Dive Into Python¶

contents  [expand]

• Chapter 1. Installing Python
  • 1.1. Which Python is right for you?
  • 1.2. Python on Windows
  • 1.3. Python on Mac OS X
    • Example 1.1. Two versions of Python
  • 1.4. Python on Mac OS 9
  • 1.5. Python on RedHat Linux
    • Example 1.2. Installing on RedHat Linux 9
  • 1.6. Python on Debian GNU/Linux
    • Example 1.3. Installing on Debian GNU/Linux
  • 1.7. Python Installation from Source
    • Example 1.4. Installing from source
  • 1.8. The Interactive Shell
    • Example 1.5. First Steps in the Interactive Shell
  • 1.9. Summary
• Chapter 2. Your First Python Program
  • 2.1. Diving in
    • Example 2.1. odbchelper.py
  • 2.2. Declaring Functions
    • 2.2.1. How Python’s Datatypes Compare to Other Programming Languages
  • 2.3. Documenting Functions
    • Example 2.2. Defining the buildConnectionString Function’s doc string
  • 2.4. Everything Is an Object
    • Example 2.3. Accessing the buildConnectionString Function’s doc string
    • 2.4.1. The Import Search Path
      • Example 2.4. Import Search Path
    • 2.4.2. What’s an Object?
  • 2.5. Indenting Code
    • Example 2.5. Indenting the buildConnectionString Function
    • Example 2.6, ??if Statements?? shows an example of code indentation with if
    • Example 2.6. if Statements
  • 2.6. Testing Modules
• Chapter 3. Native Datatypes
  • 3.1. Introducing Dictionaries
    • 3.1.1. Defining Dictionaries
      • Example 3.1. Defining a Dictionary
    • 3.1.2. Modifying Dictionaries
      • Example 3.2. Modifying a Dictionary
      • Example 3.3. Dictionary Keys Are Case-Sensitive
      • Example 3.4. Mixing Datatypes in a Dictionary
    • 3.1.3. Deleting Items From Dictionaries
      • Example 3.5. Deleting Items from a Dictionary
  • 3.2. Introducing Lists
    • 3.2.1. Defining Lists
      • Example 3.6. Defining a List
      • Example 3.7. Negative List Indices
      • Example 3.8. Slicing a List
      • Example 3.9. Slicing Shorthand
    • 3.2.2. Adding Elements to Lists
      • Example 3.10. Adding Elements to a List
      • Example 3.11. The Difference between extend and append
    • 3.2.3. Searching Lists
      • Example 3.12. Searching a List
    • 3.2.4. Deleting List Elements
      • Example 3.13. Removing Elements from a List
    • 3.2.5. Using List Operators
      • Example 3.14. List Operators
  • 3.3. Introducing Tuples
    • Example 3.15. Defining a tuple
    • Example 3.16. Tuples Have No Methods
  • 3.4. Declaring variables
    • Example 3.17. Defining the myParams Variable
    • 3.4.1. Referencing Variables
      • Example 3.18. Referencing an Unbound Variable
    • 3.4.2. Assigning Multiple Values at Once
      • Example 3.19. Assigning multiple values at once
      • Example 3.20. Assigning Consecutive Values
  • 3.5. Formatting Strings
    • Example 3.21. Introducing String Formatting
    • Example 3.22. String Formatting vs. Concatenating
    • Example 3.23. Formatting Numbers
  • 3.6. Mapping Lists
    • Example 3.24. Introducing List Comprehensions
    • Example 3.25. The keys, values, and items Functions
    • Example 3.26. List Comprehensions in buildConnectionString, Step by Step
  • 3.7. Joining Lists and Splitting Strings
    • Example 3.27. Output of odbchelper.py
    • Example 3.28. Splitting a String
    • 3.7.1. Historical Note on String Methods
  • 3.8. Summary
• Chapter 4. The Power Of Introspection
  • 4.1. Diving In
    • Example 4.1. apihelper.py
    • Example 4.2. Sample Usage of apihelper.py
    • Example 4.3. Advanced Usage of apihelper.py
  • 4.2. Using Optional and Named Arguments
    • Example 4.4. Valid Calls of info
  • 4.3. Using type, str, dir, and Other Built-In Functions
    • 4.3.1. The type Function
