Python 3 in Anger
Python 3 in Anger
A well-grounded Python 3.7+ tutorial
About the Book
I suggest this book for everyone who wants to learn Python 3.
My intention is to make this book a useful support for university course students to understand concepts from the classes like CSCI-A 201 or CS 160. I help this understanding with examples from simple to complex.
Until it is finished, you can buy the book for a discounted price. The final book will be around $25.
This book will contain the following topics:
- Differences between Python 2.7 and 3.x
- Python implementations and Installation (Python interpreter, modules with pip)
- Variables and basic types (numbers, strings)
- Basic operators
- Basic string operators
- String formatting
- Date and time
- Tuples
- Lists
- Dictionaries
- Sets
- Generators
- List comprehension
- Conditions (boolean operators, is, in, not)
- Loops
- Functions
- Multiple function arguments
- Partial functions
- Decorators
- Classes and objects
- Code introspection
- Modules and packages
- File I/O
- Exception handling
- Database access
- Networking
- Parallelism
- XML processing
- Website scraping
- Sending mails
Table of Contents
-
-
Preface
- Why not Python 2?
- Why should I care?
- What does “in Anger” mean?
- What will I do exactly?
- Prerequisites
- Length of the book
- Book structure
- LeanPub
- Other publishers
- Example code
-
Preface
-
Beginning Python
-
1. Introduction to Python
- 1.1 Differences between Python versions 2 and 3
- 1.2 Installing and running Python 3.5
- 1.3 Some Python easter eggs
-
2. Basic syntax and operators
-
2.1 The
print
function - 2.2 Basic syntax
- 2.3 Basic operators
- 2.4 Script files
- 2.5 Using other modules
-
2.1 The
-
3. Variables and basic types
- 3.1 Variables
- 3.2 Basic types
- 3.3 Datatype conversions
-
4. First exercise: Hello World!
- 4.1 Spam in the interpreter
- 4.2 Spam as a script
-
5. Numbers and strings
- 5.1 Numbers in anger
- 5.2 Strings in anger
-
6. Exercise: Strings in anger
- 6.1 Using variables and string formatting
- 6.2 Mad libs
- 6.3 Calculating the area of a rectangular shape
- 6.4 Flop-Flip
- 6.5 String analyzer
-
7. Date and time
- 7.1 Ticks
- 7.2 Time tuples
- 7.3 Datetime
- 7.4 Calendars
-
8. Collections (lists, tuples, sets, dictionaries)
- 8.1 Lists
- 8.2 Tuples
- 8.3 Sets
- 8.4 Dictionaries
-
9. Exercise: Some collections in Anger
- 9.1 Magic 8 ball
- 9.2 Choose a winner
-
10. Decision making with conditionals
- 10.1 About conditionals
-
10.2 The life is not just
True
orFalse
- 10.3 Ternary operator in Python
- 10.4 Best practices with conditionals
- 10.5 Applying the learned methods
-
11. Loops
- 11.1 Modifying the control flow in the loop’s body
-
11.2
for
loops -
11.3
while
loops - 11.4 Improving the “FizzBuzz” game
-
12. Exercise: Writing real scripts
- 12.1 Number comparison
- 12.2 Rock-Paper-Scissors
- 12.3 Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock
- 12.4 Guess the number
-
13. Functions
- 13.1 Defining a function
- 13.2 Calling functions
- 13.3 Return values
- 13.4 Optional parameters
- 13.5 Keyword arguments
- 13.6 Docstrings
- 13.7 Function overloading
-
14. Exercise: Functions for good
- 14.1 Triangle sides
- 14.2 Palindrome words, phrases and sentences
- 14.3 Number-size
- 14.4 Guess the number – The return
- 14.5 Time difference
-
15. Some words about variable scopes
- 15.1 Global scope
- 15.2 Local scope
- 15.3 Changing a global variable
-
16. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
- 16.1 General object-orientation
- 16.2 When to use OO?
