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A Byte of Python
v1.92 (for Python 3.0)
PDF generated using the open source mwlib toolkit
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Python
2
Python
Choose your Python version:
If you want to learn the current Python 2.x, read
If you want to learn the new Python 3.0, read here or
here [1] or download the PDF [2]
download the PDF [3]
You can also buy a printed hardcopy. [4]
Introduction
'A Byte of Python' is a book on programming using the Python language. It serves as a
tutorial or guide to the Python language for a beginner audience. If all you know about computers is how to save text files, then this is the book for you.
This book is updated for the new Python 3.0 language. If you are looking for a tutorial on the current Python 2.x version, please download the previous revision of the book [5]. On the same note, if you're wondering whether to learn Python 2.x or 3.x, then read this article by James Bennett [6].
Who Reads 'A Byte of Python'?
Here are what people are saying about the book:
Feedback From Readers
This is the best beginner's tutorial I've ever seen! Thank you for your effort.
- Walt Michalik (wmich50-at-theramp-dot-net)
You've made the best Python tutorial I've found on the Net. Great work. Thanks!
- Joshua Robin (joshrob-at-poczta-dot-onet-dot-pl)
Hi, I'm from Dominican Republic. My name is Pavel, recently I read your book 'A Byte
of Python' and I consider it excellent!! :). I learnt much from all the examples. Your book is of great help for newbies like me...
- Pavel Simo (pavel-dot-simo-at-gmail-dot-com)
I recently finished reading Byte of Python, and I thought I really ought to thank you. I was very sad to reach the final pages as I now have to go back to dull, tedious oreilly or etc. manuals for learning about python. Anyway, I really appreciate your book
- Samuel Young (sy-one-three-seven-at-gmail-dot-com)
Dear Swaroop, I am taking a class from an instructor that has no interest in teaching.
We are using Learning Python, second edition, by O'Reilly. It is not a text for beginner without any programming knowledge, and an instructor that should be working in
another field. Thank you very much for your book, without it I would be cluless about
Python and programming. Thanks a million, you are able to 'break the message down'
to a level that beginners can understand and not everyone can.
- Joseph Duarte (jduarte1-at-cfl-dot-rr-dot-com)
I love your book! It is the greatest Python tutorial ever, and a very useful reference.
Brilliant, a true masterpiece! Keep up the good work!
- Chris-André Sommerseth
Python
3
I'm just e-mailing you to thank you for writing Byte of Python online. I had been
attempting Python for a few months prior to stumbling across your book, and although
I made limited success with pyGame, I never completed a program.
Thanks to your simplification of the categories, Python actually seems a reachable
goal. It seems like I have finally learned the foundations and I can continue into my
real goal, game development.
...
Once again, thanks VERY much for placing such a structured and helpful guide to
basic programming on the web. It shoved me into and out of OOP with an
understanding where two text books had failed.
- Matt Gallivan (m-underscore-gallivan12-at-hotmail-dot-com)
I would like to thank you for your book 'A byte of python' which i myself find the best way to learn python. I am a 15 year old i live in egypt my name is Ahmed. Python was
my second programming language i learn visual basic 6 at school but didn't enjoy it,
however i really enjoyed learning python. I made the addressbook program and i was
sucessful. i will try to start make more programs and read python programs (if you
could tell me source that would be helpful). I will also start on learning java and if you can tell me where to find a tutorial as good as yours for java that would help me a lot.
Thanx.
- Ahmed Mohammed (sedo-underscore-91-at-hotmail-dot-com)
A wonderful resource for beginners wanting to learn more about Python is the
110-page PDF tutorial A Byte of Python by Swaroop C H. It is well-written, easy to
follow, and may be the best introduction to Python programming available.
- Drew Ames in an article on Scripting Scribus [7] published on Linux.com Yesterday I got through most of Byte of Python on my Nokia N800 and it's the easiest
and most concise introduction to Python I have yet encountered. Highly recommended
as a starting point for learning Python.
- Jason Delport on his weblog [8]
Academic Courses
This book is being used as instructional material in various educational institutions: 1. 'Principles of Programming Languages' course at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam [9]
2. 'Basic Concepts of Computing' course at University of California, Davis [10]
3. 'Programming With Python' course at Harvard University [11]
4. 'Introduction to Programming' course at University of Leeds [12]
5. 'Introduction to Application Programming' course at Boston University [13]
6. 'Information Technology Skills for Meteorology' course at University of Oklahoma [14]
7. 'Geoprocessing' course at Michigan State University [15]
8. 'Multi Agent Semantic Web Systems' course at the University of Edinburgh [16]
Python
4
Even NASA
The book is even used by NASA! It is being used in their Jet Propulsion Laboratory [17] with their Deep Space Network project.
Official Recommendation
This book has been listed on the official website for Python in the Full Tutorials [18] section, next to the official documentation.
License
1. This book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
[19] license.
• This means:
• You are free to Share i.e. to copy, distribute and transmit this book
• You are free to Remix i.e. to adapt this book
• Under the following conditions:
• Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or
licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of this
book).
• Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.
• For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this book.
• Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright
holder.
• Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.
2. Attribution must be shown by linking back to http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/
Python and clearly indicating that the original text can be fetched from this location.
3. All the code/scripts provided in this book is licensed under the 3-clause BSD License [20]
unless otherwise noted.
4. Volunteer contributions to this original book must be under this same license and the copyright must be assigned to the main author of this book.
Read Now
You can read the book online at Python_en:Table of Contents.
Buy the Book
A printed hardcopy of the book can be purchased [21] for your offline reading pleasure, and to support the continued development and improvement of this book.
