Python Programming

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December 27, 2015

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Contents
1

Overview

Getting Python
2.1 Python 2 vs Python 3 . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Installing Python in Windows . . . . . .
2.3 Installing Python on Mac . . . . . . . .
2.4 Installing Python on Unix environments
2.5 Keeping Up to Date . . . . . . . . . . .
2.6 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5
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9

Interactive mode

11

Creating Python programs

4.1 Hello, World! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13
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16
16

Basic syntax

17

Data types
6.1 Null object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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25
25

Numbers

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Strings
8.1 String operations
8.2 String constants .
8.3 String methods .
8.4 Exercises . . . . .
8.5 External links . .

Lists
9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
9.6
9.7
9.8

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Overview . . . . . . .
List creation . . . . .
List Attributes . . .
Combining lists . . .
Getting pieces of lists
Comparing lists . . .
Sorting lists . . . . .
Iteration . . . . . . .

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III

Contents
9.9
9.10
9.11
9.12
9.13
9.14
9.15
9.16
9.17

Removing . .
Aggregates . .
Copying . . .
Clearing . . .
List methods
operators . . .
Subclassing .
Exercises . . .
External links

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10 Dictionaries
10.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . .
10.2 Dictionary notation . . . . .
10.3 Operations on Dictionaries .
10.4 Combining two Dictionaries
10.5 Deleting from dictionary . .
10.6 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . .
10.7 External links . . . . . . . .

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11 Sets
12 Operators
12.1 Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2 Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.3 Division and Type Conversion
12.4 Modulo . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.5 Negation . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.6 Comparison . . . . . . . . . .
12.7 Identity . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.8 Augmented Assignment . . .
12.9 Boolean . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.10 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.11 References . . . . . . . . . . .

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13 Flow control
13.1 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13.2 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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14 Functions
14.1 Function Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14.2 Closures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14.3 Lambda Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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15 Scoping

81

16 Exceptions

83

17 Input and output

17.1 Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

87
87

IV

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Contents
17.2 Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17.3 External Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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18 Modules
18.1 Importing a Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18.2 Creating a Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18.3 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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19 Classes

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20 Metaclasses

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21 Reection
21.1 Type . . . . .
21.2 Isinstance . .
21.3 Duck typing .
21.4 Callable . . .
21.5 Dir . . . . . .
21.6 Getattr . . . .
21.7 External links

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135

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22 Regular Expression
22.1 Overview . . . . . . . . .
22.2 Matching and searching
22.3 Replacing . . . . . . . .
22.4 Splitting . . . . . . . . .
22.5 Escaping . . . . . . . . .
22.6 Flags . . . . . . . . . . .
22.7 Pattern objects . . . . .
22.8 External links . . . . . .
23 GUI
23.1
23.2
23.3
23.4
23.5
23.6
23.7

Programming
Tkinter . . . . .
PyGTK . . . .
PyQt . . . . . .
wxPython . . .
Dabo . . . . . .
pyFltk . . . . .
Other Toolkits .

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24 Authors
141
24.1 Authors of Python textbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
25 Game Programming in Python
143
25.1 3D Game Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
25.2 2D Game Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
25.3 See Also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Contents
26 Sockets
147
26.1 HTTP Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
26.2 NTP/Sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
27 Files
27.1
27.2
27.3
27.4
27.5
27.6

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149
149
150
151
151
152
152

28 Database Programming
28.1 Generic Database Connectivity using ODBC
28.2 Postgres connection in Python . . . . . . . .
28.3 MySQL connection in Python . . . . . . . .
28.4 SQLAlchemy in Action . . . . . . . . . . . .
28.5 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
28.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
28.7 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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153
153
154
154
154
154
155
155

File I/O . . . . . . . . .
Testing Files . . . . . . .
Common File Operations
Finding Files . . . . . .
Current Directory . . . .
External Links . . . . .

29 Web Page Harvesting

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157

30 Threading
159
30.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
31 Extending with C
161
31.1 Using the Python/C API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
31.2 Using SWIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
32 Extending with C++
167
32.1 A Hello World Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
32.2 An example with CGAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
32.3 Handling Python objects and errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
33 Extending with ctypes
171
33.1 Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
33.2 Getting Return Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
34 WSGI web programming

173

35 WSGI Web Programming

175
35.1 External Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
36 References
177
36.1 Language reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
37 Contributors

179

List of Figures

187

VI

Contents
38 Licenses
38.1 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38.2 GNU Free Documentation License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38.3 GNU Lesser General Public License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

191
191
192
193

1 Overview
Python1 is a high-level2 , structured3 , open-source4 programming language that can be used
for a wide variety of programming tasks. Python was created by Guido Van Rossum in the
early 1990s, its following has grown steadily and interest is increased markedly in the last
few years or so. It is named after Monty Pythons Flying Circus comedy program.
Python5 is used extensively for system administration (many vital components of Linux6
Distributions are written in it), also its a great language to teach programming to novice.
NASA has used Python for its software systems and has adopted it as the standard scripting
language for its Integrated Planning System. Python is also extensively used by Google to
implement many components of its Web Crawler and Search Engine & Yahoo! for managing
its discussion groups.
Python within itself is an interpreted programming language that is automatically compiled into bytecode before execution (the bytecode is then normally saved to disk, just as
automatically, so that compilation need not happen again until and unless the source gets
changed). It is also a dynamically typed language that includes (but does not require one
to use) object oriented features and constructs.
The most unusual aspect of Python is that whitespace is signicant; instead of block delimiters (braces {} in the C family of languages), indentation is used to indicate where
blocks begin and end.
For example, the following Python code can be interactively typed at an interpreter prompt,
display the famous Hello World! on the user screen:
>>> print "Hello World!"
Hello World!

Another great Python feature is its availability for all Platforms. Python can run on Microsoft Windows, Macintosh & all Linux distributions with ease. This makes the programs
very portable, as any program written for one Platform can easily be used at another.
Python provides a powerful assortment of built-in types (e.g., lists, dictionaries and strings),
a number of built-in functions, and a few constructs, mostly statements. For example, loop
constructs that can iterate over items in a collection instead of being limited to a simple
range of integer values. Python also comes with a powerful standard library7 , which includes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Computer%20programming%2FHighlevel
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Computer%20programming%2FStructured%20programming
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Open%20Source
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Linux
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%20Programming%2FStandard%20Library

Overview
hundreds of modules to provide routines for a wide variety of services including regular
expressions8 and TCP/IP sessions.
Python is used and supported by a large Python Community9 that exists on the Internet.
The mailing lists and news groups10 like the tutor list11 actively support and help new python
programmers. While they discourage doing homework for you, they are quite helpful and
are populated by the authors of many of the Python textbooks currently available on the
market.
Note:
Python 2 vs Python 3: Several years ago, the Python developers made the decision
to come up with a major new version of Python. Initially called Python 3000, this
became the 3.x series of versions of Python. What was radical about this was that the
new version is backward-incompatible with Python 2.x : certain old features (like
the handling of Unicode strings) were deemed to be too unwieldy or broken to be worth
carrying forward. Instead, new, cleaner ways of achieving the same things were added.

8
9
10
11

Chapter 22 on page 131

http://www.python.org/community/index.html
http://www.python.org/community/lists.html
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor

2 Getting Python
In order to program in Python you need the Python interpreter. If it is not already installed
or if the version you are using is obsolete, you will need to obtain and install Python using
the methods below:

2.1 Python 2 vs Python 3

In 2008, a new version of Python (version 3) was published that was not entirely backward
compatible. Developers were asked to switch to the new version as soon as possible but
many of the common external modules are not yet (as of Aug 2010) available for Python
3. There is a program called 2to3 to convert the source code of a Python 2 program to
the source code of a Python 3 program. Consider this fact before you start working with
Python.

2.2 Installing Python in Windows

Go to the Python Homepage1 or the ActiveState website2 and get the proper version for
your platform. Download it, read the instructions and get it installed.
In order to run Python from the command line, you will need to have the python directory in your PATH. Alternatively, you could use an Integrated Development Environment
(IDE) for Python like DrPythonhttp://drpython.sourceforge.net/, erichttp://www.
die-offenbachs.de/eric/index.html, PyScripterhttp://mmm-experts.com/Products.
aspx?ProductID=4, or Pythons own IDLE3 (which ships with every version of Python since
2.3).
The PATH variable can be modied from the Windows System control panel. To add the
PATH in Windows 7 :
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

1
2
3

Go to Start.
Right click on computer.
Click on properties.
Click on Advanced System Settings
Click on Environmental Variables.
In the system variables select Path and edit it, by appending a ; (without quote)
and adding C:\python27(without quote).

http://www.python.org/download/
http://activestate.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDLE_%28Python%29

Getting Python
If you prefer having a temporary environment, you can create a new command prompt
short-cut that automatically executes the following statement:
PATH %PATH%;c:\python27

If you downloaded a dierent version (such as Python 3.1), change the 27 for the version
of Python you have (27 is 2.7.x, the current version of Python 2.)

2.2.1 Cygwin
By default, the Cygwin installer for Windows does not include Python in the downloads.
However, it can be selected from the list of packages.

2.3 Installing Python on Mac

Users on Apple Mac OS X will nd that it already ships with Python 2.3 (OS X 10.4 Tiger)
or Python 2.6.1 (OS X Snow Leopard), but if you want the more recent version head to
Python Download Page4 follow the instruction on the page and in the installers. As a bonus
you will also install the Python IDE.

2.4 Installing Python on Unix environments

Python is available as a package for some Linux distributions. In some cases, the distribution CD will contain the python package for installation, while other distributions require
downloading the source code and using the compilation scripts.

2.4.1 Gentoo GNU/Linux

Gentoo is an example of a distribution that installs Python by default - the package system
Portage depends on Python.

2.4.2 Ubuntu GNU/Linux

Users of Ubuntu will notice that Python comes installed by default, only it sometimes is
not the latest version. If you would like to update it, click here5 .

4
5

http://www.python.org/download/mac
http://appnr.com/install/python

Installing Python on Unix environments

2.4.3 Arch GNU/Linux

Arch does not install python by default, but is easily available for installation through the
package manager to pacman. As root (or using sudo if youve installed and congured it),
type:
$ pacman -Syu python

This will be update package databases and install python. Other versions can be built from
source from the Arch User Repository.

2.4.4 Source code installations

Some platforms do not have a version of Python installed, and do not have pre-compiled
binaries. In these cases, you will need to download the source code from the ocial site6 .
Once the download is complete, you will need to unpack the compressed archive into a
folder.
To build Python, simply run the congure script (requires the Bash shell) and compile using
make.

2.4.5 Other Distributions

Python, which is also referred to as CPython7 , is written in the C Programming8 language.
The C source code is generally portable, that means CPython can run on various platforms.
More precisely, CPython can be made available on all platforms that provide a compiler to
translate the C source code to binary code for that platform.
Apart from CPython there are also other implementations that run on top of a virtual
machine. For example, on Javas JRE (Java Runtime Environment) or Microsofts .NET
CLR (Common Language Runtime). Both can access and use the libraries available on
their platform. Specically, they make use of reection9 that allows complete inspection
and use of all classes and objects for their very technology.
Python Implementations (Platforms)
Environment
Jython
IronPython

6
7
8
9
10
11

Description
Java Version of
Python
C# Version of
Python

Get From
Jython10
IronPython11

http://www.python.org/download/
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/CPython
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/C%20Programming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection_(computer_programming)
http://www.jython.org
http://www.ironpython.net

Getting Python

2.4.6 Integrated Development Environments (IDE)

CPython ships with IDLE; however, IDLE is not considered user-friendly.12 For Linux,
KDevelop and Spyder are popular. For Windows, PyScripter is free, quick to install, and
comes included with PortablePython13 .
Some Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) for Python
Environment
KDevelop
ActivePython
Anjuta
Pythonwin
PyScripter
VisualWx
Spyder
Eclipse (PyDev plugin)

Description
Cross Language IDE for
KDE
Highly Flexible, Pythonwin
IDE
IDE Linux/Unix
Windows Oriented Environment
Free Windows IDE
(portable)
Free GUI Builder
Free cross-platform IDE
Open Source IDE

Get From
KDevelop14
ActivePython15
Anjuta16
Pythonwin17
PyScripter18
VisualWx19
Spyder20
Eclipse21

The Python ocial wiki has a complete list of IDEs22 .

There are several commercial IDEs such as Komodo, BlackAdder, Code Crusader, Code
Forge, and PyCharm. However, for beginners learning to program, purchasing a commercial
IDE is unnecessary.

2.5 Keeping Up to Date

Python has a very active community and the language itself is evolving continuously. Make
sure to check python.org23 for recent releases and relevant tools. The website is an invaluable
asset.

12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23

The Things I Hate About IDLE That I Wish Someone Would Fix {http://inventwithpython.com/
blog/2011/11/29/the-things-i-hate-about-idle-that-i-wish-someone-would-fix/} .
http://www.portablepython.com/
http://www.kdevelop.org
http://www.activestate.com/
http://anjuta.sf.net/
http://www.python.org/windows/
http://code.google.com/p/pyscripter/
http://visualwx.altervista.org
http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/
http://www.eclipse.org
http://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments
http://www.python.org

Notes
Public Python-related mailing lists are hosted at mail.python.org24 . Two examples of such
mailing lists are the Python-announce-list to keep up with newly released third partymodules or software for Python and the general discussion list Python-list . These lists are
mirrored to the Usenet newsgroups comp.lang.python.announce & comp.lang.python
.

2.6 Notes

24

http://mail.python.org

3 Interactive mode
Python has two basic modes: normal and interactive. The normal mode is the mode where
the scripted and nished .py les are run in the Python interpreter. Interactive mode is
a command line shell which gives immediate feedback for each statement, while running
previously fed statements in active memory. As new lines are fed into the interpreter, the
fed program is evaluated both in part and in whole.
To start interactive mode, simply type python without any arguments. This is a good
way to play around and try variations on syntax. Python should print something like this:
$ python
Python 3.0b3 (r30b3:66303, Sep 8 2008, 14:01:02) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)]
on win32
Type help, copyright, credits or license for more information.
>>>

(If Python doesnt run, make sure your path is set correctly. See Getting Python1 .)
The >>> is Pythons way of telling you that you are in interactive mode. In interactive
mode what you type is immediately run. Try typing 1+1 in. Python will respond with 2 .
Interactive mode allows you to test out and see what Python will do. If you ever feel the
need to play with new Python statements, go into interactive mode and try them out.
A sample interactive session:
>>> 5
5
>>> print (5*7)
35
>>> hello * 4
hellohellohellohello
>>> hello.__class__
<type str>

However, you need to be careful in the interactive environment to avoid confusion. For
example, the following is a valid Python script:
if 1:
print("True")
print("Done")

If you try to enter this as written in the interactive environment, you might be surprised
by the result:

Chapter 2 on page 5

11

Interactive mode

>>> if 1:
... print(True)
... print(Done)
File <stdin>, line 3
print(Done)

SyntaxError: invalid syntax

What the interpreter is saying is that the indentation of the second print was unexpected.
You should have entered a blank line to end the rst (i.e., if) statement, before you started
writing the next print statement. For example, you should have entered the statements as
though they were written:
if 1:
print("True")
print("Done")

Which would have resulted in the following:

>>> if 1:
... print(True)
...
True
>>> print(Done)
Done
>>>

3.0.1 Interactive mode

Instead of Python exiting when the program is nished, you can use the -i ag to start an
interactive session. This can be very useful for debugging and prototyping.
python -i hello.py

12

4 Creating Python programs

Welcome to Python! This tutorial will show you how to start writing programs.
Python programs are nothing more than text les, and they may be edited with a standard
text editor1 program.2 What text editor you use will probably depend on your operating
system: any text editor can create Python programs. However, it is easier to use a text
editor that includes Python syntax highlighting3 .

4.1 Hello, World!

The rst program that beginning programmers usually write is the w:Hello, World! program4 . This program simply outputs the phrase Hello, World! then terminates itself. Lets
write Hello, World! in Python!
Open up your text editor and create a new le called hello.py containing just this line
(you can copy-paste if you want):
print('Hello, world!')

This program uses the print function, which simply outputs its parameters to the terminal.
By default, print appends a newline character to its output, which simply moves the cursor
to the next line.
Note:
In Python 2.x, print is a statement rather than a function. As such, it can be used
without parentheses, in which case it prints everything until the end of the line and
accepts a standalone comma after the nal item on the line to indicate a multi-line
statement. In Python 3.x, print is a proper function expecting its arguments inside
parentheses. Using print with parentheses (as above) is compatible with Python 2.x and
using this style ensures version-independence.
Now that youve written your rst program, lets run it in Python! This process diers
slightly depending on your operating system.

1
2
3
4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text%20editor
Sometimes, Python programs are distributed in compiled form. We wont have to worry about that for
quite a while.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax%20highlighting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello%2C%20World%21%22%20program

13

Creating Python programs

4.1.1 Windows
Create a folder on your computer to use for your Python programs, such as
C:\pythonpractice , and save your hello.py program in that folder.
In the Start menu, select Run..., and type in cmd . This will cause the Windows terminal
to open.
Type cd \pythonpractice to c hange d irectory to your pythonpractice folder, and
hit Enter.
Type hello.py to run your program!
If it didnt work, make sure your PATH contains the python directory. See Getting Python5 .

4.1.2 Mac
Create a folder on your computer to use for your Python programs. A good suggestion
would be to name it pythonpractice and place it in your Home folder (the one that contains folders for Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, etc). Save your hello.py program
into this folder.
Open the Applications folder, go into the Utilities folder, and open the Terminal program.
Type cd pythonpractice to c hange d irectory to your pythonpractice folder, and hit
Enter.
Type python ./hello.py to run your program!
Note:
If you have both Python 2 and Python 3 installed (Your machine comes with a version
of Python 2 but you can install Python 3a as well), you should run python3 hello.py
a

https://www.python.org/downloads/

4.1.3 Linux
Create a folder on your computer to use for your Python programs, such as /pythonpractice , and save your hello.py program in that folder..
Open up the terminal program. In KDE, open the main menu and select Run Command... to open Konsole. In GNOME, open the main menu, open the Applications
folder, open the Accessories folder, and select Terminal.
Type cd /pythonpractice to c hange d irectory to your pythonpractice folder, and
hit Enter.
Type python ./hello.py to run your program!
Note:
If you have both Python version 2.6.1 and Python 3.0 installed (Very possible if you are
using Ubuntu, and ran sudo apt-get install python3 to have python3 installed), you
should run python3 hello.py

14

Chapter 2 on page 5

Hello, World!

4.1.4 Linux (advanced)

Create a folder on your computer to use for your Python programs, such as /pythonpractice .
Open up your favorite text editor and create a new le called hello.py containing just
the following 2 lines (you can copy-paste if you want):6
7

#! /usr/bin/python
print('Hello, world!')

Note:
If you have both python version 2.6.1 and version 3.0 installed (Very possible if you are
using a debian or debian-based(*buntu, Mint, ) distro, and ran sudo apt-get install
python3 to have python3 installed), use
! /usr/bin/python3
print('Hello, world!')

save your hello.py program in the /pythonpractice folder.

Open up the terminal program. In KDE, open the main menu and select Run Command... to open Konsole. In GNOME, open the main menu, open the Applications
folder, open the Accessories folder, and select Terminal.
Type cd /pythonpractice to c hange d irectory to your pythonpractice folder, and
hit Enter.
Type chmod a+x hello.py to tell Linux that it is an executable program.
Type ./hello.py to run your program!
In addition, you can also use ln -s hello.py /usr/bin/hello to make a s ymbolic l in
k hello.py to /usr/bin under the name hello , then run it by simply executing hello
.
Note that this mainly should be done for complete, compiled programs, if you have a script
that you made and use frequently, then it might be a good idea to put it somewhere in your
home directory and put a link to it in /usr/bin. If you want a playground, a good idea is to
invoke mkdir /.local/bin and then put scripts in there. To make /.local/bin content
executable the same way /usr/bin does type $PATH = $PATH:/local/bin (you can add
this line into youre shell rc le for exemple /.bashrc)

6
7

A Quick Introduction to Unix/My First Shell Script {https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A%20Quick%

20Introduction%20to%20Unix%2FMy%20First%20Shell%20Script} explains what a hash bang line does.

15

Creating Python programs

Note:
File extensions arent necessary in UNIX-like le-systems. To linux, hello.py means the
exact same thing as hello.txt, hello.mp3, or just hello. Linux mostly uses the contents
of the le to determine what type it is.
johndoe@linuxbox

$ file /usr/bin/hello

/usr/bin/hello: Python script, ASCII text executable

4.1.5 Result
The program should print:
Hello, world!

Congratulations! Youre well on your way to becoming a Python programmer.

4.2 Exercises
1. Modify the hello.py program to say hello to someone from your family or your friends
(or to Ada Lovelace8 ).
2. Change the program so that after the greeting, it asks, How did you get here?.
3. Re-write the original program to use two print statements: one for Hello and one
for world. The program should still only print out on one line.
Solutions9

4.3 Notes

8
9

16

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada%20Lovelace
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%20Programming%2FCreating%20Python%20programs%2FSolutions

5 Basic syntax
There are ve fundamental concepts in Python1 .

5.0.1 Case Sensitivity

All variables are case-sensitive. Python treats number and Number as separate, unrelated
entities.

5.0.2 Spaces and tabs dont mix

Because whitespace is signicant, remember that spaces and tabs dont mix, so use only one
or the other when indenting your programs. A common error is to mix them. While they
may look the same in editor, the interpreter will read them dierently and it will result in
either an error or unexpected behavior. Most decent text editors can be congured to let
tab key emit spaces instead.
Pythons Style Guideline described that the preferred way is using 4 spaces.
Tips: If you invoked python from the command-line, you can give -t or -tt argument to
python to make python issue a warning or error on inconsistent tab usage.

pythonprogrammer@wikibook: $ python -tt myscript.py

This will issue an error if you have mixed spaces and tabs.

5.0.3 Objects
In Python, like all object oriented languages, there are aggregations of code and data called
Objects, which typically represent the pieces in a conceptual model of a system.
Objects in Python are created (i.e., instantiated) from templates called Classes2 (which
are covered later, as much of the language can be used without understanding classes).
They have attributes, which represent the various pieces of code and data which comprise
the object. To access attributes, one writes the name of the object followed by a period
(henceforth called a dot), followed by the name of the attribute.
1
2

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%20Programming
Chapter 19 on page 99

17

Basic syntax
An example is the upper attribute of strings, which refers to the code that returns a copy
of the string in which all the letters are uppercase. To get to this, it is necessary to have
a way to refer to the object (in the following example, the way is the literal string that
constructs the object).
'bob'.upper

Code attributes are called methods. So in this example, upper is a method of bob (as
it is of all strings). To execute the code in a method, use a matched pair of parentheses
surrounding a comma separated list of whatever arguments the method accepts (upper
doesnt accept any arguments). So to nd an uppercase version of the string bob, one
could use the following:
'bob'.upper()

5.0.4 Scope
In a large system, it is important that one piece of code does not aect another in dicult to
predict ways. One of the simplest ways to further this goal is to prevent one programmers
choice of names from preventing another from choosing that name. Because of this, the
concept of scope was invented. A scope is a region of code in which a name can be used
and outside of which the name cannot be easily accessed. There are two ways of delimiting
regions in Python: with functions or with modules. They each have dierent ways of
accessing the useful data that was produced within the scope from outside the scope. With
functions, that way is to return the data. The way to access names from other modules
lead us to another concept.