      • Example 4.5. Introducing type
    • 4.3.2. The str Function
      • Example 4.6. Introducing str
      • Example 4.7. Introducing dir
      • Example 4.8. Introducing callable
    • 4.3.3. Built-In Functions
      • Example 4.9. Built-in Attributes and Functions
  • 4.4. Getting Object References With getattr
    • Example 4.10. Introducing getattr
    • 4.4.1. getattr with Modules
      • Example 4.11. The getattr Function in apihelper.py
    • 4.4.2. getattr As a Dispatcher
      • Example 4.12. Creating a Dispatcher with getattr
      • Example 4.13. getattr Default Values
  • 4.5. Filtering Lists
    • Example 4.14. Introducing List Filtering
  • 4.6. The Peculiar Nature of and and or
    • Example 4.15. Introducing and
    • Example 4.16. Introducing or
    • 4.6.1. Using the and-or Trick
      • Example 4.17. Introducing the and-or Trick
      • Example 4.18. When the and-or Trick Fails
      • Example 4.19. Using the and-or Trick Safely
  • 4.7. Using lambda Functions
    • Example 4.20. Introducing lambda Functions
    • 4.7.1. Real-World lambda Functions
      • Example 4.21. split With No Arguments
  • 4.8. Putting It All Together
    • Example 4.22. Getting a doc string Dynamically
    • Example 4.23. Why Use str on a doc string?
    • Example 4.24. Introducing ljust
    • Example 4.25. Printing a List
  • 4.9. Summary
• Chapter 5. Objects and Object-Orientation
  • 5.1. Diving In
    • Example 5.1. fileinfo.py
  • 5.2. Importing Modules Using from module import
    • Example 5.2. import module vs. from module import
  • 5.3. Defining Classes
    • Example 5.3. The Simplest Python Class
    • Example 5.4. Defining the FileInfo Class
    • 5.3.1. Initializing and Coding Classes
      • Example 5.5. Initializing the FileInfo Class
      • Example 5.6. Coding the FileInfo Class
    • 5.3.2. Knowing When to Use self and __init__
  • 5.4. Instantiating Classes
    • Example 5.7. Creating a FileInfo Instance
    • 5.4.1. Garbage Collection
      • Example 5.8. Trying to Implement a Memory Leak
  • 5.5. Exploring UserDict: A Wrapper Class
    • Example 5.9. Defining the UserDict Class
    • Example 5.10. UserDict Normal Methods
    • Example 5.11. Inheriting Directly from Built-In Datatype dict
  • 5.6. Special Class Methods
    • 5.6.1. Getting and Setting Items
      • Example 5.12. The __getitem__ Special Method
      • Example 5.13. The __setitem__ Special Method
      • Example 5.14. Overriding __setitem__ in MP3FileInfo
      • Example 5.15. Setting an MP3FileInfo’s name
  • 5.7. Advanced Special Class Methods
    • Example 5.16. More Special Methods in UserDict
  • 5.8. Introducing Class Attributes
    • Example 5.17. Introducing Class Attributes
    • Example 5.18. Modifying Class Attributes
  • 5.9. Private Functions
    • Example 5.19. Trying to Call a Private Method
  • 5.10. Summary
• Chapter 6. Exceptions and File Handling
  • 6.1. Handling Exceptions
    • Example 6.1. Opening a Non-Existent File
    • 6.1.1. Using Exceptions For Other Purposes
      • Example 6.2. Supporting Platform-Specific Functionality
  • 6.2. Working with File Objects
    • Example 6.3. Opening a File
    • 6.2.1. Reading Files
      • Example 6.4. Reading a File
    • 6.2.2. Closing Files
      • Example 6.5. Closing a File
    • 6.2.3. Handling I/O Errors
      • Example 6.6. File Objects in MP3FileInfo
    • 6.2.4. Writing to Files
      • Example 6.7. Writing to Files
  • 6.3. Iterating with for Loops
    • Example 6.8. Introducing the for Loop
    • Example 6.9. Simple Counters
    • Example 6.10. Iterating Through a Dictionary
    • Example 6.11. for Loop in MP3FileInfo
  • 6.4. Using sys.modules
    • Example 6.12. Introducing sys.modules
    • Example 6.13. Using sys.modules