Download
• PDF (631KB) [22]
• Mediawiki XML dump (276KB) [23] (for advanced users only) If you wish to support the continued development of this book, please consider
making a donation [24] or buy a printed hardcopy [25].
Python
5
Translations
If you are interested in reading or contributing translations of this book to other human languages, please see Translations.
Next
References
[1] http://www.ibiblio.org/swaroopch/byteofpython/read/
[2] http://www.ibiblio.org/swaroopch/byteofpython/files/120/byteofpython_120.pdf
[3] http://www.swaroopch.com/files/byteofpython/byte_of_python_v191.pdf
[4] http://www.swaroopch.com/buybook
[5] http://www.ibiblio.org/swaroopch/byteofpython/files/120/
[6] http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2008/dec/05/python-3000/
[7] http://www.linux.com/feature/126522
[8] http://paxmodept.com/telesto/blogitem.htm?id=627
[9] http://www.few.vu.nl/~nsilvis/PPL/2007/index.html
[10] http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/courses/exp_course_desc/10.html
[11] http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~preshman/python_winter.html
[12] http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/acom1900/
[13] http://www.cs.bu.edu/courses/cs108/materials.html
[14] http://gentry.metr.ou.edu/byteofpython/
[15] http://www.msu.edu/~ashton/classes/825/index.html
[16] http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/ewan/masws/
[17] http://dsnra.jpl.nasa.gov/software/Python/byte-of-python/output/
[18] http://www.python.org/doc/intros/
[19] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
[20] http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
[21] http://www.swaroopch.com/buybook
[22] http://www.swaroopch.com/files/byteofpython/byte_of_python_v191.pdf
[23] http://www.swaroopch.com/files/byteofpython/byte_of_python_v191.xml
[24] https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&
business=swaroop%40swaroopch%2ecom&item_name=A%20Byte%20of%20Python&
no_shipping=0&no_note=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD&lc=IN&
bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8
[25] http://www.swaroopch.com/buybook
Source: http://www.swaroopch.com/mediawiki/index.php?oldid=1391
Contributors: Swaroop, 1 anonymous edits
Python en:Table of Contents
6
Python en:Table of Contents
2. → Preface
6. → Basics
7. → Operators and Expressions
9. → Functions
10. → Modules
13. → Object Oriented Programming
14. → Input Output
15. → Exceptions
17. → More
18. → What Next
21. → Appendix: Revision History
Source: http://www.swaroopch.com/mediawiki/index.php?oldid=1343
Contributors: Swaroop, Waterox888, 3 anonymous edits
Python en:Translations
7
Python en:Translations
There are many translations of the book available in different human languages, thanks to many tireless volunteers!
If you want to help these translations, please see the list of volunteers and languages below and decide if you want to start a new translation or help in existing translation projects.
If you plan to start a new translation, please read the Translation Howto.
Chinese
Juan Shen (orion-underscore-val-at-163-dot-com) has volunteered to translate the book to Chinese.
what - I am a postgraduate at Wireless Telecommunication Graduate School,
Beijing University of Technology, China PR. My current research interest is on the
synchronization, channel estimation and multi-user detection of multicarrier
CDMA system. Python is my major programming language for daily simulation
and research job, with the help of Python Numeric, actually. I learned Python just
half a year before, but as you can see, it's really easy-understanding, easy-to-use
and productive. Just as what is ensured in Swaroop's book, 'It's my favorite
programming language now'. 'A Byte of Python' is my tutorial to learn Python. It's
clear and effective to lead you into a world of Python in the shortest time. It's not
too long, but efficiently covers almost all important things in Python. I think 'A
Byte of Python' should be strongly recommendable for newbies as their first
Python tutorial. Just dedicate my translation to the potential millions of Python
users in China.
Chinese Traditional
Fred Lin (gasolin-at-gmail-dot-com) has volunteered to translate the book to Chinese
Traditional.
It is available at http://code.google.com/p/zhpy/wiki/ByteOfZhpy (http://code.google.
An exciting feature of this translation is that it also contains the executable chinese python sources side by side with the original python sources.
Fred Lin - I'm working as a network firmware engineer at Delta Network, and I'm also a contributor of TurboGears web framework. As a python evangelist (:-p), I
need some material to promote python language. I found 'A Byte of Python' hit the
sweet point for both newbies and experienced programmers. 'A Byte of Python'
elaborates the python essentials with affordable size. The translation are
originally based on simplified chinese version, and soon a lot of rewrite were
made to fit the current wiki version and the quality of reading. The recent chinese
traditional version also featured with executable chinese python sources, which
are achieved by my new 'zhpy' (python in chinese) project (launch from Aug 07).
zhpy(pronounce (Z.H.?, or zippy) build a layer upon python to translate or interact
with python in chinese(Traditional or Simplified). This project is mainly aimed for
education.
Python en:Translations
8
Italian
Enrico Morelli (mr-dot-mlucci-at-gmail-dot-com) and Massimo Lucci
(morelli-at-cerm-dot-unifi-dot-it) have volunteered to translate the book to Italian.
The Italian translation is present at www.gentoo.it/Programmazione/byteofpython (http:/ /
www. gentoo. it/ Programmazione/ byteofpython). The new translation is in progress and
start with "Prefazione".
Massimo Lucci and Enrico Morelli - we are working at the University of
Florence (Italy) - Chemistry Department. I (Massimo) as service engineer and
system administrator for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometers; Enrico as
service engineer and system administrator for our CED and parallel / clustered
systems. We are programming on python since about seven years, we had
experience working with Linux platforms since ten years. In Italy we are
responsible and administrator for www.gentoo.it web site for Gentoo/Linux
distrubution and www.nmr.it (now under construction) for Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance applications and Congress Organization and Managements. That's all!
