Automate the boring stuff with Python : practical programming for total beginners / by Al Sweigart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sweigart, Al, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Python (Computer program language).

Computer programming.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (479 pages)

Place of Publication:

San Francisco, California : No Starch Press, ©2015

Summary:

Automate the Boring Stuff with Python teaches simple programming skills to automate everyday computer tasks.

Contents:

Intro

Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners

Dedication

About the Author

About the Tech Reviewer

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Whom Is This Book For?

Conventions

What Is Programming?

What Is Python?

Programmers Don't Need to Know Much Math

Programming Is a Creative Activity

About This Book

Downloading and Installing Python

Starting IDLE

The Interactive Shell

How to Find Help

Asking Smart Programming Questions

Summary

I. Python Programming Basics

1. Python Basics

Entering Expressions into the Interactive Shell

The Integer, Floating-Point, and String Data Types

String Concatenation and Replication

Storing Values in Variables

Assignment Statements

Variable Names

Your First Program

Dissecting Your Program

Comments

The print() Function

The input() Function

Printing the User's Name

The len() Function

The str(), int(), and float() Functions

Practice Questions

2. Flow Control

Boolean Values

Comparison Operators

Boolean Operators

Binary Boolean Operators

The not Operator

Mixing Boolean and Comparison Operators

Elements of Flow Control

Conditions

Blocks of Code

Program Execution

Flow Control Statements

if Statements

else Statements

elif Statements

while Loop Statements

An Annoying while Loop

break Statements

continue Statements

for Loops and the range() Function

An Equivalent while Loop

The Starting, Stopping, and Stepping Arguments to range()

Importing Modules

from import Statements

Ending a Program Early with sys.exit()

3. Functions

def Statements with Parameters

Return Values and return Statements

The None Value

Keyword Arguments and print()

Local and Global Scope.

Local Variables Cannot Be Used in the Global Scope

Local Scopes Cannot Use Variables in Other Local Scopes

Global Variables Can Be Read from a Local Scope

Local and Global Variables with the Same Name

The global Statement

Exception Handling

A Short Program: Guess the Number

Practice Projects

The Collatz Sequence

Input Validation

4. Lists

The List Data Type

Getting Individual Values in a List with Indexes

Negative Indexes

Getting Sublists with Slices

Getting a List's Length with len()

Changing Values in a List with Indexes

List Concatenation and List Replication

Removing Values from Lists with del Statements

Working with Lists

Using for Loops with Lists

The in and not in Operators

The Multiple Assignment Trick

Augmented Assignment Operators

Methods

Finding a Value in a List with the index() Method

Adding Values to Lists with the append() and insert() Methods

Removing Values from Lists with remove()

Sorting the Values in a List with the sort() Method

Example Program: Magic 8 Ball with a List

List-like Types: Strings and Tuples

Mutable and Immutable Data Types

The Tuple Data Type

Converting Types with the list() and tuple() Functions

References

Passing References

The copy Module's copy() and deepcopy() Functions

Comma Code

Character Picture Grid

5. Dictionaries and Structuring Data

The Dictionary Data Type

Dictionaries vs. Lists

The keys(), values(), and items() Methods

Checking Whether a Key or Value Exists in a Dictionary

The get() Method

The setdefault() Method

Pretty Printing

Using Data Structures to Model Real-World Things

A Tic-Tac-Toe Board

Nested Dictionaries and Lists

Practice Questions.

Practice Projects

Fantasy Game Inventory

List to Dictionary Function for Fantasy Game Inventory

6. Manipulating Strings

Working with Strings

String Literals

Double Quotes

Escape Characters

Raw Strings

Multiline Strings with Triple Quotes

Multiline Comments

Indexing and Slicing Strings

The in and not in Operators with Strings

Useful String Methods

The upper(), lower(), isupper(), and islower() String Methods

The isX String Methods

The startswith() and endswith() String Methods

The join() and split() String Methods

Justifying Text with rjust(), ljust(), and center()

Removing Whitespace with strip(), rstrip(), and lstrip()