5.0.5 Namespaces
It would be possible to teach Python without the concept of namespaces because they are
so similar to attributes, which we have already mentioned, but the concept of namespaces is
one that transcends any particular programming language, and so it is important to teach.
To begin with, there is a built-in function dir() that can be used to help one understand
the concept of namespaces. When you rst start the Python interpreter (i.e., in interactive
mode), you can list the objects in the current (or default) namespace using this function.
Python 2.3.4 (#53, Oct 18 2004, 20:35:07) [MSC v.1200 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> dir()
['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__']

This function can also be used to show the names available within a module namespace.
To demonstrate this, rst we can use the type() function to show what __builtins__ is:
>>> type(__builtins__)
<type 'module'>

Since it is a module, we can list the names within the __builtins__ namespace, again
using the dir() function (note the complete list of names has been abbreviated):

18

Notes

>>> dir(__builtins__)
['ArithmeticError', ... 'copyright', 'credits', ... 'help', ... 'license', ...
'zip']
>>>

Namespaces are a simple concept. A namespace is a place in which a name resides. Each
name within a namespace is distinct from names outside of the namespace. This layering of
namespaces is called scope. A name is placed within a namespace when that name is given
a value. For example:
>>> dir()
['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__']
>>> name = "Bob"
>>> import math
>>> dir()
['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__', 'math', 'name']

Note that I was able to add the name variable to the namespace using a simple assignment statement. The import statement was used to add the math name to the current
namespace. To see what math is, we can simply:
>>> math
<module 'math' (built-in)>

Since it is a module, it also has a namespace. To display the names within this namespace,
we:
>>> dir(math)
['__doc__', '__name__', 'acos', 'asin', 'atan', 'atan2', 'ceil', 'cos', 'cosh',
'degrees', 'e',
'exp', 'fabs', 'floor', 'fmod', 'frexp', 'hypot', 'ldexp', 'log', 'log10',
'modf', 'pi', 'pow',
'radians', 'sin', 'sinh', 'sqrt', 'tan', 'tanh']
>>>

If you look closely, you will notice that both the default namespace, and the math module
namespace have a __name__ object. The fact that each layer can contain an object with
the same name is what scope is all about. To access objects inside a namespace, simply use
the name of the module, followed by a dot, followed by the name of the object. This allow
us to dierentiate between the __name__ object within the current namespace, and that of
the object with the same name within the math module. For example:
>>> print (__name__)
__main__
>>> print (math.__name__)
math
>>> print (math.__doc__)
This module is always available. It provides access to the
mathematical functions defined by the C standard.
>>> math.pi
3.1415926535897931

19

6 Data types
Data types determine whether an object can do something, or whether it just would not
make sense. Other programming languages often determine whether an operation makes
sense for an object by making sure the object can never be stored somewhere where the
operation will be performed on the object (this type system1 is called static typing). Python
does not do that. Instead it stores the type of an object with the object, and checks when
the operation is performed whether that operation makes sense for that object (this is called
dynamic typing).
Built-in Data types
Pythons built-in (or standard) data types can be grouped into several classes. Sticking to
the hierarchy scheme used in the ocial Python documentation these are numeric types,
sequences, sets and mappings (and a few more not discussed further here). Some of
the types are only available in certain versions of the language as noted below.
boolean: the type of the built-in values True and False . Useful in conditional expressions, and anywhere else you want to represent the truth or falsity of some condition.
Mostly interchangeable with the integers 1 and 0. In fact, conditional expressions will
accept values of any type, treating special ones like boolean False , integer 0 and the
empty string "" as equivalent to False , and all other values as equivalent to True . But
for safetys sake, it is best to only use boolean values in these places.
Numeric types:

int: Integers; equivalent to C longs in Python 2.x, non-limited length in Python 3.x
long: Long integers of non-limited length; exists only in Python 2.x
oat: Floating-Point numbers, equivalent to C doubles
complex: Complex Numbers

Sequences:
str: String; represented as a sequence of 8-bit characters in Python 2.x, but as a sequence
of Unicode characters (in the range of U+0000 - U+10FFFF) in Python 3.x
byte: a sequence of integers in the range of 0-255; only available in Python 3.x
byte array: like bytes, but mutable (see below); only available in Python 3.x
list
tuple
Sets:
set: an unordered collection of unique objects; available as a standard type since Python
2.6
1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_system%23Type%20checking

21

Data types
frozen set: like set, but immutable (see below); available as a standard type since Python
2.6
Mappings:
dict: Python dictionaries, also called hashmaps or associative arrays, which means that
an element of the list is associated with a denition, rather like a Map in Java2
Some others, such as type and callables
Mutable vs Immutable Objects
In general, data types in Python can be distinguished based on whether objects of the type
are mutable or immutable. The content of objects of immutable types cannot be changed
after they are created.
Some immutable types:
int, oat, long, complex
str
bytes
tuple
frozen set

Some mutable types:

byte array
list
set
dict

Only mutable objects support methods that change the object in place, such as reassignment
of a sequence slice, which will work for lists, but raise an error for tuples and strings.
It is important to understand that variables in Python are really just references to objects
in memory. If you assign an object to a variable as below
a = 1
s = 'abc'
l = ['a string', 456, ('a', 'tuple', 'inside', 'a', 'list')]

all you really do is make this variable (a , s , or l ) point to the object (1 , 'abc' , ['a
string', 456, ('a', 'tuple', 'inside', 'a', 'list')] ), which is kept somewhere
in memory, as a convenient way of accessing it. If you reassign a variable as below
a = 7
s = 'xyz'
l = ['a simpler list', 99, 10]

you make the variable point to a dierent object (newly created ones in our examples). As
stated above, only mutable objects can be changed in place (l[0] = 1 is ok in our example,
but s[0] = 'a' raises an error). This becomes tricky, when an operation is not explicitly
asking for a change to happen in place, as is the case for the += (increment) operator, for
example. When used on an immutable object (as in a += 1 or in s += 'qwertz' ), Python
will silently create a new object and make the variable point to it. However, when used
on a mutable object (as in l += [1,2,3] ), the object pointed to by the variable will be
2

22

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Java

Notes
changed in place. While in most situations, you do not have to know about this dierent
behavior, it is of relevance when several variables are pointing to the same object. In our
example, assume you set p = s and m = l , then s += 'etc' and l += [9,8,7] . This
will change s and leave p unaected, but will change both m and l since both point to the
same list object. Pythons built-in id() function, which returns a unique object identier
for a given variable name, can be used to trace what is happening under the hood.
Typically, this behavior of Python causes confusion in functions. As an illustration, consider
this code:
def append_to_sequence (myseq):
myseq += (9,9,9)
return myseq
t=(1,2,3)
l=[1,2,3]

# tuples are immutable

# lists are mutable

u=append_to_sequence(t)
m=append_to_sequence(l)
print('t
print('u
print('l
print('m

=
=
=
=

',
',
',
',

t)
u)
l)
m)

This will give the (usually unintended) output:

t
u
l
m

=
=
=
=

(1,
(1,
[1,
[1,

2,
2,
2,
2,

3)
3, 9, 9, 9)
3, 9, 9, 9]
3, 9, 9, 9]

myseq is a local variable of the append_to_sequence function, but when this function gets
called, myseq will nevertheless point to the same object as the variable that we pass in (t
or l in our example). If that object is immutable (like a tuple), there is no problem. The
+= operator will cause the creation of a new tuple, and myseq will be set to point to it.
However, if we pass in a reference to a mutable object, that object will be manipulated in
place (so myseq and l , in our case, end up pointing to the same list object).
Links:
3.1. Objects, values and types3 , The Python Language Reference, docs.python.org
5.6.4. Mutable Sequence Types4 , The Python Standard Library, docs.python.org
Creating Objects of Dened Types
Literal integers can be entered in three ways:
decimal numbers can be entered directly
hexadecimal numbers can be entered by prepending a 0x or 0X (0x is hex FF, or 255 in
decimal)

3
4

http://docs.python.org/2/reference/datamodel.html#objects-values-and-types
http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#typesseq-mutable

23

Data types
the format of octal literals depends on the version of Python:
Python 2.x: octals can be entered by prepending a 0 (0732 is octal 732, or 474 in decimal)
Python 3.x: octals can be entered by prepending a 0o or 0O (0o732 is octal 732, or 474
in decimal)
Floating point numbers can be entered directly.
Long integers are entered either directly (1234567891011121314151617181920 is a long integer) or by appending an L (0L is a long integer). Computations involving short integers
that overow are automatically turned into long integers.
Complex numbers are entered by adding a real number and an imaginary one, which is
entered by appending a j (i.e. 10+5j is a complex number. So is 10j). Note that j by itself
does not constitute a number. If this is desired, use 1j.
Strings can be either single or triple quoted strings. The dierence is in the starting
and ending delimiters, and in that single quoted strings cannot span more than one line.
Single quoted strings are entered by entering either a single quote () or a double quote ()
followed by its match. So therefore
'foo' works, and
"moo" works as well,
but
'bar" does not work, and
"baz' does not work either.
"quux'' is right out.

Triple quoted strings are like single quoted strings, but can span more than one line. Their
starting and ending delimiters must also match. They are entered with three consecutive
single or double quotes, so
'''foo''' works, and
"""moo""" works as well,
but
'"'bar'"' does not work, and
"""baz''' does not work either.
'"'quux"'" is right out.

Tuples are entered in parentheses, with commas between the entries:

(10, 'Mary had a little lamb')

Also, the parenthesis can be left out when its not ambiguous to do so:
10, 'whose fleece was as white as snow'

Note that one-element tuples can be entered by surrounding the entry with parentheses and
adding a comma like so:
('this is a stupid tuple',)

Lists are similar, but with brackets:

24

Null object

['abc', 1,2,3]

Dicts are created by surrounding with curly braces a list of key/value pairs separated from
each other by a colon and from the other entries with commas:
{ 'hello': 'world', 'weight': 'African or European?' }

Any of these composite types can contain any other, to any depth:
((((((((('bob',),['Mary', 'had', 'a', 'little', 'lamb']), { 'hello' : 'world' }
),),),),),),)

6.1 Null object

The Python analogue of null pointer known from other programming languages is None .
None is not a null pointer or a null reference but an actual object of which there is only one
instance. One of the uses of None is in default argument values of functions, for which see
../Functions#Default_Argument_Values5 . Comparisons to None are usually made using
is rather than ==.
Testing for None and assignment:
if item is None:
...
another = None
if not item is None:
...
if item is not None: # Also possible
...

Using None in a default argument value:

def log(message, type = None):
...

Links:
4. Built-in Constants6 , docs.python.org
3.11.7 The Null Object7 , docs.python.org

6.2 Exercises
1. Write a program that instantiates a single object, adds [1,2] to the object, and returns
the result.
a) Find an object that returns an output of the same length (if one exists?).
5
6
7

Chapter 14.1.1 on page 74

http://docs.python.org/2/library/constants.html?highlight=none#None
http://docs.python.org/release/2.5.2/lib/bltin-null-object.html

25

Data types
b) Find an object that returns an output length 2 greater than it started.
c) Find an object that causes an error.
2. Find two data types X and Y such that X = X + Y will cause an error, but X += Y
will not.

26

7 Numbers
Python 2.x supports 4 numeric types - int, long, oat and complex. Of these, the long type
has been dropped in Python 3.x - the int type is now of unlimited length by default. You
dont have to specify what type of variable you want; Python does that automatically.
Int: The basic integer type in python, equivalent to the hardware c long for the platform
you are using in Python 2.x, unlimited in length in Python 3.x.
Long: Integer type with unlimited length. In python 2.2 and later, Ints are automatically
turned into long ints when they overow. Dropped since Python 3.0, use int type instead.
Float: This is a binary oating point number. Longs and Ints are automatically converted
to oats when a oat is used in an expression, and with the true-division / operator.
Complex: This is a complex number consisting of two oats. Complex literals are written
as a + bj where a and b are oating-point numbers denoting the real and imaginary parts
respectively.
In general, the number types are automatically up cast in this order:
Int Long Float Complex. The farther to the right you go, the higher the precedence.
>>> x = 5
>>> type(x)
<type 'int'>
>>> x = 187687654564658970978909869576453
>>> type(x)
<type 'long'>
>>> x = 1.34763
>>> type(x)
<type 'float'>
>>> x = 5 + 2j
>>> type(x)
<type 'complex'>

The result of divisions is somewhat confusing. In Python 2.x, using the / operator on two
integers will return another integer, using oor division. For example, 5/2 will give you 2.
You have to specify one of the operands as a oat to get true division, e.g. 5/2. or 5./2
(the dot species you want to work with oat) will yield 2.5. Starting with Python 2.2 this
behavior can be changed to true division by the future division statement from __future__
import division . In Python 3.x, the result of using the / operator is always true division
(you can ask for oor division explicitly by using the // operator since Python 2.2).
This illustrates the behavior of the / operator in Python 2.2+:
>>>
2
>>>
2.5
>>>
2.5
>>>

5/2
5/2.
5./2
from __future__ import division

27

Numbers
>>> 5/2
2.5
>>> 5//2
2

28

8 Strings
8.1 String operations
8.1.1 Equality
Two strings are equal if they have exactly the same contents, meaning that they are both
the same length and each character has a one-to-one positional correspondence. Many other
languages compare strings by identity instead; that is, two strings are considered equal only
if they occupy the same space in memory. Python uses the is operator1 to test the identity
of strings and any two objects in general.
Examples:
>>> a
>>> a
True
>>> a
True
>>> a
True
>>> a
False
>>> a
False

= 'hello'; b = 'hello' # Assign 'hello' to a and b.

== b
# check for equality
== 'hello'

== "hello"

# (choice of delimiter is unimportant)

== 'hello '

# (extra space)

== 'Hello'

# (wrong case)

8.1.2 Numerical
There are two quasi-numerical operations which can be done on strings -- addition and
multiplication. String addition is just another name for concatenation. String multiplication
is repetitive addition, or concatenation. So:
>>> c = 'a'
>>> c + 'b'
'ab'
>>> c * 5
'aaaaa'

8.1.3 Containment
There is a simple operator in that returns True if the rst operand is contained in the
second. This also works on substrings

Chapter 12.7 on page 63

29

Strings

>>> x
>>> y
>>> x
False
>>> y
True

= 'hello'
= 'ell'
in y
in x

Note that print x in y would have also returned the same value.

8.1.4 Indexing and Slicing

Much like arrays in other languages, the individual characters in a string can be accessed
by an integer representing its position in the string. The rst character in string s would
be s[0] and the nth character would be at s[n-1].
>>> s = "Xanadu"
>>> s[1]
'a'

Unlike arrays in other languages, Python also indexes the arrays backwards, using negative
numbers. The last character has index -1, the second to last character has index -2, and so
on.
>>> s[-4]
'n'

We can also use slices to access a substring of s. s[a:b] will give us a string starting with
s[a] and ending with s[b-1].
>>> s[1:4]
'ana'

None of these are assignable.

>>> print s
>>> s[0] = 'J'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
TypeError: object does not support item assignment
>>> s[1:3] = "up"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
TypeError: object does not support slice assignment
>>> print s

Outputs (assuming the errors were suppressed):

Xanadu
Xanadu

Another feature of slices is that if the beginning or end is left empty, it will default to the
rst or last index, depending on context:
>>> s[2:]
'nadu'

30

String constants
>>> s[:3]
'Xan'
>>> s[:]
'Xanadu'

You can also use negative numbers in slices:

>>> print s[-2:]
'du'

To understand slices, its easiest not to count the elements themselves. It is a bit like
counting not on your ngers, but in the spaces between them. The list is indexed like this:
Element:
Index:

1
0
-4

2
1
-3

3
2
-2

4
3
-1

So, when we ask for the [1:3] slice, that means we start at index 1, and end at index 3, and
take everything in between them. If you are used to indexes in C or Java, this can be a bit
disconcerting until you get used to it.

8.2 String constants

String constants can be found in the standard string module such as; either single or double
quotes may be used to delimit string constants.

8.3 String methods

There are a number of methods or built-in string functions:

capitalize
center
count
decode
encode
endswith
expandtabs
nd
index
isalnum
isalpha
isdigit
islower
isspace
istitle
isupper
join
ljust

31

Strings

lower
lstrip
replace
rnd
rindex
rjust
rstrip
split
splitlines
startswith
strip
swapcase
title
translate
upper
zll

Only emphasized items will be covered.

8.3.1 is*
isalnum(), isalpha(), isdigit(), islower(), isupper(), isspace(), and istitle() t into this category.
The length of the string object being compared must be at least 1, or the is* methods will
return False. In other words, a string object of len(string) == 0, is considered empty, or
False.
isalnum returns True if the string is entirely composed of alphabetic and/or numeric
characters (i.e. no punctuation).
isalpha and isdigit work similarly for alphabetic characters or numeric characters only.
isspace returns True if the string is composed entirely of whitespace.
islower , isupper , and istitle return True if the string is in lowercase, uppercase, or
titlecase respectively. Uncased characters are allowed, such as digits, but there must
be at least one cased character in the string object in order to return True. Titlecase
means the rst cased character of each word is uppercase, and any immediately following
cased characters are lowercase. Curiously, Y2K.istitle() returns True. That is because
uppercase characters can only follow uncased characters. Likewise, lowercase characters
can only follow uppercase or lowercase characters. Hint: whitespace is uncased.
Example:
>>> '2YK'.istitle()
False
>>> 'Y2K'.istitle()
True
>>> '2Y K'.istitle()
True

32

String methods

8.3.2 Title, Upper, Lower, Swapcase, Capitalize

Returns the string converted to title case, upper case, lower case, inverts case, or capitalizes,
respectively.
The title method capitalizes the rst letter of each word in the string (and makes the rest
lower case). Words are identied as substrings of alphabetic characters that are separated by
non-alphabetic characters, such as digits, or whitespace. This can lead to some unexpected
behavior. For example, the string x1x will be converted to X1X instead of X1x.
The swapcase method makes all uppercase letters lowercase and vice versa.
The capitalize method is like title except that it considers the entire string to be a word.
(i.e. it makes the rst character upper case and the rest lower case)
Example:
s = 'Hello, wOrLD'
print s
print s.title()
print s.swapcase()
print s.upper()
print s.lower()
print s.capitalize()

#
#
#
#
#
#

'Hello,
'Hello,
'hELLO,
'HELLO,
'hello,
'Hello,

wOrLD'
World'
WoRld'
WORLD'
world'
world'

Keywords: to lower case, to upper case, lcase, ucase, downcase, upcase.

8.3.3 count
Returns the number of the specied substrings in the string. i.e.
>>> s = 'Hello, world'
>>> s.count('o') # print the number of 'o's in 'Hello, World' (2)
2

Hint: .count() is case-sensitive, so this example will only count the number of lowercase
letter os. For example, if you ran:
>>> s = 'HELLO, WORLD'
>>> s.count('o') # print the number of lowercase 'o's in 'HELLO, WORLD' (0)
0

8.3.4 strip, rstrip, lstrip

Returns a copy of the string with the leading (lstrip) and trailing (rstrip) whitespace removed. strip removes both.
>>> s = '\t Hello, world\n\t '
>>> print s
Hello, world
>>> print s.strip()
Hello, world
>>> print s.lstrip()
Hello, world

33

Strings
# ends here
>>> print s.rstrip()
Hello, world

Note the leading and trailing tabs and newlines.

Strip methods can also be used to remove other types of characters.
import string
s = 'www.wikibooks.org'
print s
print s.strip('w')
print s.strip(string.lowercase)
print s.strip(string.printable)

# Removes all w's from outside

# Removes all lowercase letters from outside
# Removes all printable characters

Outputs:
www.wikibooks.org
.wikibooks.org
.wikibooks.

Note that string.lowercase and string.printable require an import string statement

8.3.5 ljust, rjust, center

left, right or center justies a string into a given eld size (the rest is padded with spaces).
>>> s = 'foo'
>>> s
'foo'
>>> s.ljust(7)
'foo
'
>>> s.rjust(7)
'
foo'
>>> s.center(7)
' foo '

8.3.6 join
Joins together the given sequence with the string as separator:
>>> seq = ['1', '2', '3', '4', '5']
>>> ' '.join(seq)
'1 2 3 4 5'
>>> '+'.join(seq)
'1+2+3+4+5'

map may be helpful here: (it converts numbers in seq into strings)
>>> seq = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> ' '.join(map(str, seq))
'1 2 3 4 5'

now arbitrary objects may be in seq instead of just strings.

34

String methods

8.3.7 nd, index, rnd, rindex

The nd and index methods return the index of the rst found occurrence of the given
subsequence. If it is not found, nd returns -1 but index raises a ValueError. rnd and
rindex are the same as nd and index except that they search through the string from right
to left (i.e. they nd the last occurrence)
>>> s = 'Hello, world'
>>> s.find('l')
2
>>> s[s.index('l'):]
'llo, world'
>>> s.rfind('l')
10
>>> s[:s.rindex('l')]
'Hello, wor'
>>> s[s.index('l'):s.rindex('l')]
'llo, wor'

Because Python strings accept negative subscripts, index is probably better used in situations like the one shown because using nd instead would yield an unintended value.

8.3.8 replace
Replace works just like it sounds. It returns a copy of the string with all occurrences of the
rst parameter replaced with the second parameter.
>>> 'Hello, world'.replace('o', 'X')
'HellX, wXrld'

Or, using variable assignment:

string = 'Hello, world'
newString = string.replace('o', 'X')
print string
print newString

Outputs:
Hello, world
HellX, wXrld

Notice, the original variable (string ) remains unchanged after the call to replace .