We are impressed by the smart language used on your Book and we think this is
essential for approaching the Python to new users (we are thinking about
hundred of students and researcher working on our labs).
German
Lutz Horn (lutz-dot-horn-at-gmx-dot-de), Bernd Hengelein
(bernd-dot-hengelein-at-gmail-dot-com) and Christoph Zwerschke (cito-at-online-dot-de) have volunteered to translate the book to German.
Their translation is located at http:/ / abop-german. berlios. de (http:/ / abop-german.
Lutz Horn : I'm 32 years old and have a degree of Mathematics from University
of Heidelberg, Germany. Currently I'm working as a software engineer on a
publicly funded project to build a web portal for all things related to computer
science in Germany. The main language I use as a professional is Java, but I try to
do as much as possible with Python behind the scenes. Especially text analysis
and conversion is very easy with Python. I'm not very familiar with GUI toolkits,
since most of my programming is about web applications, where the user
interface is build using Java frameworks like Struts. Currently I try to make more
use of the functional programming features of Python and of generators. After
taking a short look into Ruby, I was very impressed with the use of blocks in this
language. Generally I like the dynamic nature of languages like Python and Ruby
since it allows me to do things not possible in more static languages like Java. I've
searched for some kind of introduction to programming, suitable to teach a
complete non-programmer. I've found the book 'How to Think Like a Computer
Scientist: Learning with Python', and 'Dive into Python'. The first is good for
beginners but to long to translate. The second is not suitable for beginners. I
think 'A Byte of Python' falls nicely between these, since it is not too long, written to the point, and at the same time verbose enough to teach a newbie. Besides this,
I like the simple DocBook structure, which makes translating the text a
generation the output in various formats a charm.
Python en:Translations
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Bernd Hengelein : Lutz and me are going to do the german translation together.
We just started with the intro and preface but we will keep you informed about
the progress we make. Ok, now some personal things about me. I am 34 years old
and playing with computers since the 1980's, when the "Commodore C64" ruled
the nurseries. After studying computer science I started working as a software
engineer. Currently I am working in the field of medical imaging for a major
german company. Although C++ is the main language I (have to) use for my daily
work, I am constantly looking for new things to learn. Last year I fell in love with
Python, which is a wonderful language, both for its possibilities and its beauty. I
read somewhere in the net about a guy who said that he likes python, because the
code looks so beautiful. In my opinion he's absolutly right. At the time I decided to
learn python, I noticed that there is very little good documentation in german
available. When I came across your book the spontaneous idea of a german
translation crossed my mind. Luckily, Lutz had the same idea and we can now
divide the work. I am looking forward to a good cooperation!
Norwegian (bokmål)
Eirik Vågeskar (or Vages) is a high school student at Sandvika videregående skole (http:/ /
no. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Sandvika_videregående_skole) in Norway, a blogger (http:/ /
forbedre. blogspot. com/ ) and currently translating the book to Norwegian (bokmål). The
translation is in progress, and you can check the table of contents for more details.
Eirik Vågeskar: I have always wanted to program, but because I speak a small
language, the learning process was much harder. Most tutorials and books are
written in very technical English, so most high school graduates will not even
have the vocabulary to understand what the tutorial is about. When I discovered
this book, all my problems were solved. "A Byte of Python" used simple
non-technical language to explain a programming language that is just as simple,
and these two things make learning Python fun. After reading half of the book, I
decided that the book was worth translating. I hope the translation will help
people who have found themself in the same situation as me (especially young
people), and maybe help spread interest for the language among people with less
technical knowledge.
Indonesian
Daniel (daniel-dot-mirror-at-gmail-dot-com) is translating the book to Indonesian at http:/ /
python.or.id/moin.cgi/ByteofPython
Polish
Dominik Kozaczko (dkozaczko-at-gmail-dot-com) has volunteered to translate the book to Polish. Translation is in progress and it's main page is available here: Ukąś Pythona (http://
wiki.mercury.lo5.bielsko.pl/index.php/UkÄ Å_Pythona).
Dominik Kozaczko - I'm a Computer Science and Information Technology
teacher.
Python en:Translations
10
Catalan
Moises Gomez (moisesgomezgiron-at-gmail-dot-com) has volunteered to translate the book to Catalan. The translation is in progress, and starts with the chapter "Taula de continguts".
Moisès Gómez - I am a developer and also a teacher of programming (normally
for people without any previous experience). Some time ago I needed to learn
how to program in Python, and Swaroop's work was really helpful. Clear, concise,
and complete enough. Just what I needed. After this experience, I thought some
other people in my country could take benefit from it too. But English language
can be a barrier. So, why not try to translate it? And I did for a previous version of BoP. I my country there are two official languages. I selected the Catalan
language assuming that others will translate it to the more widespread Spanish.
Portuguese
Fidel Viegas (fidel-dot-viegas-at-gmail-dot-com) has volunteered to translate the book to Portuguese.
Romanian
Paul-Sebastian Manole (brokenthorn-at-gmail-dot-com) has volunteered to translate this book to Romanian.
Paul-Sebastian Manole - I'm a second year Computer Science student at Spiru
Haret University, here in Romania. I'm more of a self-taught programmer and
decided to learn a new language, Python. The web told me there was no better
way to do so but read A Byte of Python. That's how popular this book is
(congratulations to the author for writing such an easy to read book). I started
liking Python so I decided to help translate the latest version of Swaroop's book in
Romanian. Although I could be the one with the first initiative, I'm just one
volunteer so if you can help, please join me.
The translation is being done here (http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/Python_ro).