    • Example 6.14. The __module__ Class Attribute
    • Example 6.15. sys.modules in fileinfo.py
  • 6.5. Working with Directories
    • Example 6.16. Constructing Pathnames
    • Example 6.17. Splitting Pathnames
    • Example 6.18. Listing Directories
    • Example 6.19. Listing Directories in fileinfo.py
    • Example 6.20. Listing Directories with glob
  • 6.6. Putting It All Together
    • Example 6.21. listDirectory
  • 6.7. Summary
• Chapter 7. Regular Expressions
  • 7.1. Diving In
  • 7.2. Case Study: Street Addresses
    • Example 7.1. Matching at the End of a String
    • Example 7.2. Matching Whole Words
  • 7.3. Case Study: Roman Numerals
    • 7.3.1. Checking for Thousands
      • Example 7.3. Checking for Thousands
    • 7.3.2. Checking for Hundreds
      • Example 7.4. Checking for Hundreds
  • 7.4. Using the {n,m} Syntax
    • Example 7.5. The Old Way: Every Character Optional
    • Example 7.6. The New Way: From n o m
    • 7.4.1. Checking for Tens and Ones
      • Example 7.7. Checking for Tens
      • Example 7.8. Validating Roman Numerals with {n,m}
  • 7.5. Verbose Regular Expressions
    • Example 7.9. Regular Expressions with Inline Comments
  • 7.6. Case study: Parsing Phone Numbers
    • Example 7.10. Finding Numbers
    • Example 7.11. Finding the Extension
    • Example 7.12. Handling Different Separators
    • Example 7.13. Handling Numbers Without Separators
    • Example 7.14. Handling Leading Characters
    • Example 7.15. Phone Number, Wherever I May Find Ye
    • Example 7.16. Parsing Phone Numbers (Final Version)
  • 7.7. Summary
• Chapter 8. HTML Processing
  • 8.1. Diving in
    • Example 8.1. BaseHTMLProcessor.py
    • Example 8.2. dialect.py
    • Example 8.3. Output of dialect.py
  • 8.2. Introducing sgmllib.py
    • Example 8.4. Sample test of sgmllib.py
  • 8.3. Extracting data from HTML documents
    • Example 8.5. Introducing urllib
    • Example 8.6. Introducing urllister.py
    • Example 8.7. Using urllister.py
  • 8.4. Introducing BaseHTMLProcessor.py
    • Example 8.8. Introducing BaseHTMLProcessor
    • Example 8.9. BaseHTMLProcessor output
  • 8.5. locals and globals
    • Example 8.10. Introducing locals
    • Example 8.11. Introducing globals
    • Example 8.12. locals is read-only, globals is not
  • 8.6. Dictionary-based string formatting
    • Example 8.13. Introducing dictionary-based string formatting
    • Example 8.14. Dictionary-based string formatting in BaseHTMLProcessor.py
    • Example 8.15. More dictionary-based string formatting
  • 8.7. Quoting attribute values
    • Example 8.16. Quoting attribute values
  • 8.8. Introducing dialect.py
    • Example 8.17. Handling specific tags
    • Example 8.18. SGMLParser
    • Example 8.19. Overriding the handle_data method
  • 8.9. Putting it all together
    • Example 8.20. The translate function, part 1
    • Example 8.21. The translate function, part 2: curiouser and curiouser
    • Example 8.22. The translate function, part 3
  • 8.10. Summary
• Chapter 9. XML Processing
  • 9.1. Diving in
    • Example 9.1. kgp.py
    • Example 9.2. toolbox.py
    • Example 9.3. Sample output of kgp.py
    • Example 9.4. Simpler output from kgp.py
  • 9.2. Packages
    • Example 9.5. Loading an XML document (a sneak peek)
    • Example 9.6. File layout of a package
    • Example 9.7. Packages are modules, too
  • 9.3. Parsing XML
    • Example 9.8. Loading an XML document (for real this time)
    • Example 9.9. Getting child nodes
    • Example 9.10. toxml works on any node
    • Example 9.11. Child nodes can be text
    • Example 9.12. Drilling down all the way to text
  • 9.4. Unicode
    • Example 9.13. Introducing unicode
    • Example 9.14. Storing non-ASCII characters
