File Wildcards
- 10.3 Command Line Arguments
- 10.4 Error Output Redirection and Program Termination
- 10.5 String Pattern Matching
- 10.6 Mathematics
- 10.7 Internet Access
- 10.8 Dates and Times
- 10.9 Data Compression
- 10.10 Performance Measurement
- 10.11 Quality Control
- 10.12 Batteries Included
11. Brief Tour of the Standard Library - Part II
- 11.1 Output Formatting
- 11.2 Templating
- 11.3 Working with Binary Data Record Layouts
- 11.4 Multi-threading
- 11.5 Logging
- 11.6 Weak References
- 11.7 Tools for Working with Lists
- 11.8 Decimal Floating Point Arithmetic
12. What Now?
A. Interactive Input Editing and History Substitution
- A.1 Line Editing
- A.2 History Substitution
- A.3 Key Bindings
- A.4 Commentary
B. Floating Point Arithmetic: Issues and Limitations
- B.1 Representation Error
C. History and License
- C.1 History of the software
- C.2 Terms and conditions for accessing or otherwise using Python
- C.3 Licenses and Acknowledgements for Incorporated Software
D. Glossary
Index
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