Brazilian Portuguese
Rodrigo Amaral (http:/ / rodrigoamaral. net) (rodrigoamaral-at-gmail-dot-com) has
volunteered to translate the book to Brazilian Portuguese...
French
Gregory (coulix-at-ozforces-dot-com-dot-au) has volunteered to translate the book to
French.
Danish
Lars Petersen (lars-at-ioflux-dot-net) has volunteered to translate the book to Danish.
Spanish
Alfonso de la Guarda Reyes (alfonsodg-at-ictechperu-dot-net) and Gustavo Echeverria
(gustavo-dot-echeverria-at-gmail-dot-com) have volunteered to translate the book to
Python en:Translations
11
Spanish. The translation is in progress, you can read the spanish (argentinian) translation starting by the table of contents (tabla de contenidos).
Gustavo Echeverria: I work as a software engineer in Argentina. I use mostly C#
and .Net technologies at work but strictly Python or Ruby in my personal projects.
I knew Python many years ago and I got stuck inmediately. Not so long after
knowing Python I discovered this book and it helped me to learn the language.
Then I volunteered to translate the book to Spanish. Now, after receiving some
requests, I've begun to translate "A Byte of Python" with the help of Maximiliano Soler.
Arabic
Alaa Abadi (alaanassir-at-gmail-dot-com) has volunteered to translate the book to Arabic.
ISA .
Swedish
Mikael Jacobsson (leochingkwake-at-gmail-dot-com) has volunteered to translate the book to Swedish.
Russian and Ukranian
Averkiev Andrey (averkiyev-at-ukr-dot-net) has volunteered to translate the book to
Russian, and perhaps Ukranian (time permitting).
Turkish
Türker SEZER (tsezer-at-btturk-dot-net) and Bugra Cakir (bugracakir-at-gmail-dot-com)
have volunteered to translate the book to Turkish.
Mongolian
Ariunsanaa Tunjin (tariunsanaa-at-yahoo-dot-com) has volunteered to translate the book to Mongolian.
Note
Replace '-at-' with '@' , '-dot-' with '.' and '-underscore-' with '_' in the
email addresses mentioned on this page. Dashes in other places in the email address
remain as-is.
Python en:Translations
12
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Contributors: Geopop65, Gustavo.echeverria, Leochingkwake, Moises, Morellik, Rodrigoamaral, Swaroop, Thorns, Vages, Waterox888, 20 anonymous edits
Python en:Preface
Python is probably one of the few programming languages which is both simple and
powerful. This is good for both and beginners as well as experts, and more importantly, is fun to program with. This book aims to help you learn this wonderful language and show how to get things done quickly and painlessly - in effect 'The Perfect Anti-venom to your programming problems'.
Who This Book Is For
This book serves as a guide or tutorial to the Python programming language. It is mainly targeted at newbies. It is useful for experienced programmers as well.
The aim is that if all you know about computers is how to save text files, then you can learn Python from this book. If you have previous programming experience, then you can also
learn Python from this book.
If you do have previous programming experience, you will be interested in the differences between Python and your favorite programming language - I have highlighted many such
differences. A little warning though, Python is soon going to become your favorite
programming language!
History Lesson
I first started with Python when I needed to write an installer for a software I had written called 'Diamond' so that I could make the installation easy. I had to choose between Python and Perl bindings for the Qt library. I did some research on the web and I came across an article where Eric S. Raymond, the famous and respected hacker, talked about how Python has become his favorite programming language. I also found out that the PyQt bindings
were more mature compared to Perl-Qt. So, I decided that Python was the language for me.
Then, I started searching for a good book on Python. I couldn't find any! I did find some O'Reilly books but they were either too expensive or were more like a reference manual than a guide. So, I settled for the documentation that came with Python. However, it was too brief and small. It did give a good idea about Python but was not complete. I managed with it since I had previous programming experience, but it was unsuitable for newbies.
About six months after my first brush with Python, I installed the (then) latest Red Hat 9.0
Linux and I was playing around with KWord. I got excited about it and suddenly got the idea of writing some stuff on Python. I started writing a few pages but it quickly became 30
pages long. Then, I became serious about making it more useful in a book form. After a lot of rewrites, it has reached a stage where it has become a useful guide to learning the Python language. I consider this book to be my contribution and tribute to the open source community.
Python en:Preface
13
This book started out as my personal notes on Python and I still consider it in the same way, although I've taken a lot of effort to make it more palatable to others :)
In the true spirit of open source, I have received lots of constructive suggestions, criticisms and feedback from enthusiastic readers which has helped me improve this book a lot.
Status Of The Book
Changes since the last major revision in March 2005 is updating for the Python 3.0 release (expected in August/September 2008). Since the Python 3.0 language itself is still not finalized/released, this book is constantly undergoing changes. However, in the spirit of the open source philosophy of "Release Early, Release Often", the updated book has been released and is constantly being updated.
The book needs the help of its readers such as yourselves to point out any parts of the book which are not good, not comprehensible or are simply wrong. Please write to the main
author (http:/ / www. swaroopch. com/ contact/ ) or the respective translators with your
comments and suggestions.
It's a constant tussle to balance this book between a beginner's needs and the tendency towards 'completeness' of information. It would be helpful if readers also gave feedback on how much depth this book should go into.
Official Website
The official website of the book is http:/ / www. swaroopch. com/ notes/ Python where you
can read the whole book online, download the latest versions of the book, buy a printed hard copy (http://www.swaroopch.com/buybook), and also send me feedback.
License
1. This book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share
Alike 3.0 Unported (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) license.
• This means:
• You are free to Share i.e. to copy, distribute and transmit this book
• You are free to Remix i.e. to adapt this book
• Under the following conditions:
• Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or
licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of this
book).
• Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.
• For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this book.
• Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright
holder.
• Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.
2. Attribution must be shown by linking back to http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/
Python and clearly indicating that the original text can be fetched from this location.
Python en:Preface
14
3. All the code/scripts provided in this book is licensed under the 3-clause BSD License
(http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php) unless otherwise noted.
4. Volunteer contributions to this original book must be under this same license and the copyright must be assigned to the main author of this book.
Feedback
I have put in a lot of effort to make this book as interesting and as accurate as possible.
However, if you find some material to be inconsistent or incorrect, or simply needs
improvement, then please do inform me, so that I can make suitable improvements. You can reach me via my user page.
Buy the Book
If you wish to support the continued development of this book, please consider purchasing a printed copy (http://www.swaroopch.com/buybook) or making a donation.
Something To Think About
There are two ways of constructing a software design: one way is to make it so
simple that there are obviously no deficiencies; the other is to make it so
complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.
-- C. A. R. Hoare
Success in life is a matter not so much of talent and opportunity as of
concentration and perseverance.
-- C. W. Wendte
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Contributors: Gasolin, Swaroop, 2 anonymous edits
Python en:Introduction
15
Python en:Introduction
Introduction
Python is one of those rare languages which can claim to be both simple and powerful.
You will find that you will be pleasantly surprised on how easy it is to concentrate on the solution to the problem rather than the syntax and structure of the language you are
programming in.
The official introduction to Python is:
Python is an easy to learn, powerful programming language. It has efficient
high-level data structures and a simple but effective approach to object-oriented
programming. Python's elegant syntax and dynamic typing, together with its
interpreted nature, make it an ideal language for scripting and rapid application
development in many areas on most platforms.
I will discuss most of these features in more detail in the next section.
Note
Guido van Rossum, the creator of the Python language, named the language after the
BBC show "Monty Python's Flying Circus". He doesn't particularly like snakes that kill animals for food by winding their long bodies around them and crushing them.
Features of Python
Simple
Python is a simple and minimalistic language. Reading a good Python program feels
almost like reading English, although very strict English! This pseudo-code nature of
Python is one of its greatest strengths. It allows you to concentrate on the solution to the problem rather than the language itself.
Easy to Learn
As you will see, Python is extremely easy to get started with. Python has an
extraordinarily simple syntax, as already mentioned.
Free and Open Source
Python is an example of a FLOSS (Free/Libré and Open Source Software). In simple terms, you can freely distribute copies of this software, read its source code, make
changes to it, and use pieces of it in new free programs. FLOSS is based on the
concept of a community which shares knowledge. This is one of the reasons why
Python is so good - it has been created and is constantly improved by a community who
just want to see a better Python.
High-level Language
When you write programs in Python, you never need to bother about the low-level
details such as managing the memory used by your program, etc.
Portable
Due to its open-source nature, Python has been ported to (i.e. changed to make it work on) many platforms. All your Python programs can work on any of these platforms
without requiring any changes at all if you are careful enough to avoid any
Python en:Introduction
16
system-dependent features.
You can use Python on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, Macintosh, Solaris, OS/2, Amiga,
AROS, AS/400, BeOS, OS/390, z/OS, Palm OS, QNX, VMS, Psion, Acorn RISC OS,
VxWorks, PlayStation, Sharp Zaurus, Windows CE and even PocketPC !
Interpreted
This requires a bit of explanation.
A program written in a compiled language like C or C++ is converted from the source
language i.e. C or C++ into a language that is spoken by your computer (binary code
i.e. 0s and 1s) using a compiler with various flags and options. When you run the
program, the linker/loader software copies the program from hard disk to memory and
starts running it.
Python, on the other hand, does not need compilation to binary. You just run the program directly from the source code. Internally, Python converts the source code
into an intermediate form called bytecodes and then translates this into the native
language of your computer and then runs it. All this, actually, makes using Python
much easier since you don't have to worry about compiling the program, making sure
that the proper libraries are linked and loaded, etc, etc. This also makes your Python programs much more portable, since you can just copy your Python program onto
another computer and it just works!
Object Oriented
Python supports procedure-oriented programming as well as object-oriented
programming. In procedure-oriented languages, the program is built around
procedures or functions which are nothing but reusable pieces of programs. In
object-oriented languages, the program is built around objects which combine data and functionality. Python has a very powerful but simplistic way of doing OOP,
especially when compared to big languages like C++ or Java.
Extensible
If you need a critical piece of code to run very fast or want to have some piece of
algorithm not to be open, you can code that part of your program in C or C++ and
then use it from your Python program.
Embeddable
You can embed Python within your C/C++ programs to give 'scripting' capabilities for
your program's users.
Extensive Libraries
The Python Standard Library is huge indeed. It can help you do various things
involving regular expressions, documentation generation, unit testing, threading,
databases, web browsers, CGI, FTP, email, XML, XML-RPC, HTML, WAV files,
cryptography, GUI (graphical user interfaces), Tk, and other system-dependent stuff.
Remember, all this is always available wherever Python is installed. This is called the
'Batteries Included' philosophy of Python.
Besides, the standard library, there are various other high-quality libraries such as
wxPython (http:/ / www. wxpython. org) , Twisted (http:/ / www. twistedmatrix. com/
products/ twisted), Python Imaging Library (http:/ / www. pythonware. com/ products/
pil/index.htm) and many more.
Python en:Introduction
17
Python is indeed an exciting and powerful language. It has the right combination of
performance and features that make writing programs in Python both fun and easy.
Why not Perl?
If you didn't know already, Perl is another extremely popular open source interpreted
programming language.