    • Example 9.15. sitecustomize.py
    • Example 9.16. Effects of setting the default encoding
    • Example 9.17. Specifying encoding in .py files
    • Example 9.18. russiansample.xml
    • Example 9.19. Parsing russiansample.xml
  • 9.5. Searching for elements
    • Example 9.20. binary.xml
    • Example 9.21. Introducing getElementsByTagName
    • Example 9.22. Every element is searchable
    • Example 9.23. Searching is actually recursive
  • 9.6. Accessing element attributes
    • Example 9.24. Accessing element attributes
    • Example 9.25. Accessing individual attributes
  • 9.7. Segue
• Chapter 10. Scripts and Streams
  • 10.1. Abstracting input sources
    • Example 10.1. Parsing XML from a file
    • Example 10.2. Parsing XML from a URL
    • Example 10.3. Parsing XML from a string (the easy but inflexible way)
    • Example 10.4. Introducing StringIO
    • Example 10.5. Parsing XML from a string (the file-like object way)
    • Example 10.6. openAnything
    • Example 10.7. Using openAnything in kgp.py
  • 10.2. Standard input, output, and error
    • Example 10.8. Introducing stdout and stderr
    • Example 10.9. Redirecting output
    • Example 10.10. Redirecting error information
    • Example 10.11. Printing to stderr
    • Example 10.12. Chaining commands
    • Example 10.13. Reading from standard input in kgp.py
  • 10.3. Caching node lookups
    • Example 10.14. loadGrammar
    • Example 10.15. Using the ref element cache
  • 10.4. Finding direct children of a node
    • Example 10.16. Finding direct child elements
  • 10.5. Creating separate handlers by node type
    • Example 10.17. Class names of parsed XML objects
    • Example 10.18. parse, a generic XML node dispatcher
    • Example 10.19. Functions called by the parse dispatcher
  • 10.6. Handling command-line arguments
    • Example 10.20. Introducing sys.argv
    • Example 10.21. The contents of sys.argv
    • Example 10.22. Introducing getopt
    • Example 10.23. Handling command-line arguments in kgp.py
  • 10.7. Putting it all together
  • 10.8. Summary
• Chapter 11. HTTP Web Services
  • 11.1. Diving in
    • Example 11.1. openanything.py
  • 11.2. How not to fetch data over HTTP
    • Example 11.2. Downloading a feed the quick-and-dirty way
  • 11.3. Features of HTTP
    • 11.3.1. User-Agent
    • 11.3.2. Redirects
    • 11.3.3. Last-Modified/If-Modified-Since
    • 11.3.4. ETag/If-None-Match
    • 11.3.5. Compression
  • 11.4. Debugging HTTP web services
    • Example 11.3. Debugging HTTP
  • 11.5. Setting the User-Agent
    • Example 11.4. Introducing urllib2
    • Example 11.5. Adding headers with the Request
  • 11.6. Handling Last-Modified and ETag
    • Example 11.6. Testing Last-Modified
    • Example 11.7. Defining URL handlers
    • Example 11.8. Using custom URL handlers
    • Example 11.9. Supporting ETag/If-None-Match
  • 11.7. Handling redirects
    • Example 11.10. Accessing web services without a redirect handler
    • Example 11.11. Defining the redirect handler
    • Example 11.12. Using the redirect handler to detect permanent redirects
    • Example 11.13. Using the redirect handler to detect temporary redirects
  • 11.8. Handling compressed data
    • Example 11.14. Telling the server you would like compressed data
    • Example 11.15. Decompressing the data
    • Example 11.16. Decompressing the data directly from the server
  • 11.9. Putting it all together
    • Example 11.17. The openanything function
    • Example 11.18. The fetch function
    • Example 11.19. Using openanything.py
  • 11.10. Summary
• Chapter 12. SOAP Web Services
  • 12.1. Diving In
    • Example 12.1. search.py
    • Example 12.2. Sample Usage of search.py
  • 12.2. Installing the SOAP Libraries