8.3.9 expandtabs
Replaces tabs with the appropriate number of spaces (default number of spaces per tab =
8; this can be changed by passing the tab size as an argument).
s = 'abcdefg\tabc\ta'
print s
print len(s)
t = s.expandtabs()

35

Strings
print t
print len(t)

Outputs:
abcdefg abc
13
abcdefg abc
17

a
a

Notice how (although these both look the same) the second string (t) has a dierent length
because each tab is represented by spaces not tab characters.
To use a tab size of 4 instead of 8:
v = s.expandtabs(4)
print v
print len(v)

Outputs:
abcdefg abc a
13

Please note each tab is not always counted as eight spaces. Rather a tab pushes the count
to the next multiple of eight. For example:
s = '\t\t'
print s.expandtabs().replace(' ', '*')
print len(s.expandtabs())

Output:
****************
16

s = 'abc\tabc\tabc'
print s.expandtabs().replace(' ', '*')
print len(s.expandtabs())

Outputs:
abc*****abc*****abc
19

8.3.10 split, splitlines

The split method returns a list of the words in the string. It can take a separator argument
to use instead of whitespace.
>>> s = 'Hello, world'

36

Exercises
>>> s.split()
['Hello,', 'world']
>>> s.split('l')
['He', '', 'o, wor', 'd']

Note that in neither case is the separator included in the split strings, but empty strings
are allowed.
The splitlines method breaks a multiline string into many single line strings. It is analogous
to split(\n) (but accepts \r and \r\n as delimiters as well) except that if the string ends
in a newline character, splitlines ignores that nal character (see example).
>>> s = """
... One line
... Two lines
... Red lines
... Blue lines
... Green lines
... """
>>> s.split('\n')
['', 'One line', 'Two lines', 'Red lines', 'Blue lines', 'Green lines', '']
>>> s.splitlines()
['', 'One line', 'Two lines', 'Red lines', 'Blue lines', 'Green lines']

8.4 Exercises
1. Write a program that takes a string, (1) capitalizes the rst letter, (2) creates a list
containing each word, and (3) searches for the last occurrence of a in the rst word.
2. Run the program on the string Bananas are yellow.
3. Write a program that replaces all instances of one with one (1). For this exercise
capitalization does not matter, so it should treat one, One, and oNE identically.
4. Run the program on the string One banana was brown, but one was green.

8.5 External links

String Methods chapter2 -- python.org
Python documentation of string module3 -- python.org

2
3

http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html?highlight=rstrip#string-methods
http://docs.python.org/2/library/string.html

37

9 Lists
A list in Python is an ordered group of items (or elements ). It is a very general structure,
and list elements dont have to be of the same type: you can put numbers, letters, strings
and nested lists all on the same list.

9.1 Overview
Lists in Python at a glance:
list1 = []
# A new empty list
list2 = [1, 2, 3, "cat"]
# A new non-empty list with mixed item types
list1.append("cat")
# Add a single member, at the end of the list
list1.extend(["dog", "mouse"]) # Add several members
if "cat" in list1:
# Membership test
list1.remove("cat")
# Remove AKA delete
#list1.remove("elephant") - throws an error
for item in list1:
# Iteration AKA for each item
print item
print "Item count:", len(list1) # Length AKA size AKA item count
list3 = [6, 7, 8, 9]
for i in range(0, len(list3)): # Read-write iteration AKA for each item
list3[i] += 1
# Item access AKA element access by index
isempty = len(list3) == 0
# Test for emptiness
set1 = set(["cat", "dog"])
# Initialize set from a list
list4 = list(set1)
# Get a list from a set
list5 = list4[:]
# A shallow list copy
list4equal5 = list4==list5
# True: same by value
list4refEqual5 = list4 is list5 # False: not same by reference
list6 = list4[:]
del list6[:]
# Clear AKA empty AKA erase
print list1, list2, list3, list4, list5, list6, list4equal5, list4refEqual5
print list3[1:3], list3[1:], list3[:2] # Slices
print max(list3 ), min(list3 ), sum(list3) # Aggregates

9.2 List creation

There are two dierent ways to make a list in Python. The rst is through assignment
(statically), the second is using list comprehensions (actively).

9.2.1 Plain creation

To make a static list of items, write them between square brackets. For example:
[ 1,2,3,"This is a list",'c',Donkey("kong") ]

39

Lists
Observations:
1. The list contains items of dierent data types: integer, string, and Donkey class.
2. Objects can be created on the y and added to lists. The last item is a new instance
of Donkey class.
Creation of a new list whose members are constructed from non-literal expressions:
a = 2
b = 3
myList = [a+b, b+a, len(["a","b"])]

9.2.2 List comprehensions

See also Tips and Tricks1
Using list comprehension, you describe the process using which the list should be created.
To do that, the list is broken into two pieces. The rst is a picture of what each element
will look like, and the second is what you do to get it.
For instance, lets say we have a list of words:
listOfWords = ["this","is","a","list","of","words"]

To take the rst letter of each word and make a list out of it using list comprehension, we
can do this:
>>> listOfWords = ["this","is","a","list","of","words"]
>>> items = [ word[0] for word in listOfWords ]
>>> print items
['t', 'i', 'a', 'l', 'o', 'w']

List comprehension supports more than one for statement. It will evaluate the items in all
of the objects sequentially and will loop over the shorter objects if one object is longer than
the rest.
>>> item = [x+y for x in 'cat' for y in 'pot']
>>> print item
['cp', 'co', 'ct', 'ap', 'ao', 'at', 'tp', 'to', 'tt']

List comprehension supports an if statement, to only include members into the list that
fulll a certain condition:
>>> print [x+y for
['cp', 'co', 'ct',
>>> print [x+y for
['cp', 'ct', 'ap',
>>> print [x+y for
['cp', 'co', 'ct',

x in 'cat' for y in 'pot']

'ap', 'ao', 'at', 'tp', 'to', 'tt']
x in 'cat' for y in 'pot' if x != 't' and y != 'o' ]
'at']
x in 'cat' for y in 'pot' if x != 't' or y != 'o' ]
'ap', 'ao', 'at', 'tp', 'tt']

In version 2.x, Pythons list comprehension does not dene a scope. Any variables that
are bound in an evaluation remain bound to whatever they were last bound to when the
evaluation was completed. In version 3.x Pythons list comprehension uses local variables:
1

40

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%20Programming%2FTips_and_Tricks%23List_comprehension_and_generators

List creation

>>> print x, y
r t

#Input to python version 2

#Output using python 2

>>> print x, y
NameError: name 'x' is not defined
y were not leaked

#Input to python version 3

#Python 3 returns an error because x and

This is exactly the same as if the comprehension had been expanded into an explicitly-nested
group of one or more for statements and 0 or more if statements.

9.2.3 List creation shortcuts

You can initialize a list to a size, with an initial value for each element:
>>> zeros=[0]*5
>>> print zeros
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

This works for any data type:

>>> foos=['foo']*3
>>> print foos
['foo', 'foo', 'foo']

But there is a caveat. When building a new list by multiplying, Python copies each item
by reference. This poses a problem for mutable items, for instance in a multidimensional
array where each element is itself a list. Youd guess that the easy way to generate a two
dimensional array would be:
listoflists=[ [0]*4 ] *5

and this works, but probably doesnt do what you expect:

>>> listoflists=[ [0]*4 ] *5
>>> print listoflists
[[0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0]]
>>> listoflists[0][2]=1
>>> print listoflists
[[0, 0, 1, 0], [0, 0, 1, 0], [0, 0, 1, 0], [0, 0, 1, 0], [0, 0, 1, 0]]

Whats happening here is that Python is using the same reference to the inner list as the
elements of the outer list. Another way of looking at this issue is to examine how Python
sees the above denition:
>>> innerlist=[0]*4
>>> listoflists=[innerlist]*5
>>> print listoflists
[[0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0]]
>>> innerlist[2]=1
>>> print listoflists
[[0, 0, 1, 0], [0, 0, 1, 0], [0, 0, 1, 0], [0, 0, 1, 0], [0, 0, 1, 0]]

Assuming the above eect is not what you intend, one way around this issue is to use list
comprehensions:
>>> listoflists=[[0]*4 for i in range(5)]

41

Lists
>>> print listoflists
[[0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0]]
>>> listoflists[0][2]=1
>>> print listoflists
[[0, 0, 1, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0]]

9.3 List Attributes

To nd the length of a list use the built in len() method.
>>> len([1,2,3])
3
>>> a = [1,2,3,4]
>>> len( a )
4

9.4 Combining lists

Lists can be combined in several ways. The easiest is just to add them. For instance:
>>> [1,2] + [3,4]
[1, 2, 3, 4]

Another way to combine lists is with extend . If you need to combine lists inside of a
lambda, extend is the way to go.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
[1,

a = [1,2,3]
b = [4,5,6]
a.extend(b)
print a
2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

The other way to append a value to a list is to use append . For example:
>>>
>>>
>>>
[1,
>>>
>>>
[1,

p=[1,2]
p.append([3,4])
p
2, [3, 4]]
# or
print p
2, [3, 4]]

However, [3,4] is an element of the list, and not part of the list. append always adds one
element only to the end of a list. So if the intention was to concatenate two lists, always
use extend .

42

Getting pieces of lists (slices)

9.5 Getting pieces of lists (slices)

9.5.1 Continuous slices
Like strings2 , lists can be indexed and sliced.
>>> list = [2, 4, "usurp", 9.0,"n"]
>>> list[2]
'usurp'
>>> list[3:]
[9.0, 'n']

Much like the slice of a string is a substring, the slice of a list is a list. However, lists dier
from strings in that we can assign new values to the items in a list.
>>> list[1] = 17
>>> list
[2, 17, 'usurp', 9.0,'n']

We can even assign new values to slices of the lists, which dont even have to be the same
length
>>> list[1:4] = ["opportunistic", "elk"]
>>> list
[2, 'opportunistic', 'elk', 'n']

Its even possible to append things onto the end of lists by assigning to an empty slice:
>>> list[:0] = [3.14,2.71]
>>> list
[3.14, 2.71, 2, 'opportunistic', 'elk', 'n']

You can also completely change contents of a list:

>>> list[:] = ['new', 'list', 'contents']
>>> list
['new', 'list', 'contents']

On the right-hand side of assignment statement can be any iterable type:

>>> list[:2] = ('element',('t',),[])
>>> list
['element', ('t',), [], 'contents']

With slicing you can create copy of list because slice returns a new list:
>>>
>>>
>>>
[1,
>>>
>>>
[1,
>>>
[1,

original = [1, 'element', []]

list_copy = original[:]
list_copy
'element', []]
list_copy.append('new element')
list_copy
'element', [], 'new element']
original
'element', []]

Chapter 8 on page 29

43

Lists
but this is shallow copy and contains references to elements from original list, so be careful
with mutable types:
>>> list_copy[2].append('something')
>>> original
[1, 'element', ['something']]

9.5.2 Non-Continuous slices

It is also possible to get non-continuous parts of an array. If one wanted to get every n-th
occurrence of a list, one would use the :: operator. The syntax is a:b:n where a and b are
the start and end of the slice to be operated upon.
>>>
>>>
[0,
>>>
[0,
>>>
[1,

list = [i for i in range(10) ]

list
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
list[::2]
2, 4, 6, 8]
list[1:7:2]
3, 5]

9.6 Comparing lists

Lists can be compared for equality.
>>> [1,2] == [1,2]
True
>>> [1,2] == [3,4]
False

Lists can be compared using a less-than operator, which uses lexicographical order:
>>> [1,2] < [2,1]
True
>>> [2,2] < [2,1]
False
>>> ["a","b"] < ["b","a"]
True

9.7 Sorting lists

Sorting lists is easy with a sort method.
>>>
>>>
>>>
[1,

list = [2, 3, 1, 'a', 'b']

list.sort()
list
2, 3, 'a', 'b']

Note that the list is sorted in place, and the sort() method returns None to emphasize this
side eect.
If you use Python 2.4 or higher there are some more sort parameters:

44

Iteration
sort(cmp,key,reverse)
cmp : method to be used for sorting key : function to be executed with key element. List is
sorted by return-value of the function reverse : sort(reverse=True) or sort(reverse=False)
Python also includes a sorted() function.
>>>
>>>
[2,
>>>
[5,

list = [5, 2, 3, 'q', 'p']

sorted(list)
3, 5, 'p', 'q']
list
2, 3, 'q', 'p']

Note that unlike the sort() method, sorted(list) does not sort the list in place, but instead
returns the sorted list. The sorted() function, like the sort() method also accepts the reverse
parameter.

9.8 Iteration
Iteration over lists:
Read-only iteration over a list, AKA for each element of the list:
list1 = [1, 2, 3, 4]
for item in list1:
print item

Writable iteration over a list:

list1 = [1, 2, 3, 4]
for i in range(0, len(list1)):
list1[i]+=1 # Modify the item at an index as you see fit
print list

From a number to a number with a step:

for i in range(1, 13+1, 3): # For i=1 to 13 step 3
print i
for i in range(10, 5-1, -1): # For i=10 to 5 step -1
print i

For each element of a list satisfying a condition (ltering):

for item in list:
if not condition(item):
continue
print item

See also ../Loops#For_Loops3 .

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/..%2FLoops%23For_Loops

45

Lists

9.9 Removing
Removing aka deleting an item at an index (see also #pop(i)4 ):
list = [1, 2, 3, 4]
list.pop() # Remove the last item
list.pop(0) # Remove the first item , which is the item at index 0
print list
list = [1, 2, 3, 4]
del list[1] # Remove the 2nd element; an alternative to list.pop(1)
print list

Removing an element by value:

list = ["a", "a", "b"]
list.remove("a") # Removes only the 1st occurrence of "a"
print list

Keeping only items in a list satisfying a condition, and thus removing the items that do not
satisfy it:
list = [1, 2, 3, 4]
newlist = [item for item in list if item >2]
print newlist

This uses a list comprehension5 .

9.10 Aggregates
There are some built-in functions for arithmetic aggregates over lists. These include minimum, maximum, and sum:
list = [1, 2, 3, 4]
print max(list), min(list), sum(list)
average = sum(list) / float(len(list)) # Provided the list is non-empty
# The float above ensures the division is a float one rather than integer one.
print average

The max and min functions also apply to lists of strings, returning maximum and minimum
with respect to alphabetical order:
list = ["aa", "ab"]
print max(list), min(list) # Prints "ab aa"

9.11 Copying
Copying AKA cloning of lists:
Making a shallow copy:
4
5

46

Chapter 9.13.2 on page 48

Chapter 9.2.2 on page 40

Clearing

list1= [1, 'element']

list2 = list1[:] # Copy using "[:]"
list2[0] = 2 # Only affects list2, not list1
print list1[0] # Displays 1
# By contrast
list1 = [1, 'element']
list2 = list1
list2[0] = 2 # Modifies the original list
print list1[0] # Displays 2

The above does not make a deep copy, which has the following consequence:
list1 = [1, [2, 3]] # Notice the second item being a nested list
list2 = list1[:] # A shallow copy
list2[1][0] = 4 # Modifies the 2nd item of list1 as well
print list1[1][0] # Displays 4 rather than 2

Making a deep copy:

import copy
list1 = [1, [2, 3]] # Notice
list2 = copy.deepcopy(list1)
list2[1][0] = 4 # Leaves the
print list1[1][0] # Displays

the second item being a nested list

# A deep copy
2nd item of list1 unmodified
2

See also #Continuous slices6 .

Links:
8.17. copy Shallow and deep copy operations7 at docs.python.org

9.12 Clearing
Clearing a list:
del list1[:] # Clear a list
list1 = []
# Not really clear but rather assign to a new empty list

Clearing using a proper approach makes a dierence when the list is passed as an argument:
def workingClear(ilist):
del ilist[:]
def brokenClear(ilist):
ilist = [] # Lets ilist point to a new list, losing the reference to the
argument list
list1=[1, 2]; workingClear(list1); print list1
list1=[1, 2]; brokenClear(list1); print list1

Keywords: emptying a list, erasing a list, clear a list, empty a list, erase a list.

6
7

Chapter 9.5.1 on page 43

http://docs.python.org/2/library/copy.html

47

Lists

9.13 List methods

9.13.1 append(x)
Add item x onto the end of the list.
>>>
>>>
>>>
[1,

list = [1, 2, 3]
list.append(4)
list
2, 3, 4]

See pop(i)8

9.13.2 pop(i)
Remove the item in the list at the index i and return it. If i is not given, remove the the
last item in the list and return it.
>>> list = [1, 2, 3, 4]
>>> a = list.pop(0)
>>> list
[2, 3, 4]
>>> a
1
>>> b = list.pop()
>>>list
[2, 3]
>>> b
4

9.14 operators
9.14.1 in
The operator in is used for two purposes; either to iterate over every item in a list in a for
loop, or to check if a value is in a list returning true or false.
>>> list = [1, 2, 3, 4]
>>> if 3 in list:
>>>
....
>>> l = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
>>> 3 in l
True
>>> 18 in l
False
>>>for x in l:
>>>
print x
0
1
2
3

48

Chapter 9.13.2 on page 48

Subclassing
4

9.15 Subclassing
In a modern version of Python [which one?], there is a class called list. You can make
your own subclass of it, and determine list behaviour which is dierent from the default
standard.

9.16 Exercises
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Use a list comprehension to construct the list [ab, ac, ad, bb, bc, bd].
Use a slice on the above list to construct the list [ab, ad, bc].
Use a list comprehension to construct the list [1a, 2a, 3a, 4a].
Simultaneously remove the element 2a from the above list and print it.
Copy the above list and add 2a back into the list such that the original is still missing
it.
6. Use a list comprehension to construct the list [abe, abf, ace, acf, ade, adf,
bbe, bbf, bce, bcf, bde, bdf]

9.17 External links

Python documentation, chapter Sequence Types9 -- python.org
Python Tutorial, chapter Lists10 -- python.org
}}

9
10

http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html?highlight=rstrip#sequence-types-str-unicode-list-tuple-byt
http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/introduction.html#lists

49

10 Dictionaries
A dictionary in Python is a collection of unordered values accessed by key rather than by
index. The keys have to be hashable: integers, oating point numbers, strings, tuples, and
frozensets are hashable, while lists, dictionaries, and sets other than frozensets are not.
Dictionaries were available as early as in Python 1.4.

10.1 Overview
Dictionaries in Python at a glance:
dict1 = {}
# Create an empty dictionary
dict2 = dict()
# Create an empty dictionary 2
dict2 = {"r": 34, "i": 56}
# Initialize to non-empty value
dict3 = dict([("r", 34), ("i", 56)]) # Init from a list of tuples
dict4 = dict(r=34, i=56)
# Initialize to non-empty value 3
dict1["temperature"] = 32
# Assign value to a key
if "temperature" in dict1:
# Membership test of a key AKA key exists
del dict1["temperature"]
# Delete AKA remove
equalbyvalue = dict2 == dict3
itemcount2 = len(dict2)
# Length AKA size AKA item count
isempty2 = len(dict2) == 0
# Emptiness test
for key in dict2:
# Iterate via keys
# Print key and the associated value
print key, dict2[key]
dict2[key] += 10
# Modify-access to the key-value pair
for value in dict2.values():
# Iterate via values
print value
dict5 = {} # {x: dict2[x] + 1 for x in dict2 } # Dictionary comprehension in
Python 2.7 or later
dict6 = dict2.copy()
# A shallow copy
dict6.update({"i": 60, "j": 30}) # Add or overwrite
dict7 = dict2.copy()
dict7.clear()
# Clear AKA empty AKA erase
print dict1, dict2, dict3, dict4, dict5, dict6, dict7, equalbyvalue, itemcount2

10.2 Dictionary notation

Dictionaries may be created directly or converted from sequences. Dictionaries are enclosed
in curly braces, {}
>>> d = {'city':'Paris', 'age':38, (102,1650,1601):'A matrix coordinate'}
>>> seq = [('city','Paris'), ('age', 38), ((102,1650,1601),'A matrix
coordinate')]
>>> d
{'city': 'Paris', 'age': 38, (102, 1650, 1601): 'A matrix coordinate'}
>>> dict(seq)
{'city': 'Paris', 'age': 38, (102, 1650, 1601): 'A matrix coordinate'}
>>> d == dict(seq)
True

51

Dictionaries
Also, dictionaries can be easily created by zipping two sequences.
>>> seq1 = ('a','b','c','d')
>>> seq2 = [1,2,3,4]
>>> d = dict(zip(seq1,seq2))
>>> d
{'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2, 'd': 4}

10.3 Operations on Dictionaries

The operations on dictionaries are somewhat unique. Slicing is not supported, since the
items have no intrinsic order.
>>> d = {'a':1,'b':2, 'cat':'Fluffers'}
>>> d.keys()
['a', 'b', 'cat']
>>> d.values()
[1, 2, 'Fluffers']
>>> d['a']
1
>>> d['cat'] = 'Mr. Whiskers'
>>> d['cat']
'Mr. Whiskers'
>>> 'cat' in d
True
>>> 'dog' in d
False

10.4 Combining two Dictionaries

You can combine two dictionaries by using the update method of the primary dictionary.
Note that the update method will merge existing elements if they conict.
>>> d = {'apples': 1, 'oranges': 3, 'pears': 2}
>>> ud = {'pears': 4, 'grapes': 5, 'lemons': 6}
>>> d.update(ud)
>>> d
{'grapes': 5, 'pears': 4, 'lemons': 6, 'apples': 1, 'oranges': 3}
>>>

10.5 Deleting from dictionary

del dictionaryName[membername]

10.6 Exercises
Write a program that:

52

External links
1. Asks the user for a string, then creates the following dictionary. The values are the
letters in the string, with the corresponding key being the place in the string.
2. Replaces the entry whose key is the integer 3, with the value Pie.
3. Asks the user for a string of digits, then prints out the values corresponding to those
digits.

10.7 External links

Python documentation, chapter Dictionaries1 -- python.org
Python documentation, The Python Standard Library, 5.8.
python.org

1
2

Mapping Types2 --

http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/datastructures.html#dictionaries
http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#typesmapping

53

11 Sets
Starting with version 2.3, Python comes with an implementation of the mathematical set.
Initially this implementation had to be imported from the standard module set , but with
Python 2.6 the types set and frozenset1 became built-in types. A set is an unordered
collection of objects, unlike sequence objects such as lists and tuples, in which each element
is indexed. Sets cannot have duplicate members - a given object appears in a set 0 or 1
times. All members of a set have to be hashable, just like dictionary keys. Integers, oating
point numbers, tuples, and strings are hashable; dictionaries, lists, and other sets (except
frozensets) are not.