-
17. Python and OOP
-
17.1
self
- 17.2 Attribute visibility
- 17.3 Class variables / attributes, functions
- 17.4 Other default functions of classes
-
17.5 Defining a class with
type
- 17.6 Changing the base classes for a class
- 17.7 An example
-
17.1
-
18. Packaging functionality into modules and packages
- 18.1 What are modules?
- 18.2 Static imports
- 18.3 Installing libraries (modules and packages)
- 18.4 Creating a simple module
- 18.5 Using our module
-
18.6 the
dir()
function - 18.7 What are packages?
- 18.8 Creating our own package
- 18.9 Using our package
- 18.10 Creating packages for everyone
-
1. Introduction to Python
-
Advanced Python
-
19. Generators, list- and dictionary-comprehension
- 19.1 Generators
- 19.2 Comprehensions
-
20. Variable number of function arguments
- 20.1 Simple variable number of arguments
- 20.2 Variable key-value-pair arguments
- 20.3 Mixing these types of variable number of arguments
- 20.4 Conclusion
-
21. Partial and nested functions, closures
- 21.1 Closures
- 21.2 What makes closures special?
- 21.3 How to create a closure?
- 21.4 What are closures good for?
- 21.5 Late binding of closures
- 21.6 Partial function application a.k.a. Currying
- 21.7 Nested functions
- 21.8 Conclusion
-
22. Exception handling in Python
- 22.1 What are exceptions?
- 22.2 Catching an exception
-
22.3
try-except-finally
- 22.4 Raising an exception
-
22.5 An example:
KeyboardInterrupt
- 22.6 Conclusion
-
23. File I/O
- 23.1 File objects
- 23.2 Reading files
- 23.3 Writing to files
- 23.4 Example: adding a leaderboard to the ‘Guess the Number’ game
- 23.5 Homework
-
23.6 Opening files
with
… - 23.7 Conclusion
- 24. Website scraping
-
25. Testing Python code
- 25.1 Why writing tests?
- 25.2 Behold the pyramid!
- 25.3 Module tests
-
25.4
doctest
- 25.5 Unit tests
- 25.6 Mocking and stubbing
- 25.7 Other libraries
- 25.8 Conclusion
-
Interesting Python libraries
- mypy
- nose
- http.server
- matplotlib
- Requests
- PeeWee
- PyGame
- prettytable
- progressbar
- uuid
-
19. Generators, list- and dictionary-comprehension
- Notes
Causes Supported

Open Sourcing Mental Illness, Ltd
Changing how we talk about mental health in the tech community.
https://osmihelp.orgChanging how we talk about mental health in the tech community.
Authors have earned$9,883,643writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
The Leanpub 45-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 45 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers), EPUB (for phones and tablets) and MOBI (for Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
C++ Best Practices
Jason TurnerLevel up your C++, get the tools working for you, eliminate common problems, and move on to more exciting things!
OpenIntro Statistics
David Diez, Christopher Barr, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, and OpenIntroA complete foundation for Statistics, also serving as a foundation for Data Science.
Leanpub revenue supports OpenIntro (US-based nonprofit) so we can provide free desk copies to teachers interested in using OpenIntro Statistics in the classroom and expand the project to support free textbooks in other subjects.
More resources: openintro.org.
Functional Design and Architecture
Alexander GraninSoftware Design in Functional Programming, Design Patterns and Practices, Methodologies and Application Architectures. How to build real software in Haskell with less efforts and low risks. The first complete source of knowledge.
R Programming for Data Science
Roger D. PengThis book brings the fundamentals of R programming to you, using the same material developed as part of the industry-leading Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization. The skills taught in this book will lay the foundation for you to begin your journey learning data science. Printed copies of this book are available through Lulu.
C++20
Rainer GrimmC++20 is the next big C++ standard after C++11. As C++11 did it, C++20 changes the way we program modern C++. This change is, in particular, due to the big four of C++20: ranges, coroutines, concepts, and modules.
I am a Software Engineer and I am in Charge
Alexis Monville and Michael DoyleI am a Software Engineer and I am in Charge is a real-world, practical book that helps you increase your impact and satisfaction at work no matter who you work with.