    • 12.2.1. Installing PyXML
      • Example 12.3. Verifying PyXML Installation
    • 12.2.2. Installing fpconst
      • Example 12.4. Verifying fpconst Installation
    • 12.2.3. Installing SOAPpy
      • Example 12.5. Verifying SOAPpy Installation
  • 12.3. First Steps with SOAP
    • Example 12.6. Getting the Current Temperature
  • 12.4. Debugging SOAP Web Services
    • Example 12.7. Debugging SOAP Web Services
  • 12.5. Introducing WSDL
  • 12.6. Introspecting SOAP Web Services with WSDL
    • Example 12.8. Discovering The Available Methods
    • Example 12.9. Discovering A Method’s Arguments
    • Example 12.10. Discovering A Method’s Return Values
    • Example 12.11. Calling A Web Service Through A WSDL Proxy
  • 12.7. Searching Google
    • Example 12.12. Introspecting Google Web Services
    • Example 12.13. Searching Google
    • Example 12.14. Accessing Secondary Information From Google
  • 12.8. Troubleshooting SOAP Web Services
    • Example 12.15. Calling a Method With an Incorrectly Configured Proxy
    • Example 12.16. Calling a Method With the Wrong Arguments
    • Example 12.17. Calling a Method and Expecting the Wrong Number of Return Values
    • Example 12.18. Calling a Method With An Application-Specific Error
  • 12.9. Summary
• Chapter 13. Unit Testing
  • 13.1. Introduction to Roman numerals
  • 13.2. Diving in
  • 13.3. Introducing romantest.py
    • Example 13.1. romantest.py
  • 13.4. Testing for success
    • Example 13.2. testToRomanKnownValues
  • 13.5. Testing for failure
    • Example 13.3. Testing bad input to toRoman
    • Example 13.4. Testing bad input to fromRoman
  • 13.6. Testing for sanity
    • Example 13.5. Testing toRoman against fromRoman
    • Example 13.6. Testing for case
• Chapter 14. Test-First Programming
  • 14.1. roman.py, stage 1
    • Example 14.1. roman1.py
    • Example 14.2. Output of romantest1.py against roman1.py
  • 14.2. roman.py, stage 2
    • Example 14.3. roman2.py
    • Example 14.4. How toRoman works
    • Example 14.5. Output of romantest2.py against roman2.py
  • 14.3. roman.py, stage 3
    • Example 14.6. roman3.py
    • Example 14.7. Watching toRoman handle bad input
    • Example 14.8. Output of romantest3.py against roman3.py
  • 14.4. roman.py, stage 4
    • Example 14.9. roman4.py
    • Example 14.10. How fromRoman works
    • Example 14.11. Output of romantest4.py against roman4.py
  • 14.5. roman.py, stage 5
    • Example 14.12. roman5.py
    • Example 14.13. Output of romantest5.py against roman5.py
• Chapter 15. Refactoring
  • 15.1. Handling bugs
    • Example 15.1. The bug
    • Example 15.2. Testing for the bug (romantest61.py)
    • Example 15.3. Output of romantest61.py against roman61.py
    • Example 15.4. Fixing the bug (roman62.py)
    • Example 15.5. Output of romantest62.py against roman62.py
  • 15.2. Handling changing requirements
    • Example 15.6. Modifying test cases for new requirements (romantest71.py)
    • Example 15.7. Output of romantest71.py against roman71.py
    • Example 15.8. Coding the new requirements (roman72.py)
    • Example 15.9. Output of romantest72.py against roman72.py
  • 15.3. Refactoring
    • Example 15.10. Compiling regular expressions
    • Example 15.11. Compiled regular expressions in roman81.py
    • Example 15.12. Output of romantest81.py against roman81.py
    • Example 15.13. roman82.py
    • Example 15.14. Output of romantest82.py against roman82.py
    • Example 15.15. roman83.py
    • Example 15.16. Output of romantest83.py against roman83.py
  • 15.4. Postscript
    • Example 15.17. roman9.py
    • Example 15.18. Output of romantest9.py against roman9.py
  • 15.5. Summary
• Chapter 16. Functional Programming
  • 16.1. Diving in