11.0.1 Overview
Sets in Python at a glance:
set1 = set()
# A new empty set
set1.add("cat")
# Add a single member
set1.update(["dog", "mouse"]) # Add several members
if "cat" in set1:
# Membership test
set1.remove("cat")
#set1.remove("elephant") - throws an error
print set1
for item in set1:
# Iteration AKA for each element
print item
print "Item count:", len(set1) # Length AKA size AKA item count
isempty = len(set1) == 0
# Test for emptiness
set1 = set(["cat", "dog"])
# Initialize set from a list
set2 = set(["dog", "mouse"])
set3 = set1 & set2
# Intersection
set4 = set1 | set2
# Union
set5 = set1 - set3
# Set difference
set6 = set1 ^ set2
# Symmetric difference
issubset = set1 <= set2
# Subset test
issuperset = set1 >= set2
# Superset test
set7 = set1.copy()
# A shallow copy
set7.remove("cat")
set8 = set1.copy()
set8.clear()
# Clear AKA empty AKA erase
print set1, set2, set3, set4, set5, set6, set7, set8, issubset, issuperset

11.0.2 Constructing Sets

One way to construct sets is by passing any sequential object to the set constructor.
>>> set([0, 1, 2, 3])
set([0, 1, 2, 3])

Chapter 11.0.8 on page 59

55

Sets
>>> set("obtuse")
set(['b', 'e', 'o', 's', 'u', 't'])

We can also add elements to sets one by one, using the add function.
>>> s = set([12, 26, 54])
>>> s.add(32)
>>> s
set([32, 26, 12, 54])

Note that since a set does not contain duplicate elements, if we add one of the members of
s to s again, the add function will have no eect. This same behavior occurs in the update
function, which adds a group of elements to a set.
>>> s.update([26, 12, 9, 14])
>>> s
set([32, 9, 12, 14, 54, 26])

Note that you can give any type of sequential structure, or even another set, to the update
function, regardless of what structure was used to initialize the set.
The set function also provides a copy constructor. However, remember that the copy constructor will copy the set, but not the individual elements.
>>> s2 = s.copy()
>>> s2
set([32, 9, 12, 14, 54, 26])

11.0.3 Membership Testing

We can check if an object is in the set using the same in operator as with sequential data
types.
>>> 32 in s
True
>>> 6 in s
False
>>> 6 not in s
True

We can also test the membership of entire sets. Given two sets S1 and S2 , we check if S1 is
a subset2 or a superset of S2 .
>>> s.issubset(set([32, 8, 9, 12, 14, -4, 54, 26, 19]))
True
>>> s.issuperset(set([9, 12]))
True

Note that issubset and issuperset can also accept sequential data types as arguments
>>> s.issuperset([32, 9])
True

56

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subset

External links
Note that the <= and >= operators also express the issubset and issuperset functions
respectively.
>>> set([4, 5, 7]) <= set([4, 5, 7, 9])
True
>>> set([9, 12, 15]) >= set([9, 12])
True

Like lists, tuples, and string, we can use the len function to nd the number of items in a
set.

11.0.4 Removing Items

There are three functions which remove individual items from a set, called pop, remove,
and discard. The rst, pop, simply removes an item from the set. Note that there is no
dened behavior as to which element it chooses to remove.
>>> s = set([1,2,3,4,5,6])
>>> s.pop()
1
>>> s
set([2,3,4,5,6])

We also have the remove function to remove a specied element.

>>> s.remove(3)
>>> s
set([2,4,5,6])

However, removing a item which isnt in the set causes an error.

>>> s.remove(9)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
KeyError: 9

If you wish to avoid this error, use discard. It has the same functionality as remove, but
will simply do nothing if the element isnt in the set
We also have another operation for removing elements from a set, clear, which simply
removes all elements from the set.
>>> s.clear()
>>> s
set([])

11.0.5 Iteration Over Sets

We can also have a loop move over each of the items in a set. However, since sets are
unordered, it is undened which order the iteration will follow.
>>> s = set("blerg")
>>> for n in s:
...
print n,

57

Sets
...
r b e l g

11.0.6 Set Operations

Python allows us to perform all the standard mathematical set operations, using members
of set. Note that each of these set operations has several forms. One of these forms,
s1.function(s2) will return another set which is created by function applied to S1 and S2 .
The other form, s1.function_update(s2), will change S1 to be the set created by function
of S1 and S2 . Finally, some functions have equivalent special operators. For example, s1 &
s2 is equivalent to s1.intersection(s2)
Intersection
Any element which is in both S1 and S2 will appear in their intersection3 .
>>> s1 = set([4, 6, 9])
>>> s2 = set([1, 6, 8])
>>> s1.intersection(s2)
set([6])
>>> s1 & s2
set([6])
>>> s1.intersection_update(s2)
>>> s1
set([6])

Union
The union4 is the merger of two sets. Any element in S1 or S2 will appear in their union.
>>> s1 = set([4,
>>> s2 = set([1,
>>> s1.union(s2)
set([1, 4, 6, 8,
>>> s1 | s2
set([1, 4, 6, 8,

6, 9])
6, 8])
9])
9])

Note that unions update function is simply update above5 .

Symmetric Dierence
The symmetric dierence6 of two sets is the set of elements which are in one of either set,
but not in both.

3
4
5
6

58

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/intersection_%28set_theory%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/union_%28set_theory%29
Chapter 11.0.2 on page 55
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/symmetric_difference

External links

>>> s1 = set([4, 6, 9])

>>> s2 = set([1, 6, 8])
>>> s1.symmetric_difference(s2)
set([8, 1, 4, 9])
>>> s1 ^ s2
set([8, 1, 4, 9])
>>> s1.symmetric_difference_update(s2)
>>> s1
set([8, 1, 4, 9])

Set Dierence
Python can also nd the set dierence7 of S1 and S2 , which is the elements that are in S1
but not in S2 .
>>> s1 = set([4, 6, 9])
>>> s2 = set([1, 6, 8])
>>> s1.difference(s2)
set([9, 4])
>>> s1 - s2
set([9, 4])
>>> s1.difference_update(s2)
>>> s1
set([9, 4])

11.0.7 Multiple sets

Starting with Python 2.6, union, intersection, and dierence can work with multiple
input by using the set constructor. For example, using set.intersection():
>>> s1 = set([3, 6, 7, 9])
>>> s2 = set([6, 7, 9, 10])
>>> s3 = set([7, 9, 10, 11])
>>> set.intersection(s1, s2, s3)
set([9, 7])

11.0.8 frozenset
A frozenset is basically the same as a set, except that it is immutable - once it is created, its
members cannot be changed. Since they are immutable, they are also hashable, which means
that frozensets can be used as members in other sets and as dictionary keys. frozensets have
the same functions as normal sets, except none of the functions that change the contents
(update, remove, pop, etc.) are available.
>>> fs = frozenset([2, 3, 4])
>>> s1 = set([fs, 4, 5, 6])
>>> s1
set([4, frozenset([2, 3, 4]), 6, 5])
>>> fs.intersection(s1)
frozenset([4])
>>> fs.add(6)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complement_%28set_theory%29%23Relative_Complement

59

Sets
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'frozenset' object has no attribute 'add'

11.0.9 Exercises
1.
2.
3.
4.

Create the set {cat, 1, 2, 3}, call it s.

Create the set {c, a, t, 1, 2, 3}.
Create the frozen set {cat, 1, 2, 3}, call it fs.
Create a set containing the frozenset fs, it should look like {frozenset({cat, 2, 3, 1})}.

11.0.10 Reference
Python Tutorial, section Data Structures, subsection Sets8 -- python.org
Python Library Reference on Set Types9 -- python.org

8
9

60

https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/datastructures.html#sets
https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#set-types-set-frozenset

12 Operators
12.1 Basics
Python math works like you would expect.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
6
>>>
5
>>>
11
>>>
25

x
y
z
x

=
=
=
*

2
3
5
y

x + y
x * y + z
(x + y) * z

Note that Python adheres to the PEMDAS order of operations1 .

12.2 Powers
There is a built in exponentiation operator **, which can take either integers, oating point
or complex numbers. This occupies its proper place in the order of operations.
>>> 2**8
256

12.3 Division and Type Conversion

For Python 2.x, dividing two integers or longs uses integer division, also known as oor
division (applying the oor function2 after division. So, for example, 5 / 2 is 2. Using
/ to do division this way is deprecated; if you want oor division, use // (available in
Python 2.2 and later).
/ does true division for oats and complex numbers; for example, 5.0/2.0 is 2.5.
For Python 3.x, / does true division for all types.34

1
2
3
4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order%20of%20operations%20
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floor%20function
[http://www.python.org/doc/2.2.3/whatsnew/node7.html Whats New in Python 2.2
PEP 238 -- Changing the Division Operator {http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0238/}

61

Operators
Dividing by or into a oating point number (there are no fractional types in Python) will
cause Python to use true division. To coerce an integer to become a oat, oat() with the
integer as a parameter
>>> x = 5
>>> float(x)
5.0

This can be generalized for other numeric types: int(), complex(), long().
Beware that due to the limitations of oating point arithmetic5 , rounding errors can cause
unexpected results. For example:
>>> print 0.6/0.2
3.0
>>> print 0.6//0.2
2.0

12.4 Modulo
The modulus (remainder of the division of the two operands, rather than the quotient) can
be found using the % operator, or by the divmod builtin function. The divmod function
returns a tuple containing the quotient and remainder.
>>> 10%7
3

12.5 Negation
Unlike some other languages, variables can be negated directly:
>>> x = 5
>>> -x
-5

12.6 Comparison
Numbers, strings and other types can be compared for equality/inequality and ordering:
>>> 2 == 3
False
>>> 3 == 3
True
>>> 2 < 3
True

62

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/floating%20point

Identity
>>> "a" < "aa"
True

12.7 Identity
The operators is and is not test for object identity: x is y is true if and only if x and
y are references to the same object in memory. x is not y yields the inverse truth value.
Note that an identity test is more stringent than an equality test since two distinct objects
may have the same value.
>>> [1,2,3] == [1,2,3]
True
>>> [1,2,3] is [1,2,3]
False

For the built-in immutable data types6 (like int, str and tuple) Python uses caching mechanisms to improve performance, i.e., the interpreter may decide to reuse an existing immutable object instead of generating a new one with the same value. The details of object
caching are subject to changes between dierent Python versions and are not guaranteed to
be system-independent, so identity checks on immutable objects like 'hello' is 'hello'
, (1,2,3) is (1,2,3) , 4 is 2**2 may give dierent results on dierent machines.

12.8 Augmented Assignment

There is shorthand for assigning the output of an operation to one of the inputs:
>>>
>>>
2
>>>
>>>
6
>>>
>>>
10
>>>
>>>
2
>>>
>>>
4
>>>
>>>
1

x = 2
x # 2
x *= 3
x # 2 * 3
x += 4
x # 2 * 3 + 4
x /= 5
x # (2 * 3 + 4) / 5
x **= 2
x # ((2 * 3 + 4) / 5) ** 2
x %= 3
x # ((2 * 3 + 4) / 5) ** 2 % 3

>>> x = 'repeat this '

>>> x # repeat this
repeat this
>>> x *= 3 # fill with x repeated three times
>>> x
repeat this repeat this repeat this

Chapter 6 on page 22

63

Operators

12.9 Boolean
or:
if a or b:
do_this
else:
do_this

and:
if a and b:
do_this
else:
do_this

not:
if not a:
do_this
else:
do_this

The order of operations here is: not rst, and second, or third. In particular, True or
True and False or False becomes True or False or False which is True.
Caution, Boolean operators are valid on things other than Booleans; for instance 1 and 6
will return 6. Specically, and returns either the rst value considered to be false, or the
last value if all are considered true. or returns the rst true value, or the last value if all
are considered false.

12.10 Exercises
22

1. Use Python to calculate 22 = 65536.

4
89.285.
2. Use Python to calculate (3+2)
7
3. Use Python to calculate 11111111111111111111+22222222222222222222, but in one
line of code with at most 15 characters. (Hint: each of those numbers is 20 digits
long, so you have to nd some other way to input those numbers)
4. Exactly one of the following expressions evaluates to cat; the other evaluates to
dog. Trace the logic to determine which one is which, then check your answer using
Python.
1 and "cat" or "dog"
0 and "cat" or "dog"

12.11 References

64

13 Flow control
As with most imperative languages, there are three main categories of program control ow:
loops
branches
function calls
Function calls are covered in the next section1 .
Generators and list comprehensions are advanced forms of program control ow, but they
are not covered here.

13.0.1 Overview
Control ow in Python at a glance:
x = -6
# Branching
if x > 0:
# If
print "Positive"
elif x == 0:
# Else if AKA elseif
print "Zero"
else:
# Else
print "Negative"
list1 = [100, 200, 300]
for i in list1: print i
# A for loop
for i in range(0, 5): print i
# A for loop from 0 to 4
# A for loop from 5 to 1
for i in range(5, 0, -1): print i
for i in range(0, 5, 2): print i
# A for loop from 0 to 4, step 2
list2 = [(1, 1), (2, 4), (3, 9)]
for x, xsq in list2: print x, xsq
# A for loop with a two-tuple as its
iterator
l1 = [1, 2]; l2 = ['a', 'b']
for i1, i2 in zip(l1, l2): print i1, i2 # A for loop iterating two lists at
once.
i = 5
while i > 0:
# A while loop
i -= 1
list1 = ["cat", "dog", "mouse"]
i = -1 # -1 if not found
for item in list1:
i += 1
if item=="dog":
break
# Break; also usable with while loop
print "Index of dog:",i
for i in range(1,6):
if i <= 4:
continue
# Continue; also usable with while loop
print "Greater than 4:", i

Chapter 14 on page 73

65

Flow control

13.0.2 Loops
In Python, there are two kinds of loops, for loops and while loops.
For loops
A for loop iterates over elements of a sequence (tuple or list). A variable is created to
represent the object in the sequence. For example,
x = [100,200,300]
for i in x:
print i

This will output

100
200
300

The for loop loops over each of the elements of a list or iterator, assigning the current
element to the variable name given. In the example above, each of the elements in x is
assigned to i .
A built-in function called range exists to make creating sequential lists such as the one
above easier. The loop above is equivalent to:
l = range(100, 301,100)
for i in l:
print i

The next example uses a negative step (the third argument for the built-in range function):
for i in range(5, 0, -1):
print i

This will output

5
4
3
2
1

The negative step can be -2:

for i in range(10, 0, -2):
print i

This will output

66

References

10
8
6
4
2

For loops can have names for each element of a tuple, if it loops over a sequence of tuples:
l = [(1, 1), (2, 4), (3, 9), (4, 16), (5, 25)]
for x, xsquared in l:
print x, ':', xsquared

This will output

1
2
3
4
5

:
:
:
:
:

1
4
9
16
25

Links:
4.2. for Statements2 , The Python Tutorial, docs.python.org
4.3. The range() Function3 , The Python Tutorial, docs.python.org
While loops
A while loop repeats a sequence of statements until some condition becomes false. For
example:
x = 5
while x > 0:
print x
x = x - 1

Will output:
5
4
3
2
1

Pythons while loops can also have an else clause, which is a block of statements that is
executed (once) when the while statement evaluates to false. The break statement inside
the while loop will not direct the program ow to the else clause. For example:
x = 5
y = x
while y > 0:

2
3

http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/controlflow.html#for-statements
http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/controlflow.html#the-range-function

67

Flow control
print y
y = y - 1
else:
print x

This will output:

5
4
3
2
1
5

Unlike some languages, there is no post-condition loop.

Links:
3.2. First Steps Towards Programming4 , The Python Tutorial, docs.python.org
Breaking and continuing
Python includes statements to exit a loop (either a for loop or a while loop) prematurely.
To exit a loop, use the break statement:
x = 5
while x > 0:
print x
break
x -= 1
print x

This will output

5

The statement to begin the next iteration of the loop without waiting for the end of the
current loop is continue.
l = [5,6,7]
for x in l:
continue
print x

This will not produce any output.

Else clause of loops
The else clause of loops will be executed if no break statements are met in the loop.

68

http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/introduction.html#first-steps-towards-programming

References

l = range(1,100)
for x in l:
if x == 100:
print x
break
else:
print x," is not 100"
else:
print "100 not found in range"

Another example of a while loop using the break statement and the else statement:
expected_str = "melon"
received_str = "apple"
basket = ["banana", "grapes", "strawberry", "melon", "orange"]
x = 0
step = int(raw_input("Input iteration step: "))
while(received_str != expected_str):
if(x >= len(basket)): print "No more fruits left on the basket."; break
received_str = basket[x]
x += step # Change this to 3 to make the while statement
# evaluate to false, avoiding the break statement, using the else
clause.
if(received_str==basket[2]): print "I hate",basket[2],"!"; break
if(received_str != expected_str): print "I am waiting for my
",expected_str,"."
else:
print "Finally got what I wanted! my precious ",expected_str,"!"
print "Going back home now !"

This will output:

Input iteration step: 2
I am waiting for my melon .
I hate strawberry !
Going back home now !

White Space
Python determines where a loop repeats itself by the indentation in the whitespace. Everything that is indented is part of the loop, the next entry that is not indented is not. For
example, the code below prints 1 1 2 1 1 2
for i in [0, 1]:
for j in ["a","b"]:
print("1")
print("2")

On the other hand, the code below prints 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2

for i in [0, 1]:
for j in ["a","b"]:
print("1")
print("2")

69

Flow control

13.0.3 Branches
There is basically only one kind of branch in Python, the if statement. The simplest form
of the if statement simple executes a block of code only if a given predicate is true, and
skips over it if the predicate is false
For instance,
>>> x = 10
>>> if x > 0:
...
print "Positive"
...
Positive
>>> if x < 0:
...
print "Negative"
...

You can also add elif (short for else if) branches onto the if statement. If the predicate
on the rst if is false, it will test the predicate on the rst elif, and run that branch if
its true. If the rst elif is false, it tries the second one, and so on. Note, however, that it
will stop checking branches as soon as it nds a true predicate, and skip the rest of the if
statement. You can also end your if statements with an else branch. If none of the other
branches are executed, then python will run this branch.
>>> x = -6
>>> if x > 0:
...
print "Positive"
... elif x == 0:
...
print "Zero"
... else:
...
print "Negative"
...
'Negative'

Links:
4.1. if Statements5 , The Python Tutorial, docs.python.org

13.0.4 Conclusion
Any of these loops, branches, and function calls can be nested in any way desired. A loop
can loop over a loop, a branch can branch again, and a function can call other functions,
or even call itself.

13.1 Exercises
1.
2.
3.
4.
5

70

Print the numbers from 0 to 1000 (including both 0 and 1000).

Print the numbers from 0 to 1000 that are multiples of 5.
Print the numbers from 1 to 1000 that are multiples of 5.
Use a nested for-loop to prints the 3x3 multiplication table below

http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/controlflow.html#if-statements

External links

1 2 3
2 4 6
3 6 9

1. Print the 3x3 multiplication table below.

1 2 3
-----1|1 2 3
2|2 4 6
3|3 6 9

13.2 External links

4. More Control Flow Tools6 , The Python Tutorial, docs.python.org

http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/controlflow.html

71

14 Functions
14.1 Function Calls
A callable object is an object that can accept some arguments (also called parameters) and
possibly return an object (often a tuple containing multiple objects).
A function is the simplest callable object in Python, but there are others, such as classes1
or certain class instances.
Dening Functions
A function is dened in Python by the following format:
def functionname(arg1, arg2, ...):
statement1
statement2
...
>>> def functionname(arg1,arg2):
...
return arg1+arg2
...
>>> t = functionname(24,24) # Result: 48

If a function takes no arguments, it must still include the parentheses, but without anything
in them:
def functionname():
statement1
statement2
...

The arguments in the function denition bind the arguments passed at function invocation
(i.e. when the function is called), which are called actual parameters, to the names given
when the function is dened, which are called formal parameters. The interior of the
function has no knowledge of the names given to the actual parameters; the names of the
actual parameters may not even be accessible (they could be inside another function).
A function can return a value, for example:
def square(x):
return x*x

Chapter 19 on page 99

73

Functions
A function can dene variables within the function body, which are considered local to the
function. The locals together with the arguments comprise all the variables within the scope
of the function. Any names within the function are unbound when the function returns or
reaches the end of the function body.
You can return multiple values as follows:
def first2items(list1):
return list1[0], list1[1]
a, b = first2items(["Hello", "world", "hi", "universe"])
print a + " " + b

Keywords: returning multiple values, multiple return values.

14.1.1 Declaring Arguments

When calling a function that takes some values for further processing, we need to send some
values as Function Arguments . For example:
>>> def find_max(a,b):
if(a>b):
print "a is greater than b"
else:
print "b is greater than a"
>>> find_max(30,45) #Here (30,45) are the arguments passing for finding max
between this two numbers
The ouput will be: 45 is greater than 30

Default Argument Values

If any of the formal parameters in the function denition are declared with the format arg
= value, then you will have the option of not specifying a value for those arguments when
calling the function. If you do not specify a value, then that parameter will have the default
value given when the function executes.
>>> def display_message(message, truncate_after=4):
...
print message[:truncate_after]
...
>>> display_message("message")
mess
>>> display_message("message", 6)
messag

Links:
4.7.1. Default Argument Values2 , The Python Tutorial, docs.python.org

74

http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/controlflow.html#default-argument-values

Function Calls
Variable-Length Argument Lists
Python allows you to declare two special arguments which allow you to create arbitrarylength argument lists. This means that each time you call the function, you can specify any
number of arguments above a certain number.
def function(first,second,*remaining):
statement1
statement2
...

