The Python Apprentice
The Python Apprentice
About the Book
The Python Apprentice together with The Python Journeyman and The Python Master comprise a trilogy of books on the Python programming language and the Python Standard Library. The material in these books is derived from Sixty North's popular and battle-tested training courses which have led thousands of programmers on a journey to being productive with Python.
Our books, which use Python 3, follow a spiral curriculum: We introduce topics gently and then revisit them on multiple occasions to add the depth required to support your progression as a Python developer. We've worked hard to structure the syllabus to avoid forward references. On only a few occasions do we require you to accept techniques on trust, before explaining them later; where we do, it's to deliberately establish good habits.
About the Authors
Bundles that include this book
Table of Contents
-
Preface
- Errata and Suggestions
- Conventions Used in This Book
- Welcome Apprentice!
- Python Promo
- Overview
-
What is Python?
- It’s a programming language!
- It’s a standard library!
- It’s a philosophy
- The journey of a thousand miles…
-
Chapter 1 – Getting started
- Obtaining and installing Python 3
- Starting Python command line REPL
- Leaving the REPL
- Code structure and significant indentation
- Python culture
- Importing standard library modules
-
Getting
help() - Scalar data types: integers, floats, None and bool
- Relational operators
- Control flow: if-statements and while-loops
- Summary
-
Chapter 2 – Strings and collections
-
str– an immutable sequence of Unicode code points - Moment of zen
-
bytes– an immutable sequence of bytes -
list– a sequence of objects -
dict– associating keys with values - For-loops – iterating over series of items
- Putting it all together
- Summary
-
-
Chapter 3 – Modularity
- Organizing code in a .py file
- Defining functions
- Organizing our module into functions
- The Python execution model
- Setting up a main function with command line argument
- Moment of zen
- Docstrings
- Comments
- Shebang
- Summary
-
Chapter 4 – Built-in types and the object model
- The nature of Python object references
- Argument passing semantics – pass by object-reference
- Python return semantics
- Function arguments in detail
- The Python type system
- Variable declaration and scoping
- Moment of zen
- Everything is an object
- Summary
-
Chapter 5 – Exploring built in collection types
-
tuple– an immutable sequence of objects - The tuple constructor
- Strings in action
- Moment of zen
-
range– a collection of evenly spaced integers -
listin action - Dictionaries
-
set– an unordered collection of unique elements - Collection protocols
- Summary
-
-
Chapter 6 – Exceptions
- Exceptions and control flow
- Handling exceptions
- Handling multiple exceptions
- Programmer errors
-
Empty blocks – the
passstatement - Exception objects
- Imprudent return codes
- Re-raising exceptions
- Exceptions are part of your function’s API
- Guard clauses
- Exceptions, APIs, and protocols
-
Choosing not to guard against
TypeError - Pythonic style – EAFP versus LBYL
- Clean-up actions
- Moment of zen
- Platform-specific code
- Summary
-
Chapter 7 - Comprehensions, iterables, and generators
- Comprehensions
- Moment of zen
- Iteration protocols
- Generator functions
- Generator expressions
- “Batteries included” iteration tools
- Pulling it all together
- Summary
-
Chapter 8 – Defining new types with classes
- Defining classes
- Instance methods
- Instance initializers
- Validation and invariants
- Adding a second class
- Collaborating classes
- Moment of zen
- Booking seats
- Naming methods for implementation details
- Sometimes the only object you need is a function
- Polymorphism and duck-typing
- Inheritance and implementation sharing
- Summary
-
Chapter 9 – Files and resource management
- Files
- Context managers
- Moment of zen
- Binary files
- File-like objects
- Other resources
- Summary
-
Chapter 10 – Unit testing with the Python standard library
- Test cases
- Fixtures
- Assertions
- Unit testing example: text analysis
- Using fixtures to create temporary files
- Using the new fixtures
- Using assertions to test behavior
- Testing for exceptions
- Testing for file existence
- Moment of zen
- Summary
-
Chapter 11 – Debugging with PDB
- Debugging commands
- Palindrome debugging
- Summary
- Afterword: Just the Beginning
-
Appendix A – Virtual environments
- Creating a virtual environment
- Activating a virtual environment
- Deactivating a virtual environment
- Other tools for working with virtual environments
-
Appendix B – Packaging and distribution
-
Configuring a package with
distutils -
Installing with
distutils -
Packaging with
distutils
-
Configuring a package with
-
Appendix C – Installing third-party packages
-
Introducing
pip - The Python Package Index
-
Installing local packages with
pip - Uninstalling packages
-
Introducing
- Notes
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