    • Example 16.1. regression.py
    • Example 16.2. Sample output of regression.py
  • 16.2. Finding the path
    • Example 16.3. fullpath.py
    • Example 16.4. Further explanation of os.path.abspath
    • Example 16.5. Sample output from fullpath.py
    • Example 16.6. Running scripts in the current directory
  • 16.3. Filtering lists revisited
    • Example 16.7. Introducing filter
    • Example 16.8. filter in regression.py
    • Example 16.9. Filtering using list comprehensions instead
  • 16.4. Mapping lists revisited
    • Example 16.10. Introducing map
    • Example 16.11. map with lists of mixed datatypes
    • Example 16.12. map in regression.py
  • 16.5. Data-centric programming
  • 16.6. Dynamically importing modules
    • Example 16.13. Importing multiple modules at once
    • Example 16.14. Importing modules dynamically
    • Example 16.15. Importing a list of modules dynamically
  • 16.7. Putting it all together
    • Example 16.16. The regressionTest function
    • Example 16.17. Step 1: Get all the files
    • Example 16.18. Step 2: Filter to find the files you care about
    • Example 16.19. Step 3: Map filenames to module names
    • Example 16.20. Step 4: Mapping module names to modules
    • Example 16.21. Step 5: Loading the modules into a test suite
    • Example 16.22. Step 6: Telling unittest to use your test suite
  • 16.8. Summary
• Chapter 17. Dynamic functions
  • 17.1. Diving in
  • 17.2. plural.py, stage 1
    • Example 17.1. plural1.py
    • Example 17.2. Introducing re.sub
    • Example 17.3. Back to plural1.py
    • Example 17.4. More on negation regular expressions
    • Example 17.5. More on re.sub
  • 17.3. plural.py, stage 2
    • Example 17.6. plural2.py
    • Example 17.7. Unrolling the plural function
  • 17.4. plural.py, stage 3
    • Example 17.8. plural3.py
  • 17.5. plural.py, stage 4
    • Example 17.9. plural4.py
    • Example 17.10. plural4.py continued
    • Example 17.11. Unrolling the rules definition
    • Example 17.12. plural4.py, finishing up
    • Example 17.13. Another look at buildMatchAndApplyFunctions
    • Example 17.14. Expanding tuples when calling functions
  • 17.6. plural.py, stage 5
    • Example 17.15. rules.en
    • Example 17.16. plural5.py
  • 17.7. plural.py, stage 6
    • Example 17.17. plural6.py
    • Example 17.18. Introducing generators
    • Example 17.19. Using generators instead of recursion
    • Example 17.20. Generators in for loops
    • Example 17.21. Generators that generate dynamic functions
  • 17.8. Summary
• Chapter 18. Performance Tuning
  • 18.1. Diving in
    • Example 18.1. soundex/stage1/soundex1a.py
  • 18.2. Using the timeit Module
    • Example 18.2. Introducing timeit
  • 18.3. Optimizing Regular Expressions
    • Example 18.3. Best Result So Far: soundex/stage1/soundex1e.py
  • 18.4. Optimizing Dictionary Lookups
    • Example 18.4. Best Result So Far: soundex/stage2/soundex2c.py
  • 18.5. Optimizing List Operations
    • Example 18.5. Best Result So Far: soundex/stage2/soundex2c.py
  • 18.6. Optimizing String Manipulation
  • 18.7. Summary
• Appendices
  • Appendix A. Further reading
  • Appendix B. A 5-minute review
  • Appendix C. Tips and tricks
  • Appendix D. List of examples
  • Appendix E. Revision history
  • Appendix F. About the book
  • Appendix G. GNU Free Documentation License
    • G.0. Preamble
    • G.1. Applicability and definitions
    • G.2. Verbatim copying
    • G.3. Copying in quantity
    • G.4. Modifications
    • G.5. Combining documents
    • G.6. Collections of documents
    • G.7. Aggregation with independent works
    • G.8. Translation
    • G.9. Termination
    • G.10. Future revisions of this license
    • G.11. How to use this License for your documents