Python at work

**Learn Python the way it's used at work: from your first line of code to tested, professional tools your colleagues can rely on.**

Most beginner books teach you how to make a computer do things. *Python at Work* teaches you how to make it do things someone will pay you for.

You'll start from zero, with no programming experience needed, and build real skills step by step. From the very first chapter, you'll also learn the habits that separate hobby code from production code: clear naming, handling errors properly, never storing money as a float, testing before you hand code over, and writing scripts that still work next month on someone else's machine.

### Learn inside a real company

Throughout the book you join **Brightline Logistics**, a fictional mid-sized company, as a junior analyst learning Python. Your colleagues bring you the problems new developers really face: spreadsheets copied by hand every morning, reports that must add up to the cent, messy customer data, a nightly import that crashes on one bad row. You solve each one, chapter by chapter.

### What's inside

- **30 chapters in three parts:** *Foundations*, *Writing Professional Code*, and *Real-World Projects*

- **100+ recipes:** short, reusable solutions in a Problem → Solution → How it works format

- **30 "On the Job" projects:** one complete mini-project closing every chapter

- **20 clear, carefully designed diagrams** of the ideas that are easier to see than to read

- **Common Mistakes boxes** covering the traps that catch almost every beginner

- **Exercises in every chapter**, with solutions to selected ones

- **5 appendices:** a Python quick reference, common error messages and how to fix them, 20 interview questions with model answers, exercise solutions, and a workstation setup checklist

- **A complete glossary** of the terms you'll hear at work

### What you'll be able to do

- Write clean, readable Python using variables, strings, numbers, decisions, loops, lists, dictionaries, functions, and exceptions

- Handle money correctly with `Decimal`, and work safely with dates, times, and time zones

- Read and write CSV, JSON, and Excel files, and organize folders automatically

- Model data with classes, dataclasses, enums, and type hints

- Set up virtual environments and professional project structures

- Test your code with pytest, debug methodically, and log what your programs do

- Use Git and GitHub, open pull requests, and run tests automatically with GitHub Actions

- Automate office tasks: reports, archives, and emails with attachments

- Call web APIs with `requests`, and build your own API with FastAPI

- Analyze data with pandas and store it in SQLite with SQL

- Build command-line tools, schedule jobs, and ship scripts that run without you

- Build a portfolio, prepare for technical interviews, and plan your first 90 days in a Python job

### Who this book is for

- **Complete beginners** who want to learn Python with a clear, practical goal

- **Office professionals, analysts, and operations staff** who want to automate repetitive work

- **Career changers** aiming for a first role in data, automation, or back-end development

- **Students and self-taught programmers** who know some syntax but not how professionals actually work

All code is written for Python 3.12 and works with Python 3.10 or later, on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The code examples were run and their output checked against the book.

Welcome to the team. Let's get to work.