Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Book Conventions 2
Python Command-Line Usage 3
Python Command Options 4
Command-Line Program Specification 5
Python 2.X Command Options 7
Python Environment Variables 7
Operational Variables 8
Python Command Option Variables 9
Python Windows Launcher Usage 10
Launcher File Directives 10
Launcher Command Lines 11
Launcher Environment Variables 11
Built-in Types and Operators 12
Operators and Precedence 12
Operator Usage Notes 14
Operations by Category 16
Sequence Operation Notes 20
Specific Built-in Types 21
Numbers 22
iii
Strings 24
Unicode Strings 42
Lists 46
Dictionaries 53
Tuples 57
Files 58
Sets 63
Other Types and Conversions 65
Statements and Syntax 67
Syntax Rules 67
Name Rules 69
Specific Statements 71
The Assignment Statement 72
The Expression Statement 76
The print Statement 77
The if Statement 80
The while Statement 80
The for Statement 80
The pass Statement 81
The break Statement 81
The continue Statement 81
The del Statement 81
The def Statement 82
The return Statement 86
The yield Statement 87
The global Statement 88
The nonlocal Statement 89
The import Statement 89
The from Statement 93
The class Statement 95
The try Statement 97
The raise Statement 99
iv | Table of Contents
The assert Statement 101
The with Statement 102
Python 2.X Statements 104
Namespace and Scope Rules 105
Qualified Names: Object Namespaces 105
Unqualified Names: Lexical Scopes 105
Nested Scopes and Closures 107
Object-Oriented Programming 108
Classes and Instances 109
Pseudoprivate Attributes 110
New-Style Classes 111
Formal Inheritance Rules 112
Operator Overloading Methods 117
Methods for All Types 118
Methods for Collections (Sequences, Mappings) 123
Methods for Numbers (Binary Operators) 125
Methods for Numbers (Other Operations) 128
Methods for Descriptors 129
Methods for Context Managers 130
Python 2.X Operator Overloading Methods 131
Built-in Functions 134
Python 2.X Built-in Functions 155
Built-in Exceptions 161
Superclasses: Categories 162
Specific Exceptions 163
Specific OSError Exceptions 167
Warning Category Exceptions 169
Warnings Framework 170
Python 3.2 Built-in Exceptions 171
Python 2.X Built-in Exceptions 172
Built-in Attributes 172
Standard Library Modules 173
Table of Contents | v
The sys Module 174
The string Module 182
Functions and Classes 182
Constants 183
The os System Module 184
Administrative Tools 185
Portability Constants 186
Shell Commands 187
Environment Tools 189
File Descriptor Tools 190
File Pathname Tools 193
Process Control 197
The os.path Module 200
The re Pattern-Matching Module 202
Module Functions 202
Regular Expression Objects 205
Match Objects 205
Pattern Syntax 207
Object Persistence Modules 210
The shelve and dbm Modules 211
The pickle Module 213
The tkinter GUI Module and Tools 216
tkinter Example 216
tkinter Core Widgets 217
Common Dialog Calls 218
Additional tkinter Classes and Tools 219
Tcl/Tk-to-Python/tkinter Mappings 220
Internet Modules and Tools 221
Other Standard Library Modules 224
The math Module 224
The time Module 225
The timeit Module 226
vi | Table of Contents
The datetime Module 227
The random Module 228
The json Module 228
The subprocess Module 229
The enum Module 229
The struct Module 230
Threading Modules 231
Python SQL Database API 232
API Usage Example 233
Module Interface 234
Connection Objects 234
Cursor Objects 235
Type Objects and Constructors 236
More Hints and Idioms 236
Core Language Hints 237
Environment Hints 238
Usage Hints 240
Assorted Hints 242
Index 243
Table of Contents | vi