When calling the above function, you must provide value for each of the rst two arguments.
However, since the third parameter is marked with an asterisk, any actual parameters after
the rst two will be packed into a tuple and bound to remaining.
>>> def print_tail(first,*tail):
...
print tail
...
>>> print_tail(1, 5, 2, "omega")
(5, 2, 'omega')

If we declare a formal parameter prexed with two asterisks, then it will be bound to
a dictionary containing any keyword arguments in the actual parameters which do not
correspond to any formal parameters. For example, consider the function:
def make_dictionary(max_length=10, **entries):
return dict([(key, entries[key]) for i, key in enumerate(entries.keys()) if
i < max_length])

If we call this function with any keyword arguments other than max_length, they will be
placed in the dictionary entries. If we include the keyword argument of max_length, it
will be bound to the formal parameter max_length, as usual.
>>> make_dictionary(max_length=2, key1=5, key2=7, key3=9)
{'key3': 9, 'key2': 7}

Links:
4.7.3. Arbitrary Argument Lists3 , The Python Tutorial, docs.python.org
By Value and by Reference
Objects passed as arguments to functions are passed by reference ; they are not being copied
around. Thus, passing a large list as an argument does not involve copying all its members
to a new location in memory. Note that even integers are objects. However, the distinction
of by value and by reference present in some other programming languages often serves to
distinguish whether the passed arguments can be actually changed by the called function
and whether the calling function can see the changes .
Passed objects of mutable types such as lists and dictionaries can be changed by the called
function and the changes are visible to the calling function. Passed objects of immutable

http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/controlflow.html#arbitrary-argument-lists

75

Functions
types such as integers and strings cannot be changed by the called function; the calling
function can be certain that the called function will not change them. For mutability, see
also Data Types4 chapter.
An example:
def appendItem(ilist, item):
ilist.append(item) # Modifies ilist in a way visible to the caller
def replaceItems(ilist, newcontentlist):
del ilist[:]
# Modification visible to the caller
ilist.extend(newcontentlist) # Modification visible to the caller
ilist = [5, 6] # No outside effect; lets the local ilist point to a new list
object,
# losing the reference to the list object passed as an argument
def clearSet(iset):
iset.clear()
def tryToTouchAnInteger(iint):
iint += 1 # No outside effect; lets the local iint to point to a new int
object,
# losing the reference to the int object passed as an argument
print "iint inside:",iint # 4 if iint was 3 on function entry
list1 = [1, 2]
appendItem(list1, 3)
print list1 # [1, 2, 3]
replaceItems(list1, [3, 4])
print list1 # [3, 4]
set1 = set([1, 2])
clearSet(set1 )
print set1 # set([])
int1 = 3
tryToTouchAnInteger(int1)
print int1 # 3

14.1.2 Preventing Argument Change

An argument cannot be declared to be constant, not to be changed by the called function.
If an argument is of an immutable type, it cannot be changed anyway, but if it is of a
mutable type such as list, the calling function is at the mercy of the called function. Thus,
if the calling function wants to make sure a passed list does not get changed, it has to pass
a copy of the list.
An example:
def evilGetLength(ilist):
length = len(ilist)
del ilist[:] # Muhaha: clear the list
return length
list1
print
print
list1
print
print

76

= [1, 2]
evilGetLength(list1) # list1 gets cleared
list1
= [1, 2]
evilGetLength(list1[:]) # Pass a copy of list1
list1

Chapter 6 on page 22

Closures

14.1.3 Calling Functions

A function can be called by appending the arguments in parentheses to the function name,
or an empty matched set of parentheses if the function takes no arguments.
foo()
square(3)
bar(5, x)

A functions return value can be used by assigning it to a variable, like so:

x = foo()
y = bar(5,x)

As shown above, when calling a function you can specify the parameters by name and you
can do so in any order
def display_message(message, start=0, end=4):
print message[start:end]
display_message("message", end=3)

This above is valid and start will have the default value of 0. A restriction placed on this
is after the rst named argument then all arguments after it must also be named. The
following is not valid
display_message(end=5, start=1, "my message")

because the third argument (my message) is an unnamed argument.

14.2 Closures
A closure is a nested function with an after-return access to the data of the outer function,
where the nested function is returned by the outer function as a function object. Thus, even
when the outer function has nished its execution after being called, the closure function
returned by it can refer to the values of the variables that the outer function had when it
dened the closure function.
An example:
def adder(outer_argument): # outer function
def adder_inner(inner_argument): # inner function, nested function
return outer_argument + inner_argument # Notice outer_argument
return adder_inner
add5 = adder(5) # a function that adds 5 to its argument
add7 = adder(7) # a function that adds 7 to its argument
print add5(3) # prints 8
print add7(3) # prints 10

Closures are possible in Python because functions are rst-class objects . A function is
merely an object of type function. Being an object means it is possible to pass a function
object (an uncalled function) around as argument or as return value or to assign another
name to the function object. A unique feature that makes closure useful is that the enclosed
function may use the names dened in the parent functions scope.

77

Functions

14.3 Lambda Expressions

A lambda is an anonymous (unnamed) function. It is used primarily to write very short
functions that are a hassle to dene in the normal way. A function like this:
>>> def add(a, b):
...
return a + b
...
>>> add(4, 3)
7

may also be dened using lambda

>>> print (lambda a, b: a + b)(4, 3)
7

Lambda is often used as an argument to other functions that expects a function object,
such as sorted()s key argument.
>>> sorted([[3, 4], [3, 5], [1, 2], [7, 3]], key=lambda x: x[1])
[[1, 2], [7, 3], [3, 4], [3, 5]]

The lambda form is often useful as a closure, such as illustrated in the following example:
>>> def attribution(name):
...
return lambda x: x + ' -- ' + name
...
>>> pp = attribution('John')
>>> pp('Dinner is in the fridge')
'Dinner is in the fridge -- John'

Note that the lambda function can use the values of variables from the scope5 in which it
was created (like pre and post). This is the essence of closure.
Links:
4.7.5. Lambda Expressions6 , The Python Tutorial, docs.python.org

14.3.1 Generator Functions

When discussing loops, you can across the concept of an iterator . This yields in turn each
element of some sequence, rather than the entire sequence at once, allowing you to deal
with sequences much larger than might be able to t in memory at once.
You can create your own iterators, by dening what is known as a generator function . To
illustrate the usefulness of this, let us start by considering a simple function to return the
concatenation of two lists:
def concat(a, b) :
return a + b
#end concat

5
6

78

Chapter 15 on page 81
http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/controlflow.html#lambda-expressions

Lambda Expressions
print concat([5, 4, 3], ["a", "b", "c"])
# prints [5, 4, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c']

Imagine wanting to do something like concat(range(0, 1000000), range(1000000,

2000000))
That would work, but it would consume a lot of memory.
Consider an alternative denition, which takes two iterators as arguments:
def concat(a, b) :
for i in a :
yield i
#end for
for i in b :
yield i
#end b
#end concat

Notice the use of the yield statement, instead of return . We can now use this something
like
for i in concat(xrange(0, 1000000), xrange(1000000, 2000000))
print i
#end for

and print out an awful lot of numbers, without using a lot of memory at all.
Note:
You can still pass a list or other sequence type wherever Python expects an iterator (like
to an argument of your concat function); this will still work, and makes it easy not to
have to worry about the dierence where you dont need to.

14.3.2 External Links

4.6. Dening Functions7 , The Python Tutorial, docs.python.org
de:Python unter Linux:
Funktionen8 es:Inmersin en Python/Su primer programa en Python/Declaracin de funciones9 fr:Programmation_Python/Fonction10
pt:Python/Conceitos bsicos/Funes11

7
8
9
10
11

http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/controlflow.html#defining-functions
https://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%20unter%20Linux%3A%20Funktionen
https://es.wikibooks.org/wiki/Inmersi%C3%B3n%20en%20Python%2FSu%20primer%20programa%20en%20Python%2FDeclar
https://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programmation_Python%2FFonction
https://pt.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%2FConceitos%20b%C3%A1sicos%2FFun%C3%A7%C3%B5es

79

15 Scoping
15.0.1 Variables
Variables in Python are automatically declared by assignment. Variables are always references to objects, and are never typed. Variables exist only in the current scope or global
scope. When they go out of scope, the variables are destroyed, but the objects to which
they refer are not (unless the number of references to the object drops to zero).
Scope is delineated by function and class blocks. Both functions and their scopes can be
nested. So therefore
def foo():
def bar():
x = 5 # x is now in scope
return x + y # y is defined in the enclosing scope later
y = 10
return bar() # now that y is defined, bar's scope includes y

Now when this code is tested,

>>> foo()
15
>>> bar()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#26>", line 1, in -toplevelbar()
NameError: name 'bar' is not defined

The name bar is not found because a higher scope does not have access to the names lower
in the hierarchy.
It is a common pitfall to fail to lookup an attribute (such as a method) of an object (such
as a container) referenced by a variable before the variable is assigned the object. In its
most common form:
>>> for x in range(10):
y.append(x) # append is an attribute of lists
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#46>", line 2, in -toplevely.append(x)
NameError: name 'y' is not defined

Here, to correct this problem, one must add y = [] before the for loop.

81

16 Exceptions
Python handles all errors with exceptions.
An exception is a signal that an error or other unusual condition has occurred. There are a
number of built-in exceptions, which indicate conditions like reading past the end of a le,
or dividing by zero. You can also dene your own exceptions.

16.0.1 Raising exceptions

Whenever your program attempts to do something erroneous or meaningless, Python raises
exception to such conduct:
>>> 1 / 0
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero

This traceback indicates that the ZeroDivisionError exception is being raised. This is a
built-in exception -- see below for a list of all the other ones.

16.0.2 Catching exceptions

In order to handle errors, you can set up exception handling blocks in your code. The
keywords try and except are used to catch exceptions. When an error occurs within the
try block, Python looks for a matching except block to handle it. If there is one, execution
jumps there.
If you execute this code:
try:
print 1/0
except ZeroDivisionError:
print "You can't divide by zero, you're silly."

Then Python will print this:

You cant divide by zero, youre silly.
If you dont specify an exception type on the except line, it will cheerfully catch all exceptions. This is generally a bad idea in production code, since it means your program will
blissfully ignore unexpected errors as well as ones which the except block is actually prepared
to handle.
Exceptions can propagate up the call stack:

83

Exceptions

def f(x):
return g(x) + 1
def g(x):
if x < 0: raise ValueError, "I can't cope with a negative number here."
else: return 5
try:
print f(-6)
except ValueError:
print "That value was invalid."

In this code, the print statement calls the function f. That function calls the function g,
which will raise an exception of type ValueError. Neither f nor g has a try/except block to
handle ValueError. So the exception raised propagates out to the main code, where there
is an exception-handling block waiting for it. This code prints:
That value was invalid.
Sometimes it is useful to nd out exactly what went wrong, or to print the python error
text yourself. For example:
try:
the_file = open("the_parrot")
except IOError, (ErrorNumber, ErrorMessage):
if ErrorNumber == 2: # file not found
print "Sorry, 'the_parrot' has apparently joined the choir invisible."
else:
print "Congratulation! you have managed to trip a #%d error" %
ErrorNumber
print ErrorMessage

Which of course will print:

Sorry, the_parrot has apparently joined the choir invisible.
Custom Exceptions
Code similar to that seen above can be used to create custom exceptions and pass information along with them. This can be extremely useful when trying to debug complicated
projects. Here is how that code would look; rst creating the custom exception class:
class CustomException(Exception):
def __init__(self, value):
self.parameter = value
def __str__(self):
return repr(self.parameter)

And then using that exception:

try:
raise CustomException("My Useful Error Message")
except CustomException, (instance):
print "Caught: " + instance.parameter

84

Lambda Expressions
Trying over and over again

16.0.3 Recovering and continuing with nally

Exceptions could lead to a situation where, after raising an exception, the code block where
the exception occurred might not be revisited. In some cases this might leave external
resources used by the program in an unknown state.
finally clause allows programmers to close such resources in case of an exception. Between
2.4 and 2.5 version of python there is change of syntax for finally clause.
Python 2.4
try:
result = None
try:
result = x/y
except ZeroDivisionError:
print "division by zero!"
print "result is ", result
finally:
print "executing finally clause"

Python 2.5
try:
result = x / y
except ZeroDivisionError:
print "division by zero!"
else:
print "result is", result
finally:
print "executing finally clause"

16.0.4 Built-in exception classes

All built-in Python exceptions1

16.0.5 Exotic uses of exceptions

Exceptions are good for more than just error handling. If you have a complicated piece of
code to choose which of several courses of action to take, it can be useful to use exceptions
to jump out of the code as soon as the decision can be made. The Python-based mailing list
software Mailman does this in deciding how a message should be handled. Using exceptions
like this may seem like its a sort of GOTO -- and indeed it is, but a limited one called an
escape continuation . Continuations are a powerful functional-programming tool and it can
be useful to learn them.
Just as a simple example of how exceptions make programming easier, say you want to add
items to a list but you dont want to use if statements to initialize the list we could replace
this:
1

http://docs.python.org/library/exceptions.html

85

Exceptions

if hasattr(self, 'items'):
self.items.extend(new_items)
else:
self.items = list(new_items)

Using exceptions, we can emphasize the normal program owthat usually we just extend
the listrather than emphasizing the unusual case:
try:
self.items.extend(new_items)
except AttributeError:
self.items = list(new_items)

86

17 Input and output

17.1 Input
Note on Python version: The following uses the syntax of Python 2.x. Some of the following
is not going to work with Python 3.x.
Python has two functions designed for accepting data directly from the user:
input()
raw_input()
There are also very simple ways of reading a le and, for stricter control over input, reading
from stdin if necessary.

17.1.1 raw_input()
raw_input() asks the user for a string of data (ended with a newline), and simply returns
the string. It can also take an argument, which is displayed as a prompt before the user
enters the data. E.g.
print (raw_input('What is your name? '))

prints out
What is your name? <user input data here>

Example: in order to assign the users name, i.e. string data, to a variable x you would
type
x = raw_input('What is your name?')

Once the user inputs his name, e.g. Simon, you can call it as x
print ('Your name is ' + x)

prints out
Your name is Simon

87

Input and output

Note:
in 3.x ...raw_input() was renamed to input(). That is, the new input() function reads
a line from sys.stdin and returns it with the trailing newline stripped. It raises EOFError if the input is terminated prematurely. To get the old behavior of input(), use
eval(input()).

17.1.2 input()
input() uses raw_input to read a string of data, and then attempts to evaluate it as if it
were a Python program, and then returns the value that results. So entering
[1,2,3]

would return a list containing those numbers, just as if it were assigned directly in the
Python script.
More complicated expressions are possible. For example, if a script says:
x = input('What are the first 10 perfect squares? ')

it is possible for a user to input:

map(lambda x: x*x, range(10))

which yields the correct answer in list form. Note that no inputted statement can span
more than one line.
input() should not be used for anything but the most trivial program. Turning the strings
returned from raw_input() into python types using an idiom such as:
x = None
while not x:
try:
x = int(raw_input())
except ValueError:
print 'Invalid Number'

is preferable, as input() uses eval() to turn a literal into a python type. This will allow a
malicious person to run arbitrary code from inside your program trivially.

17.1.3 File Input

File Objects
Python includes a built-in le type. Files can be opened by using the le types constructor:
f = file('test.txt', 'r')

This means f is open for reading. The rst argument is the lename and the second parameter is the mode, which can be r, w, or rw, among some others.

88

Input
The most common way to read from a le is simply to iterate over the lines of the le:
f = open('test.txt', 'r')
for line in f:
print line[0]
f.close()

This will print the rst character of each line. Note that a newline is attached to the end
of each line read this way.
The newer and better way to read from a le:
with open("text.txt", "r") as txt:
for line in txt:
print line

The advantage is, that the opened le will close itself after reading each line.
Because les are automatically closed when the le object goes out of scope, there is no real
need to close them explicitly. So, the loop in the previous code can also be written as:
for line in open('test.txt', 'r'):
print line[0]

You can read limited numbers of characters at a time like this:

c = f.read(1)
while len(c) > 0:
if len(c.strip()) > 0: print c,
c = f.read(1)

This will read the characters from f one at a time, and then print them if theyre not
whitespace.
A le object implicitly contains a marker to represent the current position. If the le marker
should be moved back to the beginning, one can either close the le object and reopen it or
just move the marker back to the beginning with:
f.seek(0)

Standard File Objects

Like many other languages, there are built-in le objects representing standard input, output, and error. These are in the sys module and are called stdin, stdout, and stderr. There
are also immutable copies of these in __stdin__, __stdout__, and __stderr__. This
is for IDLE and other tools in which the standard les have been changed.
You must import the sys module to use the special stdin, stdout, stderr I/O handles.
import sys

For ner control over input, use sys.stdin.read(). In order to implement the UNIX cat
program in Python, you could do something like this:

89

Input and output

import sys
for line in sys.stdin:
print line,

Note that sys.stdin.read() will read from standard input till EOF. (which is usually Ctrl+D.)
Also important is the sys.argv array. sys.argv is an array that contains the command-line
arguments passed to the program.
python program.py hello there programmer!

This array can be indexed,and the arguments evaluated. In the above example, sys.argv[2]
would contain the string there, because the name of the program (program.py) is stored
in argv[0]. For more complicated command-line argument processing, see the argparse
module.

17.2 Output
Note on Python version: The following uses the syntax of Python 2.x. Much of the following
is not going to work with Python 3.x. In particular, Python 3.x requires round brackets
around arguments to print.
The basic way to do output is the print statement.
print 'Hello, world'

To print multiple things on the same line separated by spaces, use commas between them,
like this:
print 'Hello,', 'World'

This will print out the following:

Hello, World

While neither string contained a space, a space was added by the print statement because
of the comma between the two objects. Arbitrary data types can be printed this way:
print 1,2,0xff,0777,(10+5j),-0.999,map,sys

This will output the following:

1 2 255 511 (10+5j) -0.999 <built-in function map> <module 'sys' (built-in)>

Objects can be printed on the same line without needing to be on the same line if one puts
a comma at the end of a print statement:

90

Output

for i in range(10):
print i,

This will output the following:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

To end the printed line with a newline, add a print statement without any objects.
for i in range(10):
print i,
print
for i in range(10,20):
print i,

This will output the following:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

If the bare print statement were not present, the above output would look like:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

You can use similar syntax when writing to a le instead of to standard output, like this:
print >> f, 'Hello, world'

This will print to any object that implements write(), which includes le objects.

17.2.1 Omitting newlines

To avoid adding spaces and newlines between objects output with subsequent print statements, you can do one of the following:
Concatenation : Concatenate the string representations of each object, then later print the
whole thing at once.
print str(1)+str(2)+str(0xff)+str(0777)+str(10+5j)+str(-0.999)+str(map)+str(sys)

This will output the following:

12255511(10+5j)-0.999<built-in function map><module 'sys' (built-in)>

Write function : You can make a shorthand for sys.stdout.write and use that for output.
import sys
write = sys.stdout.write
write('20')
write('05\n')

91

Input and output

This will output the following:
2005

You may need sys.stdout.ush() to get that text on the screen quickly.

17.2.2 Examples
Examples of output with Python 2.x :
print Hello
print Hello, world
Separates the two words with a space.
print Hello, 34
Prints elements of various data types, separating them by a space.
print Hello + 34
Throws an error as a result of trying to concatenate a string and an integer.
print Hello + str(34)
Uses + to concatenate strings, after converting a number to a string.
print Hello,
Prints Hello without a newline, with a space at the end.
sys.stdout.write(Hello)
Prints Hello without a newline. Doing import sys is a prerequisite. Needs a subsequent sys.stdout.ush() in order to display immediately on the users screen.
sys.stdout.write(Hello\n)
Prints Hello with a newline.
print >> sys.stderr, An error occurred.
Prints to standard error stream.
sys.stderr.write(Hello\n)
Prints to standard error stream.
sum=2+2; print The sum: %i % sum
Prints a string that has been formatted with the use of an integer passed as an argument.
formatted_string = The sum: %i % (2+2); print formatted_string
Like the previous, just that the formatting happens outside of the print statement.
print Float: %6.3f % 1.23456
Outputs Float: 1.234. The number 3 after the period species the number of decimal
digits after the period to be displayed, while 6 before the period species the total
number of characters the displayed number should take, to be padded with spaces if
needed.
print %s is %i years old % (John, 23)
Passes two arguments to the formatter.
Examples of output with Python 3.x :
from __future__ import print_function
Ensures Python 2.6 and later Python 2.x can use Python 3.x print function.
print (Hello, world)

92

External Links
Prints the two words separated with a space. Notice the surrounding brackets, ununsed
in Python 2.x.
print (Hello world, end= )
Prints without the ending newline.
print (Hello, world, sep=-)
Prints the two words separated with a a dash.

17.2.3 File Output

Printing numbers from 1 to 10 to a le, one per line:
file1 = open("TestFile.txt","w")
for i in range(1,10+1):
print >>file1, i
file1.close()

With w, the le is opened for writing. With >>le, print sends its output to a le rather
than standard output.
Printing numbers from 1 to 10 to a le, separated with a dash:
file1 = open("TestFile.txt","w")
for i in range(1,10+1):
if i>1:
file1.write("-")
file1.write(str(i))
file1.close()

Opening a le for appending rather than overwriting:

file1 = open("TestFile.txt","a")

See also ../Files/1 chapter.

17.3 External Links

7. Input and Output2 in The Python Tutorial, python.org
6.6. The print statement3 in The Python Language Reference, python.org
2. Built-in Functions #open4 in The Python Standard Library at Python Documentation,
python.org
5. Built-in Types #le.write5 in The Python Standard Library at Python Documentation,
python.org
27.1. sys System-specic parameters and functions6 in Python Documentation, python
org -- mentions sys.stdout, and sys.stderr
1
2
3
4
5
6

Chapter 27 on page 149

http://www.python.org/doc/current/tutorial/inputoutput.html
http://docs.python.org/2/reference/simple_stmts.html#print
http://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html#open
http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html?highlight=write#file.write
http://docs.python.org/2/library/sys.html

93

Input and output

2.3.8 File Objects7 in Python Library Reference, python.org, for ush
5.6.2. String Formatting Operations8 in The Python Standard Library at Python Documentation, python.org -- for %i, %s and similar string formatting
7.2.2. The string format operator9 , in Python 2.5 quick reference, nmt.edu, for %i, %s
and similar string formatting

7
8
9

94

http://docs.python.org/release/2.3.5/lib/bltin-file-objects.html
http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting-operations
http://infohost.nmt.edu/tcc/help/pubs/python25/web/str-format.html

18 Modules
Modules are a simple way to structure a program. Mostly, there are modules in the standard
library and there are other Python les, or directories containing Python les, in the current
directory (each of which constitute a module). You can also instruct Python to search other
directories for modules by placing their paths in the PYTHONPATH environment variable.

18.1 Importing a Module

Modules in Python are used by importing them. For example,
import math

This imports the math standard module. All of the functions in that module are namespaced
by the module name, i.e.
import math
print math.sqrt(10)

This is often a nuisance, so other syntaxes are available to simplify this,

from string import whitespace
from math import *
from math import sin as SIN
from math import cos as COS
from ftplib import FTP as ftp_connection
print sqrt(10)

The rst statement means whitespace is added to the current scope (but nothing else is).
The second statement means that all the elements in the math namespace is added to the
current scope.
Modules can be three dierent kinds of things:

Python les
Shared Objects (under Unix and Linux) with the .so sux
DLLs (under Windows) with the .pyd sux
directories

Modules are loaded in the order theyre found, which is controlled by sys.path. The current
directory is always on the path.
Directories should include a le in them called __init__.py, which should probably include
the other les in the directory.
Creating a DLL that interfaces with Python is covered in another section.