If you have ever tried writing a large program in Perl, you would have answered this
question yourself! In other words, Perl programs are easy when they are small and it excels at small hacks and scripts to 'get work done'. However, they quickly become unwieldy once you start writing bigger programs and I am speaking this out of my experience writing
large Perl programs at Yahoo!
When compared to Perl, Python programs are definitely simpler, clearer, easier to write and hence more understandable and maintainable. I do admire Perl and I do use it on a
daily basis for various things but whenever I write a program, I always start thinking in terms of Python because it has become so natural for me. Perl has undergone so many
hacks and changes, that it feels like it is one big (but one hell of a) hack. Sadly, the upcoming Perl 6 does not seem to be making any improvements regarding this.
The only and very significant advantage that I feel Perl has, is its huge CPAN (http://cpan.
perl.org) library - the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network. As the name suggests, this is a
humongous collection of Perl modules and it is simply mind-boggling because of its sheer size and depth - you can do virtually anything you can do with a computer using these
modules. One of the reasons that Perl has more libraries than Python is that it has been around for a much longer time than Python. However this seems to be changing with the
growing Python Package Index (http://pypi.python.org/pypi).
Why not Ruby?
If you didn't know already, Ruby is another popular open source interpreted programming language.
If you already like and use Ruby, then I would definitely recommend you to continue using it.
For other people who have not used it and are trying to judge whether to learn Python or to learn Ruby, then I would recommend Python, purely from an ease-of-learning perspective. I personally found it hard to grok the Ruby language, but for people who understand Ruby, they all praise the beauty of the language. Unfortunately, I am not as lucky.
What Programmers Say
You may find it interesting to read what great hackers like ESR have to say about Python:
• Eric S. Raymond is the author of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" and is also the person who coined the term Open Source. He says that Python has become his favorite
programming language (http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=3882). This
article was the real inspiration for my first brush with Python.
• Bruce Eckel is the author of the famous Thinking in Java and Thinking in C++ books.
He says that no language has made him more productive than Python. He says that
Python is perhaps the only language that focuses on making things easier for the
Python en:Introduction
18
programmer. Read the complete interview (http://www.artima.com/intv/aboutme.
html) for more details.
• Peter Norvig is a well-known Lisp author and Director of Search Quality at Google (thanks to Guido van Rossum for pointing that out). He says that Python has always been an integral part of Google. You can actually verify this statement by looking at the Google Jobs (http://www.google.com/jobs/index.html) page which lists Python knowledge as a
requirement for software engineers.
About Python 3.0
Python 3.0 is the new version of the language. It is sometimes referred to as Python 3000 or Py3K.
The main reason for a major new version of Python is to remove all the small problems and nitpicks that have accumulated over the years and to make the language even more clean.
If you already have a lot of Python 2.x code, then there is a utility to assist you to convert 2.x to 3.x source (http://docs.python.org/dev/3.0/library/2to3.html).
More details are at:
• Guido van Rossum's introduction (http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.
• What's New in Python 2.6 (http://docs.python.org/dev/whatsnew/2.6.html) (features
significantly different from previous Python 2.x versions and most likely will be included in Python 3.0)
• What's New in Python 3.0 (http://docs.python.org/dev/3.0/whatsnew/3.0.html)
• Python 2.6 and 3.0 Release Schedule (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0361/)
• Python 3000 (the official authoritative list of proposed changes) (http://www.python.
• Miscellaneous Python 3.0 Plans (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3100/)
• Python News (detailed list of changes) (http://www.python.org/download/releases/3.
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Python en:Installation
19
Python en:Installation
If you have Python 2.x installed already, you do not have to remove it to install Python 3.0.
You can have both installed at the same time.
For Linux and BSD users
If you are using a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE or {put your
choice here}, or a BSD system such as FreeBSD, then it is most likely you already have Python installed on your system.
To test if you have Python already installed on your Linux box, open a shell program (like konsole or gnome-terminal) and enter the command python -V as shown below.
$ python -V
Python 3.0b1
Note
$ is the prompt of the shell. It will be different for you depending on the settings of your OS, hence I will indicate the prompt by just the $ symbol.
If you see some version information like the one shown above, then you have Python
installed already.
However, if you get a message like this one:
$ python -V
bash: Python: command not found
Then you don't have Python installed. This is highly unlikely but possible.
Note
If you have Python 2.x already installed, then try python3 -V.
In this case, you have two ways of installing Python on your system.
• You can compile Python from the source code (http://www.python.org/download/
releases/3.0/) and install it. The compilation instructions are provided at the website.
• [This option will be available after the final release of Python 3.0] Install the binary packages using the package management software that comes with your OS, such as
apt-get in Ubuntu/Debian and other Debian-based Linux, yum in Fedora Linux, pkg_add
in FreeBSD, etc. Note that you will need an internet connection to use this method.
Alternatively, you can download the binaries from somewhere else and then copy to your PC and install it.
Python en:Installation
20
For Windows Users
Visit http:/ / www. python. org/ download/ releases/ 3. 0/ and download the latest version
from this website, which was 3.0 beta 1 (http:/ / www. python. org/ ftp/ python/ 3. 0/
python-3.0b1.msi) as of this writing. This is just 12.8 MB which is very compact compared
to most other languages or software. The installation is just like any other Windows-based software.
Caution
When you are given the option of unchecking any "optional" components, don't uncheck any! Some of these components can be useful for you, especially IDLE.
An interesting fact is that majority of Python downloads are by Windows users. Of course, this doesn't give the complete picture since almost all Linux users will have Python installed already on their systems by default.
DOS Prompt
If you want to be able to use Python from the Windows command line i.e. the DOS prompt, then you need to set the PATH variable appropriately.
