Learn Python 3 the Hard Way

Learn Python 3 the Hard Way: A Very Simple Introduction to the Terrifyingly Beautiful World of Computers and Code (Zed Shaw’s Hard Way Series)

You Will Learn Python 3!

Zed Shaw has perfected the world’s best system for learning Python 3. Follow it and you will succeed—just like the millions of beginners Zed has taught to date! You bring the discipline, commitment, and persistence; the author supplies everything else.

In Learn Python 3 the Hard Way, you’ll learn Python by working through 52 brilliantly crafted exercises. Read them. Type their code precisely. (No copying and pasting!) Fix your mistakes. Watch the programs run. As you do, you’ll learn how a computer works; what good programs look like; and how to read, write, and think about code. Zed then teaches you even more in 5+ hours of video where he shows you how to break, fix, and debug your code—live, as he’s doing the exercises.

• Install a complete Python environment
• Organize and write code
• Fix and break code
• Basic mathematics
• Variables
• Strings and text
• Interact with users
• Work with files
• Looping and logic
• Data structures using lists and dictionaries
• Program design
• Object-oriented programming
• Inheritance and composition
• Modules, classes, and objects
• Python packaging
• Automated testing
• Basic game development
• Basic web development

It’ll be hard at first. But soon, you’ll just get it—and that will feel great! This course will reward you for every minute you put into it. Soon, you’ll know one of the world’s most powerful, popular programming languages. You’ll be a Python programmer.

This Book Is Perfect For

• Total beginners with zero programming experience
• Junior developers who know one or two languages
• Returning professionals who haven’t written code in years
• Seasoned professionals looking for a fast, simple, crash course in Python 3

Table of Contents

Exercise 0 The Setup
Exercise 1 A Good First Program
Exercise 2 Comments and Pound Characters
Exercise 3 Numbers and Math
Exercise 4 Variables and Names
Exercise 5 More Variables and Printing
Exercise 6 Strings and Text
Exercise 7 More Printing
Exercise 8 Printing, Printing
Exercise 9 Printing, Printing, Printing
Exercise 10 What Was That?
Exercise 11 Asking Questions
Exercise 12 Prompting People
Exercise 13 Parameters, Unpacking, Variables
Exercise 14 Prompting and Passing
Exercise 15 Reading Files
Exercise 16 Reading and Writing Files
Exercise 17 More Files
Exercise 18 Names, Variables, Code, Functions
Exercise 19 Functions and Variables
Exercise 20 Functions and Files
Exercise 21 Functions Can Return Something
Exercise 22 What Do You Know So Far?
Exercise 23 Strings, Bytes, and Character Encodings
Exercise 24 More Practice
Exercise 25 Even More Practice
Exercise 26 Congratulations, Take a Test!
Exercise 27 Memorizing Logic
Exercise 28 Boolean Practice
Exercise 29 What If
Exercise 30 Else and If
Exercise 31 Making Decisions
Exercise 32 Loops and Lists
Exercise 33 While Loops
Exercise 34 Accessing Elements of Lists
Exercise 35 Branches and Functions
Exercise 36 Designing and Debugging
Exercise 37 Symbol Review
Exercise 38 Doing Things to Lists
Exercise 39 Dictionaries, Oh Lovely Dictionaries
Exercise 40 Modules, Classes, and Objects
Exercise 41 Learning to Speak Object-Oriented
Exercise 42 Is-A, Has-A, Objects, and Classes
Exercise 43 Basic Object-Oriented Analysis and Design
Exercise 44 Inheritance versus Composition
Exercise 45 You Make a Game
Exercise 46 A Project Skeleton
Exercise 47 Automated Testing
Exercise 48 Advanced User Input
Exercise 49 Making Sentences
Exercise 50 Your First Website
Exercise 51 Getting Input from a Browser
Exercise 52 The Start of Your Web Game