The Python 3 Standard Library by Example

The Python Standard Library for Python 3.x contains hundreds of exceptionally useful modules, all extensively tested and ready to jump-start your application development. The Python Standard Library by Example, Second Edition introduces virtually every important area of the Python 3.x library with concise, stand-alone examples designed for easy learning and reuse.

 

Python expert Doug Hellmann has fully updated his widely-praised first edition to reflect Python 3.x’s major PSL changes. He introduces valuable new libraries, important revisions to functionality, new standardized layout and naming conventions, and more. He also provides indispensable porting guidance for moving code from specific 2.x PSL modules to Python 3.x and its corresponding libraries.

 

Building on his increasingly popular Python Module of the Week blog series, Hellmann focuses on “showing” not “telling,” explaining code behavior through downloadable examples that fully demonstrate each feature. You’ll find practical, up-to-date code for working with text, data structures, algorithms, dates/times, math, the file system, persistence, data exchange, compression, archiving, crypto, processes/threads, networking/Internet, email, developer/language tools, runtime, modules, packages, and much more.

 

Each chapter section covers one module, with a short introduction explaining its purpose, and a carefully organized discussion of features -- building from basic to complex, or following the order in which a programmer would use them in real software. Code sections concisely introduce and describe each example, show sample output, and present variations wherever helpful.

 

If you’re new to Python, this book will quickly connect you to a whole new world of functionality. If you’re an experienced Python developer, you’ll discover powerful new solutions -- and better ways to use modules you’ve already tried.

Doug Hellmann is currently employed by Red Hat to work on OpenStack. He is on the OpenStack Technical Committee and contributes to many aspects of the project. He has been programming in Python since version 1.4, and has worked on a variety of UNIX and non-UNIX platforms for projects in fields such as mapping, medical news publishing, banking, and data center automation. Doug is a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation and served as its Communications Director from 2010-2012. After a year as a regular columnist for Python Magazine, he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008-2009. Between 2007 and 2011, Doug published the popular "Python Module of the Week" series on his blog, and an earlier version of this book (for Python 2), The Python Standard Library By Example (Addison-Wesley, 2011). He lives in Athens, Georgia.