For Windows 2000, XP, 2003 , click on Control Panel -> System -> Advanced ->
Environment Variables. Click on the variable named PATH in the 'System Variables'
section, then select Edit and add ;C:\Python30 to the end of what is already there. Of course, use the appropriate directory name.
For older versions of Windows, add the following line to the file C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT :
'PATH=%PATH%;C:\Python30' (without the quotes) and restart the system. For Windows NT, use the AUTOEXEC.NT file.
For Mac OS X Users
Mac OS X Users will find Python already installed on their system. Open the Terminal.app and run python -V and follow the advice in the above Linux section.
Summary
For a Linux system, you most probably already have Python installed on your system.
Otherwise, you can install it using the package management software that comes with your distribution. For a Windows system, installing Python is as easy as downloading the
installer and double-clicking on it. From now on, we will assume that you have Python
installed on your system.
Next, we will write our first Python program.
Python en:Installation
21
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Python en:First Steps
Introduction
We will now see how to run a traditional 'Hello World' program in Python. This will teach you how to write, save and run Python programs.
There are two ways of using Python to run your program - using the interactive interpreter prompt or using a source file. We will now see how to use both of these methods
Using The Interpreter Prompt
Start the interpreter on the command line by entering python at the shell prompt.
For Windows users, you can run the interpreter in the command line if you have set the PATH variable appropriately.
If you are using IDLE, click on Start → Programs → Python 3.0 → IDLE (Python GUI).
Now enter print('Hello World') followed by the Enter key. You should see the words
Hello World as output.
$ python
Python 3.0b2 (r30b2:65106, Jul 18 2008, 18:44:17) [MSC v.1500 32
bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> print('Hello World')
Hello World
>>>
Notice that Python gives you the output of the line immediately! What you just entered is a single Python statement. We use print to (unsurprisingly) print any value that you supply to it. Here, we are supplying the text Hello World and this is promptly printed to the screen.
How to Quit the Interpreter Prompt
To exit the prompt, press ctrl-d if you are using IDLE or are using a Linux/BSD shell.
In case of the Windows command prompt, press ctrl-z followed by enter key.
Choosing An Editor
Before we move on to writing Python programs in source files, we need an editor to write the source files. The choice of an editor is crucial indeed. You have to choose an editor as you would choose a car you would buy. A good editor will help you write Python programs easily, making your journey more comfortable and helps you reach your destination
(achieve your goal) in a much faster and safer way.
Python en:First Steps
22
One of the very basic requirements is syntax highlighting where all the different parts of your Python program are colorized so that you can see your program and visualize its running.
If you are using Windows, then I suggest that you use IDLE. IDLE does syntax highlighting and a lot more such as allowing you to run your programs within IDLE among other things.
A special note: Do not use Notepad - it is a bad choice because it does not do syntax highlighting and also importantly it does not support indentation of the text which is very important in our case as we will see later. Good editors such as IDLE (and also VIM) will automatically help you do this.
If you are using Linux/FreeBSD, then you have a lot of choices for an editor. If you are just beginning to program, you might want to use geany. It has a graphical user interface and has buttons to compile and run your python program without a fuss.
If you are an experienced programmer, then you must be already using Vim or Emacs.
Needless to say, these are two of the most powerful editors and you will be benefitted by using them to write your Python programs. I personally use Vim for most of my programs.
If you are a beginner programmer, then you can use Kate which is one of my favorites. In case you are willing to take the time to learn Vim or Emacs, then I highly recommend that you do learn to use either of them as it will be very useful for you in the long run.
In this book, we will use IDLE, our IDE and editor of choice. IDLE is installed by default with the Windows and Mac OS X Python installers. It is also available for installation for Linux (http:/ / love-python. blogspot. com/ 2008/ 03/ install-idle-in-linux. html) and BSDs in
their respective repositories.
We will explore how to use IDLE in the next section. For further details, please refer the IDLE documentation (http://www.python.org/idle/doc/idlemain.html).
If you still want to explore other choices of an editor, see the comprehensive list of Python editors (http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/PythonEditors) and make your choice.
You can also choose an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Python. See the
comprehensive list of IDEs that support Python (http:/ / www. python. org/ cgi-bin/
moinmoin/ IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments) for more details. Once you start writing
large Python programs, IDEs can be very useful indeed.
I repeat once again, please choose a proper editor - it can make writing Python programs more fun and easy.
For Vim users
There is a good introduction on how to make Vim a powerful Python IDE by John M
Anderson (http://blog.sontek.net/2008/05/11/python-with-a-modular-ide-vim/).
For Emacs users
There is a good introduction on how to make Emacs a powerful Python IDE by Ryan
McGuire (http:/
09/
emacs-as-a-powerful-python-ide/).
Python en:First Steps
23
Using A Source File
Now let's get back to programming. There is a tradition that whenever you learn a new
programming language, the first program that you write and run is the 'Hello World'
program - all it does is just say 'Hello World' when you run it. As Simon Cozens [1] puts it, it is the 'traditional incantation to the programming gods to help you learn the language better' :) .
Start your choice of editor, enter the following program and save it as helloworld.py
If you are using IDLE, click on File → New Window and enter the following program. Then click on File → Save.
#!/usr/bin/python
#Filename: helloworld.py
print('Hello World')
Run this program by opening a shell (Linux terminal or DOS prompt) and entering the
command python helloworld.py.
If you are using IDLE, use the menu Run → Run Module or the keyboard shortcut F5.
The output is as shown below.
$ python helloworld.py
Hello World
If you got the output as shown above, congratulations! - you have successfully run your first Python program.
