Tiny Python Projects

Tiny Python Projects takes you from amateur to Pythonista as you create 22 bitesize programs. Each tiny project teaches you a new programming concept, from the basics of lists and strings right through to regular expressions and randomness.

Summary

A long journey is really a lot of little steps. The same is true when you’re learning Python, so you may as well have some fun along the way! Written in a lighthearted style with entertaining exercises that build powerful skills, Tiny Python Projects takes you from amateur to Pythonista as you create 22 bitesize programs. Each tiny project teaches you a new programming concept, from the basics of lists and strings right through to regular expressions and randomness. Along the way you’ll also discover how testing can make you a better programmer in any language.

About the technology

Who says learning to program has to be boring? The 21 activities in this book teach Python fundamentals through puzzles and games. Not only will you be entertained with every exercise, but you’ll learn about text manipulation, basic algorithms, and lists and dictionaries as you go. It’s the ideal way for any Python newbie to gain confidence and experience.

About the book

The projects are tiny, but the rewards are big: each chapter in Tiny Python Projects challenges you with a new Python program, including a password creator, a word rhymer, and a Shakespearean insult generator. As you complete these entertaining exercises, you’ll graduate from a Python beginner to a confident programmer—and you’ll have a good time doing it!

What’s inside

• Write command-line Python programs
• Manipulate Python data structures
• Use and control randomness
• Write and run tests for programs and functions
• Download testing suites for each project

About the reader

For readers with beginner programming skills.

About the author

Ken Youens-Clark is a Senior Scientific Programmer at the University of Arizona. He has an MS in Biosystems Engineering and has been programming for over 20 years.

Table of Contents

1 How to write and test a Python program

2 The crow’s nest: Working with strings

3 Going on a picnic: Working with lists

4 Jump the Five: Working with dictionaries

5 Howler: Working with files and STDOUT

6 Words count: Reading files and STDIN, iterating lists, formatting strings

7 Gashlycrumb: Looking items up in a dictionary

8 Apples and Bananas: Find and replace

9 Dial-a-Curse: Generating random insults from lists of words

10 Telephone: Randomly mutating strings

11 Bottles of Beer Song: Writing and testing functions

12 Ransom: Randomly capitalizing text

13 Twelve Days of Christmas: Algorithm design

14 Rhymer: Using regular expressions to create rhyming words

15 The Kentucky Friar: More regular expressions

16 The Scrambler: Randomly reordering the middles of words

17 Mad Libs: Using regular expressions

18 Gematria: Numeric encoding of text using ASCII values

19 Workout of the Day: Parsing CSV files, creating text table output

20 Password strength: Generating a secure and memorable password

21 Tic-Tac-Toe: Exploring state

22 Tic-Tac-Toe redux: An interactive version with type hints