The Python 3 Standard Library by Example

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Master the Powerful Python 3 Standard Library through Real Code Examples

“The genius of Doug’s approach is that with 15 minutes per week, any motivated programmer can learn the Python Standard Library. Doug’s guided tour will help you flip the switch to fully power-up Python’s batteries.”

–Raymond Hettinger, Distinguished Python Core Developer

The Python 3 Standard Library contains hundreds of modules for interacting with the operating system, interpreter, and Internet–all extensively tested and ready to jump-start application development. Now, Python expert Doug Hellmann introduces every major area of the Python 3.x library through concise source code and output examples. Hellmann’s examples fully demonstrate each feature and are designed for easy learning and reuse.

You’ll find practical code for working with text, data structures, algorithms, dates/times, math, the file system, persistence, data exchange, compression, archiving, crypto, processes/threads, networking, Internet capabilities, email, developer and language tools, the runtime, packages, and more. Each section fully covers one module, with links to additional resources, making this book an ideal tutorial and reference.

The Python 3 Standard Library by Example introduces Python 3.x’s new libraries, significant functionality changes, and new layout and naming conventions. Hellmann also provides expert porting guidance for moving code from 2.x Python standard library modules to their Python 3.x equivalents.

• Manipulate text with string, textwrap, re (regular expressions), and difflib
• Use data structures: enum, collections, array, heapq, queue, struct, copy, and more
• Implement algorithms elegantly and concisely with functools, itertools, and contextlib
• Handle dates/times and advanced mathematical tasks
• Archive and data compression
• Understand data exchange and persistence, including json, dbm, and sqlite
• Sign and verify messages cryptographically
• Manage concurrent operations with processes and threads
• Test, debug, compile, profile, language, import, and package tools
• Control interaction at runtime with interpreters or the environment

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Text
Chapter 2 Data Structures
Chapter 3 Algorithms
Chapter 4 Dates and Times
Chapter 5 Mathematics
Chapter 6 The File System
Chapter 7 Data Persistence and Exchange
Chapter 8 Data Compression and Archiving
Chapter 9 Cryptography
Chapter 10 Concurrency with Processes, Threads, and Coroutines
Chapter 11 Networking
Chapter 12 The Internet
Chapter 13 Email
Chapter 14 Application Building Blocks
Chapter 15 Internationalization and Localization
Chapter 16 Developer Tools
Chapter 17 Runtime Features
Chapter 18 Language Tools
Chapter 19 Modules and Packages
Appendix A Porting Notes
Appendix B Outside of the Standard Library