95

Modules

18.2 Creating a Module

18.2.1 From a File
The easiest way to create a module is by having a le called mymod.py either in a directory
recognized by the PYTHONPATH variable or (even easier) in the same directory where
you are working. If you have the following le mymod.py
class Object1:
def __init__(self):
self.name = 'object 1'

you can already import this module and create instances of the object Object1 .
import mymod
myobject = mymod.Object1()
from mymod import *
myobject = Object1()

18.2.2 From a Directory

It is not feasible for larger projects to keep all classes in a single le. It is often easier to
store all les in directories and load all les with one command. Each directory needs to
have a __init__.py le which contains python commands that are executed upon loading
the directory.
Suppose we have two more objects called Object2 and Object3 and we want to load all
three objects with one command. We then create a directory called mymod and we store
three les called Object1.py , Object2.py and Object3.py in it. These les would then
contain one object per le but this not required (although it adds clarity). We would then
write the following __init__.py le:
from Object1 import *
from Object2 import *
from Object3 import *
__all__ = ["Object1", "Object2", "Object3"]

The rst three commands tell python what to do when somebody loads the module. The
last statement dening __all__ tells python what to do when somebody executes from
mymod import * . Usually we want to use parts of a module in other parts of a module,
e.g. we want to use Object1 in Object2. We can do this easily with an from . import *
command as the following le Object2.py shows:
from . import *
class Object2:
def __init__(self):
self.name = 'object 2'
self.otherObject = Object1()

We can now start python and import mymod as we have in the previous section.

96

External links

18.3 External links

Python Documentation1

http://docs.python.org/tutorial/modules.html

97

19 Classes
Classes are a way of aggregating similar data and functions. A class is basically a scope
inside which various code (especially function denitions) is executed, and the locals to this
scope become attributes of the class, and of any objects constructed by this class. An object
constructed by a class is called an instance of that class.

19.0.1 Dening a Class

To dene a class, use the following format:
class ClassName:
"Here is an explanation about your class"
pass

The capitalization in this class denition is the convention, but is not required by the
language. Its usually good to add at least a short explanation of what your class is supposed
to do. The pass statement in the code above is just to say to the python interpreter just go
on and do nothing. You can remove it as soon as you are adding your rst statement.

19.0.2 Instance Construction

The class is a callable object that constructs an instance of the class when called. Lets say
we create a class Foo.
class Foo:
"Foo is our new toy."
pass

To construct an instance of the class, Foo, call the class object:

f = Foo()

This constructs an instance of class Foo and creates a reference to it in f.

19.0.3 Class Members

In order to access the member of an instance of a class, use the syntax <class instance>.<member>. It is also possible to access the members of the class denition with
<class name>.<member>.

99

Classes
Methods
A method is a function within a class. The rst argument (methods must always take at
least one argument) is always the instance of the class on which the function is invoked.
For example
>>> class Foo:
...
def setx(self, x):
...
self.x = x
...
def bar(self):
...
print self.x

If this code were executed, nothing would happen, at least until an instance of Foo were
constructed, and then bar were called on that instance.
Invoking Methods
Calling a method is much like calling a function, but instead of passing the instance as the
rst parameter like the list of formal parameters suggests, use the function as an attribute
of the instance.
>>> f = Foo()
>>> f.setx(5)
>>> f.bar()

This will output

5

It is possible to call the method on an arbitrary object, by using it as an attribute of the

dening class instead of an instance of that class, like so:
>>> Foo.setx(f,5)
>>> Foo.bar(f)

This will have the same output.

Dynamic Class Structure
As shown by the method setx above, the members of a Python class can change during
runtime, not just their values, unlike classes in languages like C or Java. We can even
delete f.x after running the code above.
>>> del f.x
>>> f.bar()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
File "<stdin>", line 5, in bar
AttributeError: Foo instance has no attribute 'x'

100

External links
Another eect of this is that we can change the denition of the Foo class during program
execution. In the code below, we create a member of the Foo class denition named y. If
we then create a new instance of Foo, it will now have this new member.
>>> Foo.y = 10
>>> g = Foo()
>>> g.y
10

Viewing Class Dictionaries

At the heart of all this is a dictionary1 that can be accessed by vars(ClassName)
>>> vars(g)
{}

At rst, this output makes no sense. We just saw that g had the member y, so why isnt it
in the member dictionary? If you remember, though, we put y in the class denition, Foo,
not g.
>>> vars(Foo)
{'y': 10, 'bar': <function bar at 0x4d6a3c>, '__module__': '__main__',
'setx': <function setx at 0x4d6a04>, '__doc__': None}

And there we have all the members of the Foo class denition. When Python checks for
g.member, it rst checks gs vars dictionary for member, then Foo. If we create a new
member of g, it will be added to gs dictionary, but not Foos.
>>> g.setx(5)
>>> vars(g)
{'x': 5}

Note that if we now assign a value to g.y, we are not assigning that value to Foo.y. Foo.y
will still be 10, but g.y will now override Foo.y
>>> g.y = 9
>>> vars(g)
{'y': 9, 'x': 5}
>>> vars(Foo)
{'y': 10, 'bar': <function bar at 0x4d6a3c>, '__module__': '__main__',
'setx': <function setx at 0x4d6a04>, '__doc__': None}

Sure enough, if we check the values:

>>> g.y
9
>>> Foo.y
10

Note that f.y will also be 10, as Python wont nd y in vars(f), so it will get the value of
y from vars(Foo).

Chapter 10 on page 51

101

Classes
Some may have also noticed that the methods in Foo appear in the class dictionary along
with the x and y. If you remember from the section on lambda functions2 , we can treat
functions just like variables. This means that we can assign methods to a class during
runtime in the same way we assigned variables. If you do this, though, remember that if
we call a method of a class instance, the rst parameter passed to the method will always
be the class instance itself.
Changing Class Dictionaries
We can also access the members dictionary of a class using the __dict__ member of the
class.
>>> g.__dict__
{'y': 9, 'x': 5}

If we add, remove, or change key-value pairs from g.__dict__, this has the same eect as
if we had made those changes to the members of g.
>>> g.__dict__['z'] = -4
>>> g.z
-4

19.0.4 New Style Classes

New style classes were introduced in python 2.2. A new-style class is a class that has a
built-in as its base, most commonly object. At a low level, a major dierence between old
and new classes is their type. Old class instances were all of type instance . New style class
instances will return the same thing as x.__class__ for their type. This puts user dened
classes on a level playing eld with built-ins. Old/Classic classes are slated to disappear
in Python 3. With this in mind all development should use new style classes. New Style
classes also add constructs like properties and static methods familiar to Java programmers.
Old/Classic Class
>>> class ClassicFoo:
...
def __init__(self):
...
pass

New Style Class

>>> class NewStyleFoo(object):
...
def __init__(self):
...
pass

Properties
Properties are attributes with getter and setter methods.
2

102

Chapter 14.3 on page 78

External links

>>> class SpamWithProperties(object):

...
def __init__(self):
...
self.__egg = "MyEgg"
...
def get_egg(self):
...
return self.__egg
...
def set_egg(self, egg):
...
self.__egg = egg
...
egg = property(get_egg, set_egg)
>>> sp = SpamWithProperties()
>>> sp.egg
'MyEgg'
>>> sp.egg = "Eggs With Spam"
>>> sp.egg
'Eggs With Spam'
>>>

and since Python 2.6, with @property decorator

>>> class SpamWithProperties(object):
...
def __init__(self):
...
self.__egg = "MyEgg"
...
@property
...
def egg(self):
...
return self.__egg
...
@egg.setter
...
def egg(self, egg):
...
self.__egg = egg

Static Methods
Static methods in Python are just like their counterparts in C++ or Java. Static methods
have no self argument and dont require you to instantiate the class before using them.
They can be dened using staticmethod()
>>> class StaticSpam(object):
...
def StaticNoSpam():
...
print "You can't have have the spam, spam, eggs and spam without any
spam... that's disgusting"
...
NoSpam = staticmethod(StaticNoSpam)
>>> StaticSpam.NoSpam()
You can't have have the spam, spam, eggs and spam without any spam... that's
disgusting

They can also be dened using the function decorator @staticmethod.

>>> class StaticSpam(object):
...
@staticmethod
...
def StaticNoSpam():
...
print "You can't have have the spam, spam, eggs and spam without any
spam... that's disgusting"

103

Classes

19.0.5 Inheritance
Like all object oriented languages, Python provides for inheritance. Inheritance is a simple
concept by which a class can extend the facilities of another class, or in Pythons case,
multiple other classes. Use the following format for this:
class ClassName(superclass1,superclass2,superclass3,...):
...

The subclass will then have all the members of its superclasses. If a method is dened in
the subclass and in the superclass, the member in the subclass will override the one in the
superclass. In order to use the method dened in the superclass, it is necessary to call the
method as an attribute on the dening class, as in Foo.setx(f,5) above:
>>>
...
...
...
...
>>>
...
...
...
...
...
>>>
>>>
I'm
I'm
>>>
9
>>>
10

class Foo:
def bar(self):
print "I'm doing Foo.bar()"
x = 10
class Bar(Foo):
def bar(self):
print "I'm doing Bar.bar()"
Foo.bar(self)
y = 9
g = Bar()
Bar.bar(g)
doing Bar.bar()
doing Foo.bar()
g.y
g.x

Once again, we can see whats going on under the hood by looking at the class dictionaries.
>>> vars(g)
{}
>>> vars(Bar)
{'y': 9, '__module__': '__main__', 'bar': <function bar at 0x4d6a04>,
'__doc__': None}
>>> vars(Foo)
{'x': 10, '__module__': '__main__', 'bar': <function bar at 0x4d6994>,
'__doc__': None}

When we call g.x, it rst looks in the vars(g) dictionary, as usual. Also as above, it checks
vars(Bar) next, since g is an instance of Bar. However, thanks to inheritance, Python will
check vars(Foo) if it doesnt nd x in vars(Bar).

19.0.6 Special Methods

There are a number of methods which have reserved names which are used for special
purposes like mimicking numerical or container operations, among other things. All of
these names begin and end with two underscores. It is convention that methods beginning
with a single underscore are private to the scope they are introduced within.

104

External links
Initialization and Deletion
__init__
One of these purposes is constructing an instance, and the special name for this is
__init__. __init__() is called before an instance is returned (it is not necessary to
return the instance manually). As an example,
class A:
def __init__(self):
print 'A.__init__()'
a = A()

outputs
A.__init__()

__init__() can take arguments, in which case it is necessary to pass arguments to the
class in order to create an instance. For example,
class Foo:
def __init__ (self, printme):
print printme
foo = Foo('Hi!')

outputs
Hi!

Here is an example showing the dierence between using __init__() and not using
__init__():
class Foo:
def __init__ (self, x):
print x
foo = Foo('Hi!')
class Foo2:
def setx(self, x):
print x
f = Foo2()
Foo2.setx(f,'Hi!')

outputs
Hi!
Hi!

__del__
Similarly, __del__ is called when an instance is destroyed; e.g. when it is no longer
referenced.

105

Classes
Representation

106

outputs (note the dierence: now is not necessary to put it inside a print) Bar(apple)

class Bar:
def __init__ (self, iamthis):
self.iamthis = iamthis
def __repr__(self):
return "Bar('%s')" % self.iamthis
bar = Bar('apple')
bar

outputs apple
This function is much like __str__(). If __str__
is not present but this one is, this functions output is used instead for printing.__repr__ is used to return a representation of the object in string form. In general, it can be executed to get back the original object.For example:

__repr__

class Bar:
def __init__ (self, iamthis):
self.iamthis = iamthis
def __str__ (self):
return self.iamthis
bar = Bar('apple')
print bar

the str() conversion function, can be overridden by overriding __str__. Usually,

__str__ returns a formatted version of the objects content. This will NOT usually
be something that can be executed.For example:

__str__Converting an object to a string, as with the print statement or with

String Representation Override Functions

Function
Operator
__str__
str(A)
__repr__
repr(A)
__unicode__
unicode(x) (2.x only)

External links

107

Classes
Attributes

108

>>> class Permanent:

...
def __delattr__(self, name):
...
print name, "cannot be deleted"
...
>>> p = Permanent()
>>> p.x = 9
>>> del p.x
x cannot be deleted
>>> p.x
9

__delattr__This function is called to delete an attribute.

>>> class HiddenMembers:

...
def __getattr__(self, name):
...
return "You don't get to see " + name
...
>>> h = HiddenMembers()
>>> h.anything
"You don't get to see anything"

__getattr___

Traceback (most recent call last): File <stdin>, line 1, in ? AttributeError: Unchangable instance has no attribute x
Similar to __setattr__, except this function is called when we try to access a class member, and the
default simply returns the value.

>>> class Unchangable:

...
def __setattr__(self, name, value):
...
print "Nice try"
...
>>> u = Unchangable()
>>> u.x = 9
Nice try
>>> u.x

a class. It is provided with the name and value of the variables being assigned. Each
class, of course, comes with a default __setattr__ which simply sets the value of the
variable, but we can override it.

__setattr__This is the function which is in charge of setting attributes of

Attribute Override Functions

Function
Indirect form
__getattr__
getattr(A, B)
__setattr__
setattr(A, B, C)
__delattr__
delattr(A, B)
Direct Form
A.B
A.B = C
del A.B

External links

109

Classes
Operator Overloading
Operator overloading allows us to use the built-in Python syntax and operators to call
functions which we dene.
Binary Operators

110

External links

111

112

3
4

c =
d =
d.n
c +

FakeNumber()
FakeNumber()
= 7
d

class FakeNumber:
n = 5
def __add__(A,B):
return A.n + B.n

Chapter 12.8 on page 63

Chapter 12.8 on page 63

>>> c = FakeNumber()
>>> c += d
>>> c
12

It is important to note that the augmented assignment4 operators will also use the
normal operator functions if the augmented operator function hasnt been set directly.
This will work as expected, with __add__ being called for += and so on.

>>> c.__imul__ = lambda B: B.n - 6

>>> c *= d
>>> c
1

To override the augmented assignment3 operators, merely add i in front of the normal binary operator, i.e. for += use __iadd__ instead of __add__. The function will be given one argument, which will be the object on the right side of the augmented assignment operator. The returned value of the function will then be assigned
to the object on the left of the operator.

>>>
...
...
...
...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
12

If a class has the __add__ function, we can use the + operator to add instances
of the class. This will call __add__ with the two instances of the class passed as
parameters, and the return value will be the result of the addition.

Binary Operator Override Functions

Function
__add__
__sub__
__mul__
__truediv__
__oordiv__
__mod__
__pow__
__and__
__or__
__xor__
__eq__
__ne__
__gt__
__lt__
__ge__
__le__
__lshift__
__rshift__
__contains__
Operator
A+B
A-B
A*B
A/B
A // B
A%B
A ** B
A&B
A|B
AB
A == B
A != B
A>B
A<B
A >= B
A <= B
A << B
A >> B
A in B
A not in B

Classes

External links

113

Classes
Unary Operators

114

>>> FakeNumber.__neg__ = lambda A : A.n + 6

>>> -d
13

Unary operators will be passed simply the instance of the class that they are called
on.

Unary Operator Override Functions

Function
Operator
__pos__
+A
__neg__
-A
__inv__
A
__abs__
abs(A)
__len__
len(A)

External links

115

Classes
Item Operators

116

External links

117

118

Note that the default value for the end of the slice shown here is simply the largest
possible signed integer on a 32-bit system, and may vary depending on your system
and C compiler.
__setslice__ has the parameters (self,start,end,value)
We also have operators for deleting items and slices.
__delitem__ has the parameters (self,index)

>> f[:]
'0 to 2147483647'

Keep in mind that one or both of the start and end parameters can be blank in slice
syntax. Here, Python has default value for both the start and the end, as show below.

>>> class FakeList:

...
def __getslice___(self,start,end):
...
return str(start) + " to " + str(end)
...
>>> f = FakeList()
>>> f[1:4]
'1 to 4'

We can do the same thing with slices. Once again, each syntax has a dierent parameter list associated with it.

>>> class FakeList:

...
def __setitem__(self,index,value):
...
self.string = index + " is now " + value
...
>>> f = FakeList()
>>> f['a'] = 'gone'
>>> f.string
'a is now gone'

We can also dene a function for the syntax associated with assigning a value to an
item. The parameters for this function include the value being assigned, in addition to
the parameters from __getitem__

>>> class FakeList:

...
def __getitem__(self,index):
...
return index * 2
...
>>> f = FakeList()
>>> f['a']
'aa'

It is also possible in Python to override the indexing and slicing5 operators. This allows us to use the class[i] and class[a:b] syntax on our own objects.The simplest form
of item operator is __getitem__. This takes as a parameter the instance of the class,
then the value of the index.

Item Operator Override Functions

Function
__getitem__
__setitem__
__delitem__
__getslice__
__setslice__
__delslice__
Operator
C[i]
C[i] = v
del C[i]
C[s:e]
C[s:e] = v
del C[s:e]

Classes

External links
Other Overrides

119

Other Override Functions

Function
__cmp__
__hash__
__nonzero__
__call__
__iter__
__reversed__
__divmod__
__int__
__long__
__oat__
__complex__
__hex__
__oct__
__index__
__copy__
__deepcopy__
__sizeof__
__trunc__
__format__

120
copy.copy(x)
copy.deepcopy(x)
sys.getsizeof(x) (2.6+)
math.trunc(x) (2.6+)
format(x, ...) (2.6+)

Operator
cmp(x, y)
hash(x)
bool(x)
f(x)
iter(x)
reversed(x) (2.6+)
divmod(x, y)
int(x)
long(x)
oat(x)
complex(x)
hex(x)
oct(x)

Classes

External links

19.0.7 Programming Practices

The exibility of python classes means that classes can adopt a varied set of behaviors. For
the sake of understandability, however, its best to use many of Pythons tools sparingly.
Try to declare all methods in the class denition, and always use the <class>.<member>
syntax instead of __dict__ whenever possible. Look at classes in C++6 and Java7 to see
what most programmers will expect from a class.
Encapsulation
Since all python members of a python class are accessible by functions/methods outside the
class, there is no way to enforce encapsulation8 short of overriding __getattr__, __setattr__ and __delattr__. General practice, however, is for the creator of a class or
module to simply trust that users will use only the intended interface and avoid limiting
access to the workings of the module for the sake of users who do need to access it. When
using parts of a class or module other than the intended interface, keep in mind that the
those parts may change in later versions of the module, and you may even cause errors or
undened behaviors in the module.since encapsulation is private.
Doc Strings
When dening a class, it is convention to document the class using a string literal at the
start of the class denition. This string will then be placed in the __doc__ attribute of
the class denition.
>>> class Documented:
...
"""This is a docstring"""
...
def explode(self):
...
"""
...
This method is documented, too! The coder is really serious about
...
making this class usable by others who don't know the code as well
...
as he does.
...
...
"""
...
print "boom"
>>> d = Documented()
>>> d.__doc__
'This is a docstring'

Docstrings are a very useful way to document your code. Even if you never write a single
piece of separate documentation (and lets admit it, doing so is the lowest priority for many
coders), including informative docstrings in your classes will go a long way toward making
them usable.
Several tools exist for turning the docstrings in Python code into readable API documentation, e.g. , EpyDoc9 .

6
7
8
9

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/C%2B%2B%20Programming%2FClasses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class%20%28computer%20science%29%23Java
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information%20Hiding
http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/using.html

121

Classes
Dont just stop at documenting the class denition, either. Each method in the class should
have its own docstring as well. Note that the docstring for the method explode in the
example class Documented above has a fairly lengthy docstring that spans several lines.
Its formatting is in accordance with the style suggestions of Pythons creator, Guido van
Rossum in PEP 810 .
Adding methods at runtime
To a class
It is fairly easy to add methods to a class at runtime. Lets assume that we have a class called
Spam and a function cook. We want to be able to use the function cook on all instances of
the class Spam:
class Spam:
def __init__(self):
self.myeggs = 5
def cook(self):
print "cooking %s eggs" % self.myeggs
Spam.cook = cook
eggs = Spam()
eggs.cook()

#add the function to the class Spam

#NOW create a new instance of Spam
#and we are ready to cook!

This will output

cooking 5 eggs

To an instance of a class
It is a bit more tricky to add methods to an instance of a class that has already been
created. Lets assume again that we have a class called Spam and we have already created
eggs. But then we notice that we wanted to cook those eggs, but we do not want to create
a new instance but rather use the already created one:
class Spam:
def __init__(self):
self.myeggs = 5
eggs = Spam()
def cook(self):
print "cooking %s eggs" % self.myeggs
import types
f = types.MethodType(cook, eggs, Spam)
eggs.cook = f

10

122

http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/

External links

eggs.cook()

Now we can cook our eggs and the last statement will output:
cooking 5 eggs

Using a function
We can also write a function that will make the process of adding methods to an instance
of a class easier.
def attach_method(fxn, instance, myclass):
f = types.MethodType(fxn, instance, myclass)
setattr(instance, fxn.__name__, f)

All we now need to do is call the attach_method with the arguments of the function we
want to attach, the instance we want to attach it to and the class the instance is derived
from. Thus our function call might look like this:
attach_method(cook, eggs, Spam)

Note that in the function add_method we cannot write instance.fxn = f since this would
add a function called fxn to the instance.
fr:Programmation Python/Programmation orient objet11 pt:Python/Conceitos bsicos/Classes12

11
12

https://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programmation%20Python%2FProgrammation%20orient%C3%A9%20objet
https://pt.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%2FConceitos%20b%C3%A1sicos%2FClasses

123

20 Metaclasses
In Python, classes are themselves objects. Just as other objects are instances of a particular
class, classes themselves are instances of a metaclass.