In case you got an error, please type the above program exactly as shown and above and run the program again. Note that Python is case-sensitive i.e. print is not the same as Print - note the lowercase p in the former and the uppercase P in the latter. Also, ensure there are no spaces or tabs before the first character in each line - we will see why this is important later.
How It Works
Let us consider the first two lines of the program. These are called comments - anything to the right of the # symbol is a comment and is mainly useful as notes for the reader of the program.
Python does not use comments except for the special case of the first line here. It is called the shebang line - whenever the first two characters of the source file are #! followed by the location of a program, this tells your Linux/Unix system that this program should be run with this interpreter when you execute the program. This is explained in detail in the next section. Note that you can always run the program on any platform by specifying the
interpreter directly on the command line such as the command python helloworld.py .
Important
Use comments sensibly in your program to explain some important details of your
program - this is useful for readers of your program so that they can easily understand what the program is doing. Remember, that person can be yourself after six months!
The comments are followed by a Python statement. Here we call the print function this just prints the text 'Hello World'. We will learn about functions in a → later chapter, what Python en:First Steps
24
you should understand now is that whatever you supply in the parentheses will be printed back to the screen. In this case, we supply 'Hello World' which is referred to as a string -
don't worry, we will explore these terminologies in detail later.
Executable Python Programs
This applies only to Linux/Unix users but Windows users might be curious as well about the first line of the program. First, we have to give the program executable permission using the chmod command then run the source program.
$ chmod a+x helloworld.py
$ ./helloworld.py
Hello World
The chmod command is used here to ch ange the mod e of the file by giving e x ecute permission to a ll users of the system. Then, we execute the program directly by specifying the location of the source file. We use the ./ to indicate that the program is located in the current directory.
To make things more fun, you can rename the file to just helloworld and run it as
./helloworld and it will still work since the system knows that it has to run the program using the interpreter whose location is specified in the first line in the source file.
What if you don't know where Python is located? Then, you can use the special env
program on Linux/Unix systems. Just change the first line of the program to the following:
#!/usr/bin/env python
The env program will in turn look for the Python interpreter which will run the program.
So far, we have been able to run our program as long as we know the exact path. What if we wanted to be able to run the program from anywhere? You can do this by storing the
program in one of the directories listed in the PATH environment variable. Whenever you run any program, the system looks for that program in each of the directories listed in the PATH environment variable and then runs that program. We can make this program
available everywhere by simply copying this source file to one of the directories listed in PATH.
$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/swaroop/bin
$ cp helloworld.py /home/swaroop/bin/helloworld
$ helloworld
Hello World
We can display the PATH variable using the echo command and prefixing the variable name by $ to indicate to the shell that we need the value of this variable. We see that
/home/swaroop/bin is one of the directories in the PATH variable where swaroop is the username I am using in my system. There will usually be a similar directory for your
username on your system. Alternatively, you can add a directory of your choice to the PATH
variable - this can be done by running PATH=$PATH:/home/swaroop/mydir where
'/home/swaroop/mydir' is the directory I want to add to the PATH variable.
This method is very useful if you want to write useful scripts that you want to run the program anytime, anywhere. It is like creating your own commands just like cd or any
Python en:First Steps
25
other commands that you use in the Linux terminal or DOS prompt.
Caution
W.r.t. Python, a program or a script or software all mean the same thing.
Getting Help
If you need quick information about any function or statement in Python, then you can use the built-in help functionality. This is very useful especially when using the interpreter prompt. For example, run help(print) - this displays the help for the print function which is used to print things to the screen.
Note
Press q to exit the help.
Similarly, you can obtain information about almost anything in Python. Use help() to learn more about using help itself!
In case you need to get help for operators like return, then you need to put those inside quotes such as help('return') so that Python doesn't get confused on what we're trying to do.
Summary
You should now be able to write, save and run Python programs at ease. Now that you are a Python user, let's learn some more Python concepts.
References:
[1] The author of the amazing 'Beginning Perl' book
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Python en:Basics
26
Python en:Basics
Just printing 'Hello World' is not enough, is it? You want to do more than that - you want to take some input, manipulate it and get something out of it. We can achieve this in Python using constants and variables.
Literal Constants
An example of a literal constant is a number like 5, 1.23, 9.25e-3 or a string like 'This is a string' or "It's a string!". It is called a literal because it is literal - you use its value literally. The number 2 always represents itself and nothing else - it is a constant because its value cannot be changed. Hence, all these are referred to as literal constants.
Numbers
Numbers in Python are of three types - integers, floating point and complex numbers.
• An examples of an integer is 2 which is just a whole number.
• Examples of floating point numbers (or floats for short) are 3.23 and 52.3E-4. The E
notation indicates powers of 10. In this case, 52.3E-4 means 52.3 * 10-4.
• Examples of complex numbers are (-5+4j) and (2.3 - 4.6j)
Note for Experienced Programmers
There is no separate 'long int' type. The default integer type can be any large value.
Strings
A string is a sequence of characters. Strings are basically just a bunch of words. The words can be in English or any other language that is supported in the Unicode standard, which means almost any language in the world (http://www.unicode.org/faq/basic_q.html#16).
Note for Experienced Programmers
There are no "ASCII-only" strings because Unicode is a superset of ASCII. If a strictly ASCII-encoded byte-stream is needed, then use str.encode("ascii"). For more
details, please see the related discussion at StackOverflow (http://stackoverflow.com/
175240/
how-do-i-convert-a-files-format-from-unicode-to-ascii-using-python#175270).
By default, all strings are in Unicode.
I can almost guarantee that you will be using strings in almost every Python program that you write, so pay attention to the following part on how to use strings in Python.