Copying and Pasting Strings with the pyperclip Module

Project: Password Locker

Step 1: Program Design and Data Structures

Step 2: Handle Command Line Arguments

Step 3: Copy the Right Password

Project: Adding Bullets to Wiki Markup

Step 1: Copy and Paste from the Clipboard

Step 2: Separate the Lines of Text and Add the Star

Step 3: Join the Modified Lines

Practice Project

Table Printer

II. Automating Tasks

7. Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions

Finding Patterns of Text Without Regular Expressions

Finding Patterns of Text with Regular Expressions

Creating Regex Objects

Matching Regex Objects

Review of Regular Expression Matching

More Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions

Grouping with Parentheses

Matching Multiple Groups with the Pipe

Optional Matching with the Question Mark

Matching Zero or More with the Star

Matching One or More with the Plus

Matching Specific Repetitions with Curly Brackets

Greedy and Nongreedy Matching

The findall() Method

Character Classes

Making Your Own Character Classes

The Caret and Dollar Sign Characters.

The Wildcard Character

Matching Everything with Dot-Star

Matching Newlines with the Dot Character

Review of Regex Symbols

Case-Insensitive Matching

Substituting Strings with the sub() Method

Managing Complex Regexes

Combining re.IGNORECASE, re.DOTALL, and re.VERBOSE

Project: Phone Number and Email Address Extractor

Step 1: Create a Regex for Phone Numbers

Step 2: Create a Regex for Email Addresses

Step 3: Find All Matches in the Clipboard Text

Step 4: Join the Matches into a String for the Clipboard

Running the Program

Ideas for Similar Programs

Strong Password Detection

Regex Version of strip()

8. Reading and Writing Files

Files and File Paths

Backslash on Windows and Forward Slash on OS X and Linux

The Current Working Directory

Absolute vs. Relative Paths

Creating New Folders with os.makedirs()

The os.path Module

Handling Absolute and Relative Paths

Finding File Sizes and Folder Contents

Checking Path Validity

The File Reading/Writing Process

Opening Files with the open() Function

Reading the Contents of Files

Writing to Files

Saving Variables with the shelve Module

Saving Variables with the pprint.pformat() Function

Project: Generating Random Quiz Files

Step 1: Store the Quiz Data in a Dictionary

Step 2: Create the Quiz File and Shuffle the Question Order

Step 3: Create the Answer Options

Step 4: Write Content to the Quiz and Answer Key Files

Project: Multiclipboard

Step 1: Comments and Shelf Setup

Step 2: Save Clipboard Content with a Keyword

Step 3: List Keywords and Load a Keyword's Content

Extending the Multiclipboard

Mad Libs

Regex Search

9. Organizing Files

The shutil Module.

Copying Files and Folders

Moving and Renaming Files and Folders

Permanently Deleting Files and Folders

Safe Deletes with the send2trash Module

Walking a Directory Tree

Compressing Files with the zipfile Module

Reading ZIP Files

Extracting from ZIP Files

Creating and Adding to ZIP Files

Project: Renaming Files with American-Style Dates to European-Style Dates

Step 1: Create a Regex for American-Style Dates

Step 2: Identify the Date Parts from the Filenames

Step 3: Form the New Filename and Rename the Files

Project: Backing Up a Folder into a ZIP File

Step 1: Figure Out the ZIP File's Name

Step 2: Create the New ZIP File

Step 3: Walk the Directory Tree and Add to the ZIP File

Selective Copy

Deleting Unneeded Files

Filling in the Gaps

10. Debugging

Raising Exceptions

Getting the Traceback as a String

Assertions

Using an Assertion in a Traffic Light Simulation

Disabling Assertions

Logging

Using the logging Module

Don't Debug with print()

Logging Levels

Disabling Logging

Logging to a File

IDLE's Debugger

Go

Step

Over

Out

Quit

Debugging a Number Adding Program

Breakpoints

Debugging Coin Toss

11. Web Scraping

Project: mapit.py with the webbrowser Module

Step 1: Figure Out the URL

Step 2: Handle the Command Line Arguments

Step 3: Handle the Clipboard Content and Launch the Browser

Downloading Files from the Web with the requests Module

Downloading a Web Page with the requests.get() Function

Checking for Errors

Saving Downloaded Files to the Hard Drive

HTML

Resources for Learning HTML

A Quick Refresher.

Viewing the Source HTML of a Web Page.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781457189906

1457189909

9781593276850

1593276850

9781593275990

1593275994

OCLC:

909425995