20.0.1 Python3
The Pep 31151 denes the changes to python 3 metaclasses. In python3 you have a method
__prepare__ that is called in the metaclass to create a dictionary or other class to store
the class members.2 Then there is the __new__ method that is called to create new
instances of that class. 3

20.0.2 Class Factories

The simplest use of Python metaclasses is a class factory. This concept makes use of the
fact that class denitions in Python are rst-class objects. Such a function can create or
modify a class denition, using the same syntax4 one would normally use in declaring a
class denition. Once again, it is useful to use the model of classes as dictionaries5 . First,
lets look at a basic class factory:
>>>
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
>>>
...
>>>
>>>
...
>>>
>>>
...
>>>
12

1
2
3
4
5

def StringContainer():
# define a class
class String:
def __init__(self):
self.content_string = ""
def len(self):
return len(self.content_string)
# return the class definition
return String
# create the class definition
container_class = StringContainer()
# create an instance of the class
wrapped_string = container_class()
# take it for a test drive
wrapped_string.content_string = 'emu emissary'
wrapped_string.len()

http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3115/
http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3115/
http://eli.thegreenplace.net/2011/08/14/python-metaclasses-by-example/
Chapter 19.0.1 on page 99
Chapter 19.0.3 on page 101

125

Metaclasses
Of course, just like any other data in Python, class denitions can also be modied. Any
modications to attributes in a class denition will be seen in any instances of that denition,
so long as that instance hasnt overridden the attribute that youre modifying.
>>> def DeAbbreviate(sequence_container):
...
sequence_container.length = sequence_container.len
...
del sequence_container.len
...
>>> DeAbbreviate(container_class)
>>> wrapped_string.length()
12
>>> wrapped_string.len()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
AttributeError: String instance has no attribute 'len'

You can also delete class denitions, but that will not aect instances of the class.
>>> del container_class
>>> wrapped_string2 = container_class()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
NameError: name 'container_class' is not defined
>>> wrapped_string.length()
12

20.0.3 The type Metaclass

The metaclass for all standard Python types is the type object.
>>> type(object)
<type 'type'>
>>> type(int)
<type 'type'>
>>> type(list)
<type 'type'>

Just like list, int and object, type is itself a normal Python object, and is itself an instance
of a class. In this case, it is in fact an instance of itself.
>>> type(type)
<type 'type'>

It can be instantiated to create new class objects similarly to the class factory example above
by passing the name of the new class, the base classes to inherit from, and a dictionary
dening the namespace to use.
For instance, the code:
>>> class MyClass(BaseClass):
...
attribute = 42

Could also be written as:

>>> MyClass = type("MyClass", (BaseClass,), {'attribute' : 42})

126

External links

20.0.4 Metaclasses
It is possible to create a class with a dierent metaclass than type by setting its __metaclass__ attribute when dening. When this is done, the class, and its subclass will be
created using your custom metaclass. For example
class CustomMetaclass(type):
def __init__(cls, name, bases, dct):
print "Creating class %s using CustomMetaclass" % name
super(CustomMetaclass, cls).__init__(name, bases, dct)
class BaseClass(object):
__metaclass__ = CustomMetaclass
class Subclass1(BaseClass):
pass

This will print

Creating class BaseClass using CustomMetaclass
Creating class Subclass1 using CustomMetaclass

By creating a custom metaclass in this way, it is possible to change how the class is constructed. This allows you to add or remove attributes and methods, register creation of
classes and subclasses creation and various other manipulations when the class is created.

20.0.5 More resources

Wikipedia article on Aspect Oriented Programming6
Unifying types and classes in Python 2.27
OReilly Article on Python Metaclasses8

20.0.6 References

6
7
8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect-oriented_programming
http://www.python.org/2.2/descrintro.html
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2003/04/17/metaclasses.html

127

21 Reection
A Python script can nd out about the type, class, attributes and methods of an object.
This is referred to as reection or introspection . See also ../Metaclasses/1 .
Reection-enabling functions include type(), isinstance(), callable(), dir() and getattr().

21.1 Type
The type method enables to nd out about the type of an object. The following tests return
True:

type(3) is int
type(Hello) is str
type([1, 2]) is list
type([1, [2, Hello]]) is list
type({city: Paris}) is dict

21.2 Isinstance
Determines whether an object is an instance of a class.
The following returns True:
isinstance(3, int)
isinstance([1, 2], list)
Note that isinstance provides a weaker condition than a comparison using #Type2 .

21.3 Duck typing

Duck typing provides an indirect means of reection. It is a technique consisting in using
an object as if it was of the requested type, while catching exceptions resulting from the
object not supporting some of the features of the class or type.

1
2

Chapter 20 on page 125

Chapter 21.1 on page 129

129

Reection

21.4 Callable
For an object, determines whether it can be called. A class can be made callable by providing
a __call__() method.
Examples:
callable(2)
Returns False. Ditto for callable(Hello) and callable([1, 2]).
callable([1,2].pop)
Returns True, as pop without () returns a function object.
callable([1,2].pop())
Returns False, as [1,2].pop() returns 2 rather than a function object.

21.5 Dir
Returns the list of attributes of an object, which includes methods.
Examples:
dir(3)
dir(Hello)
dir([1, 2])

21.6 Getattr
Returns the value of an attribute of an object, given the attribute name passed as a string.
An example:
getattr(3, imag)
The list of attributes of an object can be obtained using #Dir3 .

21.7 External links

2. Built-in Functions4 , docs.python.org

How to determine the variable type in Python?5 , stackoverow.com
Dierences between isinstance() and type() in python6 , stackoverow.com
W:Reection (computer_programming)#Python7 , Wikipedia
W:Type introspection#Python8 , Wikipedia

3
4
5
6
7
8

130

Chapter 21.5 on page 130

http://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/402504/how-to-determine-the-variable-type-in-python
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1549801/differences-between-isinstance-and-type-in-python
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection%20%28computer_programming%29%23Python
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type%20introspection%23Python

22 Regular Expression
Python includes a module for working with regular expressions on strings. For more information about writing regular expressions and syntax not specic to Python, see the regular
expressions1 wikibook. Pythons regular expression syntax is similar to Perls2
To start using regular expressions in your Python scripts, import the re module:
import re

22.1 Overview
Regular expression functions in Python at a glance:
import re
if re.search("l+","Hello"):
print 1 # Substring match suffices
if not re.match("ell.","Hello"):
print 2 # The beginning of the string has to
match
if re.match(".el","Hello"):
print 3
if re.match("he..o","Hello",re.I): print 4 # Case-insensitive match
print re.sub("l+", "l", "Hello")
# Prints "Helo"; replacement AKA
substitution
print re.sub(r"(.*)\1", r"\1", "HeyHey")
# Prints "Hey"; backreference
for match in re.findall("l+.", "Hello Dolly"):
print match
# Prints "llo" and then "lly"
for match in re.findall("e(l+.)", "Hello Dolly"):
# Prints "llo"; match picks group 1
print match
matchObj = re.match("(Hello|Hi) (Tom|Thom)","Hello Tom Bombadil")
if matchObj is not None:
print matchObj.group(0)
# Prints the whole match
disregarding groups
print matchObj.group(1) + matchObj.group(2) # Prints "HelloTom"

22.2 Matching and searching

One of the most common uses for regular expressions is extracting a part of a string or
testing for the existence of a pattern in a string. Python oers several functions to do this.
The match and search functions do mostly the same thing, except that the match function
will only return a result if the pattern matches at the beginning of the string being searched,
while search will nd a match anywhere in the string.

1
2

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/regular%20expressions
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Perl%20Programming%2FRegular%20Expressions%20Reference

131

Regular Expression

>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>

import re
foo = re.compile(r'foo(.{,5})bar', re.I+re.S)
st1 = 'Foo, Bar, Baz'
st2 = '2. foo is bar'
search1 = foo.search(st1)
search2 = foo.search(st2)
match1 = foo.match(st1)
match2 = foo.match(st2)

In this example, match2 will be None , because the string st2 does not start with the given
pattern. The other 3 results will be Match objects (see below).
You can also match and search without compiling a regexp:
>>> search3 = re.search('oo.*ba', st1, re.I)

Here we use the search function of the re module, rather than of the pattern object. For
most cases, its best to compile the expression rst. Not all of the re module functions
support the ags argument and if the expression is used more than once, compiling rst is
more ecient and leads to cleaner looking code.
The compiled pattern object functions also have parameters for starting and ending the
search, to search in a substring of the given string. In the rst example in this section,
match2 returns no result because the pattern does not start at the beginning of the string,
but if we do:
>>> match3 = foo.match(st2, 3)

it works, because we tell it to start searching at character number 3 in the string.

What if we want to search for multiple instances of the pattern? Then we have two options.
We can use the start and end position parameters of the search and match function in a
loop, getting the position to start at from the previous match object (see below) or we can
use the ndall and nditer functions. The ndall function returns a list of matching strings,
useful for simple searching. For anything slightly complex, the nditer function should be
used. This returns an iterator object, that when used in a loop, yields Match objects. For
example:
>>> str3 = 'foo, Bar Foo. BAR FoO: bar'
>>> foo.findall(str3)
[', ', '. ', ': ']
>>> for match in foo.finditer(str3):
...
match.group(1)
...
', '
'. '
': '

If youre going to be iterating over the results of the search, using the nditer function is
almost always a better choice.

22.2.1 Match objects

Match objects are returned by the search and match functions, and include information
about the pattern match.

132

Replacing
The group function returns a string corresponding to a capture group (part of a regexp
wrapped in () ) of the expression, or if no group number is given, the entire match. Using
the search1 variable we dened above:
>>> search1.group()
'Foo, Bar'
>>> search1.group(1)
', '

Capture groups can also be given string names using a special syntax and referred to
by matchobj.group('name') . For simple expressions this is unnecessary, but for more
complex expressions it can be very useful.
You can also get the position of a match or a group in a string, using the start and end
functions:
>>>
0
>>>
8
>>>
3
>>>
5

search1.start()
search1.end()
search1.start(1)
search1.end(1)

This returns the start and end locations of the entire match, and the start and end of the
rst (and in this case only) capture group, respectively.

22.3 Replacing
Another use for regular expressions is replacing text in a string. To do this in Python, use
the sub function.
sub takes up to 3 arguments: The text to replace with, the text to replace in, and, optionally, the maximum number of substitutions to make. Unlike the matching and searching
functions, sub returns a string, consisting of the given text with the substitution(s) made.
>>> import re
>>> mystring = 'This string has a q in it'
>>> pattern = re.compile(r'(a[n]? )(\w) ')
>>> newstring = pattern.sub(r"\1'\2' ", mystring)
>>> newstring
"This string has a 'q' in it"

This takes any single alphanumeric character (\w in regular expression syntax) preceded
by a or an and wraps in in single quotes. The \1 and \2 in the replacement string
are backreferences to the 2 capture groups in the expression; these would be group(1) and
group(2) on a Match object from a search.
The subn function is similar to sub, except it returns a tuple, consisting of the result string
and the number of replacements made. Using the string and expression from before:
>>> subresult = pattern.subn(r"\1'\2' ", mystring)
>>> subresult
("This string has a 'q' in it", 1)

133

Regular Expression
Replacing without constructing and compiling a pattern object:
>>> result = re.sub(r"b.*d","z","abccde")
>>> result
'aze'

22.4 Splitting
The split function splits a string based on a given regular expression:
>>> import re
>>> mystring = '1. First part 2. Second part 3. Third part'
>>> re.split(r'\d\.', mystring)
['', ' First part ', ' Second part ', ' Third part']

22.5 Escaping
The escape function escapes all non-alphanumeric characters in a string. This is useful if
you need to take an unknown string that may contain regexp metacharacters like ( and .
and create a regular expression from it.
>>> re.escape(r'This text (and this) must be escaped with a "\" to use in a
regexp.')
'This\\ text\\ \\(and\\ this\\)\\ must\\ be\\ escaped\\ with\\ a\\ \\"\\\\\\"\\
to\\ use\\ in\\ a\\ regexp\\.'

22.6 Flags
The dierent ags use with regular expressions:
Abbreviation
re.I
re.L

Full name
re.IGNORECASE
re.LOCALE

re.M

re.MULTILINE

re.S

re.DOTALL

re.U

re.UNICODE

3
4

134

Description
Makes the regexp case-insensitive3
Makes the behavior of some special sequences
(\w, \W, \b, \B, \s, \S ) dependent on the
current locale4
Makes the and $ characters match at the beginning and end of each line, rather than just the
beginning and end of the string
Makes the . character match every character including newlines.
Makes \w, \W, \b, \B, \d, \D, \s, \S dependent on Unicode character properties

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/case%20sensitivity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/locale

Pattern objects
Abbreviation
re.X

Full name
re.VERBOSE

Description
Ignores whitespace except when in a character
class or preceded by an non-escaped backslash,
and ignores # (except when in a character class or
preceded by an non-escaped backslash) and everything after it to the end of a line, so it can be used
as a comment. This allows for cleaner-looking regexps.

22.7 Pattern objects

If youre going to be using the same regexp more than once in a program, or if you just
want to keep the regexps separated somehow, you should create a pattern object, and refer
to it later when searching/replacing.
To create a pattern object, use the compile function.
import re
foo = re.compile(r'foo(.{,5})bar', re.I+re.S)

The rst argument is the pattern, which matches the string foo, followed by up to 5 of
any character, then the string bar, storing the middle characters to a group, which will be
discussed later. The second, optional, argument is the ag or ags to modify the regexps
behavior. The ags themselves are simply variables referring to an integer used by the
regular expression engine. In other languages, these would be constants, but Python does
not have constants. Some of the regular expression functions do not support adding ags
as a parameter when dening the pattern directly in the function, if you need any of the
ags, it is best to use the compile function to create a pattern object.
The r preceding the expression string indicates that it should be treated as a raw string.
This should normally be used when writing regexps, so that backslashes are interpreted
literally rather than having to be escaped.

22.8 External links

Python re documentation5 - Full documentation for the re module, including pattern
objects and match objects
fr:Programmation Python/Regex6

5
6

http://docs.python.org/library/re.html
https://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programmation%20Python%2FRegex

135

23 GUI Programming
There are various GUI toolkits to start with.

23.1 Tkinter
Tkinter, a Python wrapper for Tcl/Tk1 , comes bundled with Python (at least on Win32
platform though it can be installed on Unix/Linux and Mac machines) and provides a
cross-platform GUI. It is a relatively simple to learn yet powerful toolkit that provides
what appears to be a modest set of widgets. However, because the Tkinter widgets are
extensible, many compound widgets can be created rather easily (e.g. combo-box, scrolled
panes). Because of its maturity and extensive documentation Tkinter has been designated
as the de facto GUI for Python.
To create a very simple Tkinter window frame one only needs the following lines of code:
import Tkinter
root = Tkinter.Tk()
root.mainloop()

From an object-oriented perspective one can do the following:

import Tkinter
class App:
def __init__(self, master):
button = Tkinter.Button(master, text="I'm a Button.")
button.pack()
if __name__ == '__main__':
root = Tkinter.Tk()
app = App(root)
root.mainloop()

To learn more about Tkinter visit the following links:

http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/rowen/TkinterSummary.html
summary

<-

http://infohost.nmt.edu/tcc/help/lang/python/tkinter.html <- A tutorial

http://www.pythonware.com/library/tkinter/introduction/ <- A reference

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming%3ATcl%20

137

GUI Programming

23.2 PyGTK
See also book PyGTK For GUI Programming2
PyGTK3 provides a convenient wrapper for the GTK+4 library for use in Python programs,
taking care of many of the boring details such as managing memory and type casting. The
bare GTK+ toolkit runs on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X (port in progress), but the
more extensive features when combined with PyORBit and gnome-python require a
GNOME5 install, and can be used to write full featured GNOME applications.
Home Page6

23.3 PyQt
PyQt is a wrapper around the cross-platform Qt C++ toolkit7 . It has many widgets and
support classes8 supporting SQL, OpenGL, SVG, XML, and advanced graphics capabilities.
A PyQt hello world example:
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
class App(QApplication):
def __init__(self, argv):
super(App, self).__init__(argv)
self.msg = QLabel("Hello, World!")
self.msg.show()
if __name__ == "__main__":
import sys
app = App(sys.argv)
sys.exit(app.exec_())

PyQt9 is a set of bindings for the cross-platform Qt10 application framework. PyQt v4
supports Qt4 and PyQt v3 supports Qt3 and earlier.

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

138

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/PyGTK%20For%20GUI%20Programming
http://www.pygtk.org/
http://www.gtk.org
http://www.gnome.org
http://www.pygtk.org/
http://web.archive.org/web/20060514211039/http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt
http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/static/Docs/PyQt4/html/classes.html
http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pyqt/
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Qt

wxPython

23.4 wxPython
Bindings for the cross platform toolkit wxWidgets11 . WxWidgets is available on Windows,
Macintosh, and Unix/Linux.
import wx
class test(wx.App):
def __init__(self):
wx.App.__init__(self, redirect=False)
def OnInit(self):
frame = wx.Frame(None, -1,
"Test",
pos=(50,50), size=(100,40),
style=wx.DEFAULT_FRAME_STYLE)
button = wx.Button(frame, -1, "Hello World!", (20, 20))
self.frame = frame
self.frame.Show()
return True
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = test()
app.MainLoop()

wxPython12

23.5 Dabo
Dabo is a full 3-tier application framework. Its UI layer wraps wxPython, and greatly
simplies the syntax.
import dabo
dabo.ui.loadUI("wx")
class TestForm(dabo.ui.dForm):
def afterInit(self):
self.Caption = "Test"
self.Position = (50, 50)
self.Size = (100, 40)
self.btn = dabo.ui.dButton(self, Caption="Hello World",
OnHit=self.onButtonClick)
self.Sizer.append(self.btn, halign="center", border=20)
def onButtonClick(self, evt):
dabo.ui.info("Hello World!")
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = dabo.ui.dApp()
app.MainFormClass = TestForm
app.start()

Dabo13

11
12
13

http://www.wxwidgets.org/
http://wxpython.org/
http://dabodev.com/

139

GUI Programming

23.6 pyFltk
pyFltk14 is a Python wrapper for the FLTK15 , a lightweight cross-platform GUI toolkit. It
is very simple to learn and allows for compact user interfaces.
The Hello World example in pyFltk looks like:
from fltk import *
window = Fl_Window(100, 100, 200, 90)
button = Fl_Button(9,20,180,50)
button.label("Hello World")
window.end()
window.show()
Fl.run()

23.7 Other Toolkits

PyKDE16 - Part of the kdebindings package, it provides a python wrapper for the KDE
libraries.
PyXPCOM17 provides a wrapper around the Mozilla XPCOM18 component architecture,
thereby enabling the use of standalone XUL19 applications in Python. The XUL toolkit
has traditionally been wrapped up in various other parts of XPCOM, but with the advent
of libxul and XULRunner20 this should become more feasible.
fr:Programmation Python/Linterface graphique21 pt:Python/Programao com GUI22

14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22

140

http://pyfltk.sourceforge.net/
http://www.fltk.org/
http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pykde/index.php
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/PyXPCOM
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/XPCOM
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/XUL
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/XULRunner
https://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programmation%20Python%2FL%27interface%20graphique
https://pt.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%2FPrograma%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20com%20GUI

24 Authors
24.1 Authors of Python textbook

1
2
3
4
5

Quartz251
Jesdisciple2
Hannes Rst3
David Ross4
Lawrence DOliveiro5

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User%3AQuartz25
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User%3AJesdisciple
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User%3AHannes%20R%C3%B6st
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User%3AHackbinary
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User%3ALdo

141

25 Game Programming in Python

25.1 3D Game Programming
25.1.1 3D Game Engine with a Python binding
Irrlicht Enginehttp://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/ (Python binding website: http:
//pypi.python.org/pypi/pyirrlicht )
Ogre Engine http://www.ogre3d.org/ (Python binding website: http://www.
python-ogre.org/ )
Both are very good free open source C++ 3D game Engine with a Python binding.
CrystalSpace1 is a free cross-platform software development kit for real-time 3D graphics,
with particular focus on games. Crystal Space is accessible from Python in two ways: (1)
as a Crystal Space plugin module in which C++ code can call upon Python code, and
in which Python code can call upon Crystal Space; (2) as a pure Python module named
cspace which one can import from within Python programs. To use the rst option,
load the cspython plugin as you would load any other Crystal Space plugin, and interact
with it via the SCF iScript interface .The second approach allows you to write Crystal
Space applications entirely in Python, without any C++ coding. CS Wiki2

25.1.2 3D Game Engines written for Python

Engines designed for Python from scratch.
Blender3 is an impressive 3D tool with a fully integrated 3D graphics creation suite
allowing modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, real-time interactive 3D and
game creation and playback with cross-platform compatibility. The 3D game engine uses
an embedded python interpreter to make 3D games.
PySoy4 is a 3d cloud game engine for Python 3. It was designed for rapid development
with an intuitive API that gets new game developers started quickly. The cloud gaming5 design allows PySoy games to be played on a server without downloading them,
greatly reducing the complexity of game distribution. XMPP6 accounts (such as Jabber

1
2
3
4
5
6

http://www.crystalspace3d.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Space
http://www.blender.org/
http://www.pysoy.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_gaming
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMPP

143

Game Programming in Python

or GMail) can be used for online gaming identities, chat, and initiating connections to
game servers. PySoy is released under the GNU AGPL license7 .
Soya8 is a 3D game engine with an easy to understand design. Its written in the Pyrex9
programming language and uses Cal3d for animation and ODE10 for physics. Soya is
available under the GNU GPL license11 .
Panda3D12 is a 3D game engine. Its a library written in C++ with Python bindings.
Panda3D is designed in order to support a short learning curve and rapid development.
This software is available for free download with source code under the BSD License.
The development was started by [Disney]. Now there are many projects made with
Panda3D, such as Disneys Pirates of the Caribbean Online13 , ToonTown14 , Building
Virtual World15 , Schell Games16 and many others. Panda3D supports several features:
Procedural Geometry, Animated Texture, Render to texture, Track motion, fog, particle
system, and many others.
CrystalSpace17 Is a 3D game engine, with a Python bindings, named *PyCrystal18 , view
Wikipedia page of *CrystalSpace19 .

25.2 2D Game Programming

Pygame20 is a cross platform Python library which wraps SDL21 . It provides many features
like Sprite groups and sound/image loading and easy changing of an objects position. It
also provides the programmer access to key and mouse events. A full tutorial can be
found in the free book Making Games with Python & Pygame22 .
Phils Pygame Utilities (PGU)23 is a collection of tools and libraries that enhance Pygame.
Tools include a tile editor and a level editor24 (tile, isometric, hexagonal). GUI enhancements include full featured GUI, HTML rendering, document layout, and text rendering.
The libraries include a sprite and tile engine25 (tile, isometric, hexagonal), a state engine,
a timer, and a high score system. (Beta with last update March, 2007. APIs to be deprecated and isometric and hexagonal support is currently Alpha and subject to change.)
[Update 27/02/08 Author indicates he is not currently actively developing this library

7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

144

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_AGPL
http://www.soya3d.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex%20programming%20language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open%20Dynamics%20Engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_GPL
http://www.panda3d.org/
http://disney.go.com/pirates/online/
http://www.toontown.com/
http://www.etc.cmu.edu/bvw
http://www.schellgames.com
http://www.crystalspace3d.org/
http://www.crystalspace3d.org/main/PyCrystal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystalspace
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygame
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_DirectMedia_Layer
http://inventwithpython.com/pygame
http://www.imitationpickles.org/pgu/wiki/index
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_editor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tile_engine

See Also
and anyone that is willing to develop their own scrolling isometric library oering can
use the existing code in PGU to get them started.]
Pyglet26 is a cross-platform windowing and multimedia library for Python with no external dependencies or installation requirements. Pyglet provides an object-oriented programming interface for developing games and other visually-rich applications for Windows27 , Mac OS X28 and Linux29 . Pyglet allows programs to open multiple windows on
multiple screens, draw in those windows with OpenGL, and play back audio and video
in most formats. Unlike similar libraries available, pyglet has no external dependencies
(such as SDL) and is written entirely in Python. Pyglet is available under a BSD-Style
license30 .
Kivy31 Kivy is a library for developing multi-touch applications. It is completely crossplatform (Linux/OSX/Win & Android with OpenGL ES2). It comes with native support
for many multi-touch input devices, a growing library of multi-touch aware widgets and
hardware accelerated OpenGL drawing. Kivy is designed to let you focus on building
custom and highly interactive applications as quickly and easily as possible.
Rabbyt32 A fast Sprite33 library for Python with game development in mind. With
Rabbyt Anims, even old graphics cards can produce very fast animations of 2,400 or
more sprites handling position, rotation, scaling, and color simultaneously.