In the book, we will follow Sandrine, a fictional character who learns to think in a new way enabling her to take a different course of action.
Atomic Kotlin
Bruce Eckel and Svetlana IsakovaFor both beginning and experienced programmers! From the author of the multi-award-winning Thinking in C++ and Thinking in Java together with a member of the Kotlin language team comes a book that breaks the concepts into small, easy-to-digest "atoms," along with exercises supported by hints and solutions directly inside IntelliJ IDEA!
Invest In Digital Health - The Medical Futurist's Guide
Dr. Bertalan MeskoArtificial Intelligence and Digital Health are booming. In this book, we explain why now it's a good time to invest in Digital Health and give recommendations on where to invest by looking at the top 24 technological trends we find the most promising.
The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book
Andriy BurkovEverything you really need to know in Machine Learning in a hundred pages.
Mastering STM32
Carmine NovielloWith more than 600 microcontrollers, STM32 is probably the most complete ARM Cortex-M platform on the market. This book aims to be the first guide around that introduces the reader to this exciting MCU portfolio from ST Microelectronics and its official CubeHAL.
Top Bundles
- #1
Software Architecture for Developers: Volumes 1 & 2 - Technical leadership and communication
2 Books
"Software Architecture for Developers" is a practical and pragmatic guide to modern, lightweight software architecture, specifically aimed at developers. You'll learn:The essence of software architecture.Why the software architecture role should include coding, coaching and collaboration.The things that you really need to think about before... - #2
CCIE Service Provider Ultimate Study Bundle
2 Books
Piotr Jablonski, Lukasz Bromirski, and Nick Russo have joined forces to deliver the only CCIE Service Provider training resource you'll ever need. This bundle contains a detailed and challenging collection of workbook labs, plus an extensively detailed technical reference guide. All of us have earned the CCIE Service Provider certification... - #3
The Future of Digital Health
6 Books
We put together the most popular books from The Medical Futurist to provide a clear picture about the major trends shaping the future of medicine and healthcare. Digital health technologies, artificial intelligence, the future of 20 medical specialties, big pharma, data privacy and how technology giants such as Amazon or Google want to conquer... - #4
Cisco CCNA 200-301 Complet
4 Books
Ce lot comprend les quatre volumes du guide préparation à l'examen de certification Cisco CCNA 200-301. - #5
CCDE Practical Studies (All labs)
3 Books
CCDE lab - #6
"The C++ Standard Library" and "Concurrency with Modern C++"
2 Books
Get my books "The C++ Standard Library" and "Concurrency with Modern C++" in a bundle. The first book gives you the details you should know about the C++ standard library; the second one dives deeper into concurrency with modern C++. In sum, you get more than 600 pages full of modern C++ and about 250 source files presenting the standard library... - #7
Modern Management Made Easy
3 Books
Read all three Modern Management Made Easy books. Learn to manage yourself, lead and serve others, and lead the organization. - #8
Linux Administration Complet
4 Books
Ce lot comprend les quatre volumes du Guide Linux Administration :Linux Administration, Volume 1, Administration fondamentale : Guide pratique de préparation aux examens de certification LPIC 1, Linux Essentials, RHCSA et LFCS. Administration fondamentale. Introduction à Linux. Le Shell. Traitement du texte. Arborescence de fichiers. Sécurité... - #9
Programming with Ease
3 Books
Alle drei Bände der Serie Programming with Ease in einem Paket. Darin findest du alles, was ich dir zu den wichtigsten Phasen der Softwareentwicklung im Hinblick auf Clean Code Development für langfristig hohe Produktivität sagen kann.Im Band Slicing findest du die Anforderungsanalyse im Rahmen eines iterativ-inkrementellen Vorgehensmodells aus... - #10
Vagrant Ansible
2 Books
Unveil the power of Ansible and Vagrant with this bundle at a special price. You'll have everything you need to get started with Vagrant - learn the basics and how to create your virtual development environments, using Ansible as provisioner! About Vagrant Cookbook Vagrant Cookbook is a complete guide to get started with Vagrant and create your...