25.3 See Also

10 Lessons Learned

26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34

34 -

How To Build a Game In A Week From Scratch With No Budget

http://www.pyglet.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses
http://kivy.org/
http://arcticpaint.com/projects/rabbyt/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_%28computer_graphics%29
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article2259.asp

145

26 Sockets
26.1 HTTP Client
Make a very simple HTTP client
import socket
s = socket.socket()
s.connect(('localhost', 80))
s.send('GET / HTTP/1.1\nHost:localhost\n\n')
s.recv(40000) # receive 40000 bytes

26.2 NTP/Sockets
Connecting to and reading an NTP time server, returning the time as follows
ntpps
ntps
ntpms
ntpt
32-bits

picoseconds portion of time

seconds portion of time
milliseconds portion of time
64-bit ntp time, seconds in upper 32-bits, picoseconds in lower

147

27 Files
27.1 File I/O
Read entire le:
inputFileText = open("testit.txt", "r").read()
print(inputFileText)

In this case the r parameter means the le will be opened in read-only mode.
Read certain amount of bytes from a le:
inputFileText = open("testit.txt", "r").read(123)
print(inputFileText)

When opening a le, one starts reading at the beginning of the le, if one would want more
random access to the le, it is possible to use seek() to change the current position in a
le and tell() to get to know the current position in the le. This is illustrated in the
following example:
>>> f=open("/proc/cpuinfo","r")
>>> f.tell()
0L
>>> f.read(10)
'processor\t'
>>> f.read(10)
': 0\nvendor'
>>> f.tell()
20L
>>> f.seek(10)
>>> f.tell()
10L
>>> f.read(10)
': 0\nvendor'
>>> f.close()
>>> f
<closed file '/proc/cpuinfo', mode 'r' at 0xb7d79770>

Here a le is opened, twice ten bytes are read, tell() shows that the current oset is at
position 20, now seek() is used to go back to position 10 (the same position where the
second read was started) and ten bytes are read and printed again. And when no more
operations on a le are needed the close() function is used to close the le we opened.
Read one line at a time:
for line in open("testit.txt", "r"):
print line

149

Files
In this case readlines() will return an array containing the individual lines of the le
as array entries. Reading a single line can be done using the readline() function which
returns the current line as a string. This example will output an additional newline between
the individual lines of the le, this is because one is read from the le and print introduces
another newline.
Write to a le requires the second parameter of open() to be w, this will overwrite the
existing contents of the le if it already exists when opening the le:
outputFileText = "Here's some text to save in a file"
open("testit.txt", "w").write(outputFileText)

Append to a le requires the second parameter of open() to be a (from append):

outputFileText = "Here's some text to add to the existing file."
open("testit.txt", "a").write(outputFileText)

Note that this does not add a line break between the existing le content and the string to
be added.

27.2 Testing Files

Determine whether path exists:
import os
os.path.exists('<path string>')

When working on systems such as Microsoft Windows, the directory separators will conict
with the path string. To get around this, do the following:
import os
os.path.exists('C:\\windows\\example\\path')

A better way however is to use raw, or r :

import os
os.path.exists(r'C:\windows\example\path')

But there are some other convenient functions in os.path , where path.code.exists() only
conrms whether or not path exists, there are functions which let you know if the path is a
le, a directory, a mount point or a symlink. There is even a function os.path.realpath()
which reveals the true destination of a symlink:
>>> import os
>>> os.path.isfile("/")
False
>>> os.path.isfile("/proc/cpuinfo")
True
>>> os.path.isdir("/")
True
>>> os.path.isdir("/proc/cpuinfo")
False
>>> os.path.ismount("/")
True
>>> os.path.islink("/")

150

Common File Operations

False
>>> os.path.islink("/vmlinuz")
True
>>> os.path.realpath("/vmlinuz")
'/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-generic'

27.3 Common File Operations

To copy or move a le, use the shutil library.
import shutil
shutil.move("originallocation.txt","newlocation.txt")
shutil.copy("original.txt","copy.txt")

To perform a recursive copy it is possible to use copytree() , to perform a recursive remove

it is possible to use rmtree()
import shutil
shutil.copytree("dir1","dir2")
shutil.rmtree("dir1")

To remove an individual le there exists the remove() function in the os module:

import os
os.remove("file.txt")

27.4 Finding Files

Files can be found using glob :
glob.glob('*.txt') # Finds files in the currect directory ending in dot txt
glob.glob('*\\*.txt') # Finds files in any of the direct subdirectories
# of the currect directory ending in dot txt
glob.glob('C:\\Windows\\*.exe')
for fileName in glob.glob('C:\\Windows\\*.exe'):
print fileName

The content of a directory can be listed using listdir :

filesAndDirectories=os.listdir('.')
for item in filesAndDirectories:
if os.path.isfile(item) and item.endswith('.txt'):
print "Text file: " + item
if os.path.isdir(item):
print "Directory: " + item

Getting a list of all items in a directory, including the nested ones:

for root, directories, files in os.walk('/user/Joe Hoe'):
print "Root: " + root
for directory in directories:
print "Directory: " + directory
for file in files:
print "File: " + file

151

Files

27.5 Current Directory

Getting current working directory:
os.getcwd()

Changing current working directory:

os.chdir('C:\\')

27.6 External Links

os Miscellaneous operating system interfaces1 in Python documentation

glob Unix style pathname pattern expansion2 in Python documentation
shutil High-level le operations3 in Python documentation
Brief Tour of the Standard Library4 in The Python Tutorial

1
2
3
4

152

http://docs.python.org/2/library/os.html
http://docs.python.org/2/library/glob.html
http://docs.python.org/2/library/shutil.html
http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/stdlib.html

28 Database Programming
28.1 Generic Database Connectivity using ODBC
The Open Database Connectivity1 (ODBC) API standard allows transparent connections
with any database that supports the interface. This includes most popular databases, such
as PostgreSQL2 or Microsoft Access3 . The strengths of using this interface is that a Python
script or module can be used on dierent databases by only modifying the connection string.
There are four ODBC modules for Python:
1. PythonWin ODBC Module : provided by Mark Hammond with the PythonWin4
package for Microsoft Windows (only). This is a minimal implementation of ODBC,
and conforms to Version 1.0 of the Python Database API. Although it is stable, it
will likely not be developed any further.5
2. mxODBC : a commercial Python package (http://www.egenix.com/products/
python/mxODBC/), which features handling of DateTime objects and prepared statements (using parameters).
3. pyodbc : an open-source Python package (http://code.google.com/p/pyodbc),
which uses only native Python data-types and uses prepared statements for increased
performance. The present version supports the Python Database API Specication
v2.0.6
4. pypyodbc : a pure Python DBAPI adapter based on the ctypes module,
(https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pypyodbc/1.3.0) , (http://code.google.com/
p/pypyodbc/), with a focus on keeping code Simple - the whole module is implemented in a single script with less than 3000 lines.

28.1.1 pyodbc
An example using the pyodbc Python package with a Microsoft Access le (although this
database connection could just as easily be a MySQL database):
import pyodbc
DBfile = '/data/MSAccess/Music_Library.mdb'
conn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ='+DBfile)

1
2
3
4
5
6

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open%20Database%20Connectivity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostgreSQL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft%20Access
http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/win32/
Hammond, M. Python Programming on Win32 . OReilly , , 2000
Python Database API Specication v2.0 7 . Python . Retrieved

153

Database Programming
#use below conn if using with Access 2007, 2010 .accdb file
#conn = pyodbc.connect(r'Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb,
*.accdb)};DBQ='+DBfile)
cursor = conn.cursor()
SQL = 'SELECT Artist, AlbumName FROM RecordCollection ORDER BY Year;'
for row in cursor.execute(SQL): # cursors are iterable
print row.Artist, row.AlbumName
# print row # if print row it will return tuple of all fields
cursor.close()
conn.close()

Many more features and examples are provided on the pyodbc website.
code create problem shown below. ImportError: DLL load failed: The specied procedure
could not be found.

28.2 Postgres connection in Python

-> see Python Programming/Databases8 code create problem shown below ImportError:
DLL load failed: The specied procedure could not be found.

28.3 MySQL connection in Python

-> see Python Programming/Databases9

28.4 SQLAlchemy in Action

SQLAlchemy has become the favorite choice for many large Python projects that use
databases. A long, updated list of such projects is listed on the SQLAlchemy site. Additionally, a pretty good tutorial can be found there, as well. Along with a thin database
wrapper, Elixir, it behaves very similarly to the ORM in Rails, ActiveRecord.

28.5 See also

Python Programming/Databases10

8
9
10

154

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%20Programming%2FDatabases
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%20Programming%2FDatabases
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python%20Programming%2FDatabases

References

28.6 References
28.7 External links

11
12
13
14
15
16

SQLAlchemy11
SQLObject12
PEP 24913 - Python Database API Specication v2.0
MySQldb Tutorial14
Database Topic Guide15 on python.org
SQLite Tutorial16

http://www.sqlalchemy.org/
http://www.sqlobject.org/
http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0249/
http://thepythonguru.com/beginner-guide-to-access-mysql-in-python/
http://www.python.org/doc/topics/database/
http://talkera.org/python/python-database-programming-sqlite-tutorial/

155

29 Web Page Harvesting

157

30 Threading
Threading in python is used to run multiple threads (tasks, function calls) at the same
time. Note that this does not mean that they are executed on dierent CPUs. Python
threads will NOT make your program faster if it already uses 100 % CPU time. In that
case, you probably want to look into parallel programming. If you are interested in parallel
programming with python, please see here1 .
Python threads are used in cases where the execution of a task involves some waiting.
One example would be interaction with a service hosted on another computer, such as a
webserver. Threading allows python to execute other code while waiting; this is easily
simulated with the sleep function.

30.1 Examples
30.1.1 A Minimal Example with Function Call
Make a thread that prints numbers from 1-10, waits for 1 sec between:
import threading
import time
def loop1_10():
for i in range(1, 11):
time.sleep(1)
print(i)
threading.Thread(target=loop1_10).start()

30.1.2 A Minimal Example with Object

#!/usr/bin/env python
import threading
import time
from __future__ import print_function
class MyThread(threading.Thread):
def run(self):
print("{} started!".format(self.getName()))
started!"
time.sleep(1)
a second
print("{} finished!".format(self.getName()))
finished!"

# "Thread-x
# Pretend to work for
# "Thread-x

http://wiki.python.org/moin/ParallelProcessing

159

Threading

if __name__ == '__main__':
for x in range(4):
# Four times...
mythread = MyThread(name = "Thread-{}".format(x + 1)) # ...Instantiate
a thread and pass a unique ID to it
mythread.start()
# ...Start the thread
time.sleep(.9)
# ...Wait 0.9 seconds
before starting another

This should output:

Thread-1
Thread-2
Thread-1
Thread-3
Thread-2
Thread-4
Thread-3
Thread-4

started!
started!
finished!
started!
finished!
started!
finished!
finished!

Note: this example appears to crash IDLE in Windows XP (seems to work in IDLE 1.2.4
in Windows XP though)
There seems to be a problem with this, if you replace sleep(1) with (2), and change
range(4) to range(10) . Thread-2 nished is the rst line before its even started. in
WING IDE, Netbeans, Eclipse is ne.
fr:Programmation Python/Les threads2

160

https://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programmation%20Python%2FLes%20threads

31 Extending with C
This gives a minimal Example on how to Extend Python with C. Linux is used for building
(feel free to extend it for other Platforms). If you have any problems, please report them
(e.g. on the dicussion page), I will check back in a while and try to sort them out.

31.1 Using the Python/C API

On an Ubuntu system, you might need to run
$ sudo apt-get install python-dev

This command installs you the python developement package and ensures that you can use
the line #include <Python.h> in the C source code. On other systems like openSUSE the
needed package calls python-devel and can be installed by using zypper :
$ sudo zypper install python-devel

https://docs.python.org/2/extending/index.html
https://docs.python.org/2/c-api/index.html

31.1.1 A minimal example

The minimal example we will create now is very similar in behaviour to the following python
snippet:
def say_hello(name):
"Greet somebody."
print "Hello %s!" % name

The C source code (hellomodule.c )

#include <Python.h>
static PyObject*
say_hello(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
{
const char* name;
if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s", &name))
return NULL;
printf("Hello %s!\n", name);

161

Extending with C
Py_RETURN_NONE;
}
static PyMethodDef HelloMethods[] =
{
{"say_hello", say_hello, METH_VARARGS, "Greet somebody."},
{NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
};
PyMODINIT_FUNC
inithello(void)
{
(void) Py_InitModule("hello", HelloMethods);
}

Building the extension module with GCC for Linux

To build our extension module we create the le setup.py like:
from distutils.core import setup, Extension
module1 = Extension('hello', sources = ['hellomodule.c'])
setup (name = 'PackageName',
version = '1.0',
description = 'This is a demo package',
ext_modules = [module1])

Now we can build our module with

python setup.py build

The module hello.so will end up in build/lib.linux-i686-x .y .

Building the extension module with GCC for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows users can use MinGW1 to compile this from cmd.exe2 using a similar
method to Linux user, as shown above. Assuming gcc is in the PATH environment variable,
type:
python setup.py build -cmingw32

The module hello.pyd will end up in build\lib.win32-x .y , which is a Python Dynamic

Module (similar to a DLL ).
An alternate way of building the module in Windows is to build a DLL. (This method does
not need an extension module le). From cmd.exe , type:

1
2

162

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MinGW
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cmd.exe

Using the Python/C API

gcc -c hellomodule.c -I/PythonXY /include

gcc -shared hellomodule.o -L/PythonXY /libs -lpythonXY -o hello.dll

where XY represents the version of Python, such as 24 for version 2.4.

Building the extension module using Microsoft Visual C++
With VC8 distutils is broken. We will use cl.exe from a command prompt instead:
cl /LD hellomodule.c /Ic:\Python24\include c:\Python24\libs\python24.lib
/link/out:hello.dll

Using the extension module

Change to the subdirectory where the le hello.so resides. In an interactive python session
you can use the module as follows.
>>> import hello
>>> hello.say_hello("World")
Hello World!

31.1.2 A module for calculating bonacci numbers

The C source code (bmodule.c)
#include <Python.h>
int
_fib(int n)
{
if (n < 2)
return n;
else
return _fib(n-1) + _fib(n-2);
}
static PyObject*
fib(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
{
int n;
if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "i", &n))
return NULL;
return Py_BuildValue("i", _fib(n));
}
static PyMethodDef FibMethods[] = {
{"fib", fib, METH_VARARGS, "Calculate the Fibonacci numbers."},
{NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
};

163

Extending with C

PyMODINIT_FUNC
initfib(void)
{
(void) Py_InitModule("fib", FibMethods);
}

The build script (setup.py)

from distutils.core import setup, Extension
module1 = Extension('fib', sources = ['fibmodule.c'])
setup (name = 'PackageName',
version = '1.0',
description = 'This is a demo package',
ext_modules = [module1])

How to use it?

>>> import fib
>>> fib.fib(10)
55

31.2 Using SWIG

Creating the previous example using SWIG is much more straight forward. To follow this
path you need to get SWIG3 up and running rst. To install it on an Ubuntu system, you
might need to run the following commands
$ sudo apt-get install swig
$ sudo apt-get install python-dev

After that create two les.

/*hellomodule.c*/
#include <stdio.h>
void say_hello(const char* name) {
printf("Hello %s!\n", name);
}
/*hello.i*/
%module hello
extern void say_hello(const char* name);

Now comes the more dicult part, gluing it all together.

164

http://www.swig.org/

Using SWIG
First we need to let SWIG do its work.
swig -python hello.i

This gives us the les hello.py and hello_wrap.c.

The next step is compiling (substitute /usr/include/python2.4/ with the correct path for
your setup!).
gcc -fpic -c hellomodule.c hello_wrap.c -I/usr/include/python2.4/

Now linking and we are done!

gcc -shared hellomodule.o hello_wrap.o -o _hello.so

The module is used in the following way.

>>> import hello
>>> hello.say_hello("World")
Hello World!

165

32 Extending with C++

There are dierent ways to extend Python:

In plain C, using Python.h

Using Swig
Using Boost.Python, optionally with Py++ preprocessing
Using Cython.

This page describes Boost.Python1 . Before the emergence of Cython, it was the most
comfortable way of writing C++2 extension modules.
Boost.Python comes bundled with the Boost C++ Libraries3 . To install it on an Ubuntu
system, you might need to run the following commands
$ sudo apt-get install libboost-python-dev
$ sudo apt-get install python-dev

32.1 A Hello World Example

32.1.1 The C++ source code (hellomodule.cpp)
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void say_hello(const char* name) {
cout << "Hello " << name << "!\n";
}
#include <boost/python/module.hpp>
#include <boost/python/def.hpp>
using namespace boost::python;
BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(hello)
{
def("say_hello", say_hello);
}

1
2
3

http://www.boost.org/libs/python/doc/
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/C%2B%2B
http://www.boost.org/

167

Extending with C++

32.1.2 setup.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
from distutils.core import setup
from distutils.extension import Extension
setup(name="PackageName",
ext_modules=[
Extension("hello", ["hellomodule.cpp"],
libraries = ["boost_python"])
])

Now we can build our module with

python setup.py build

The module hello.so will end up in e.g build/lib.linux-i686-2.4.

32.1.3 Using the extension module

Change to the subdirectory where the le hello.so resides. In an interactive python session
you can use the module as follows.
>>> import hello
>>> hello.say_hello("World")
Hello World!

32.2 An example with CGAL

Some, but not all, functions of the CGAL library have already Python bindings. Here an
example is provided for a case without such a binding and how it might be implemented.
The example is taken from the CGAL Documentation4 .
// test.cpp
using namespace std;
/* PYTHON */
#include <boost/python.hpp>
#include <boost/python/module.hpp>
#include <boost/python/def.hpp>
namespace python = boost::python;
/* CGAL */
#include <CGAL/Cartesian.h>
#include <CGAL/Range_segment_tree_traits.h>
#include <CGAL/Range_tree_k.h>
typedef CGAL::Cartesian<double> K;
typedef CGAL::Range_tree_map_traits_2<K, char> Traits;

168

http://www.cgal.org/Manual/3.3/doc_html/cgal_manual/SearchStructures/Chapter_main.html#Subsection_46.5.1

An example with CGAL

typedef CGAL::Range_tree_2<Traits> Range_tree_2_type;
typedef Traits::Key Key;
typedef Traits::Interval Interval;
Range_tree_2_type *Range_tree_2 = new Range_tree_2_type;
void create_tree()

typedef Traits::Key Key;

typedef Traits::Interval Interval;
std::vector<Key> InputList, OutputList;
InputList.push_back(Key(K::Point_2(8,5.1), 'a'));
InputList.push_back(Key(K::Point_2(1.0,1.1), 'b'));
InputList.push_back(Key(K::Point_2(3,2.1), 'c'));
Range_tree_2->make_tree(InputList.begin(),InputList.end());
Interval win(Interval(K::Point_2(1,2.1),K::Point_2(8.1,8.2)));
std::cout << "\n Window Query:\n";
Range_tree_2->window_query(win, std::back_inserter(OutputList));
std::vector<Key>::iterator current=OutputList.begin();
while(current!=OutputList.end()){
std::cout << " " << (*current).first.x() << "," << (*current).first.y()
<< ":" << (*current).second << std::endl;
current++;
}
std::cout << "\n Done\n";
}
void initcreate_tree() {;}
using namespace boost::python;
BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(test)
{
def("create_tree", create_tree, "");
}
// setup.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
from distutils.core import setup
from distutils.extension import Extension
setup(name="PackageName",
ext_modules=[
Extension("test", ["test.cpp"],
libraries = ["boost_python"])
])

We then compile and run the module as follows:

$ python setup.py build
$ cd build/lib*
$ python
>>> import test
>>> test.create_tree()
Window Query:
3,2.1:c
8,5.1:a
Done
>>>

169

Extending with C++

32.3 Handling Python objects and errors

One can also handle more complex data, e.g. Python objects like lists. The attributes are
accessed with the extract function executed on the objects attr function output. We can
also throw errors by telling the library that an error has occurred and returning. In the
following case, we have written a C++ function called afunction which we want to call.
The function takes an integer N and a vector of length N as input, we have to convert the
python list to a vector of strings before calling the function.
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
void _afunction_wrapper(int N, boost::python::list mapping) {
int mapping_length = boost::python::extract<int>(mapping.attr("__len__")());
//Do Error checking, the mapping needs to be at least as long as N
if (mapping_length < N) {
PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,
"The string mapping must be at least of length N");
boost::python::throw_error_already_set();
return;
}
vector<string> mystrings(mapping_length);
for (int i=0; i<mapping_length; i++) {
mystrings[i] = boost::python::extract<char const *>(mapping[i]);
}
//now call our C++ function
_afunction(N, mystrings);
}
using namespace boost::python;
BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(c_afunction)
{
def("afunction", _afunction_wrapper);
}

170

33 Extending with ctypes

ctypeshttp://python.net/crew/theller/ctypes/ is a foreign function interface1 module
for Python (included with Python 2.5 and above), which allows you to load in dynamic
libraries and call C functions. This is not technically extending Python, but it serves one
of the primary reasons for extending Python: to interface with external C code.

33.1 Basics
A library is loaded using the ctypes.CDLL function. After you load the library, the functions
inside the library are already usable as regular Python calls. For example, if we wanted
to forego the standard Python print statement and use the standard C library function,
printf , you would use this:
from ctypes import *
libName = 'libc.so' # If you're on a UNIX-based system
libName = 'msvcrt.dll' # If you're on Windows
libc = CDLL(libName)
libc.printf("Hello, World!\n")

Of course, you must use the libName line that matches your operating system, and delete
the other. If all goes well, you should see the infamous Hello World string at your console.

33.2 Getting Return Values

ctypes assumes, by default, that any given functions return type is a signed integer of native
size. Sometimes you dont want the function to return anything, and other times, you want
the function to return other types. Every ctypes function has an attribute called restype
. When you assign a ctypes class to restype , it automatically casts the functions return
value to that type.

33.2.1 Common Types

ctypes name
None
c_bool
c_byte

C type
void
C99 _Bool
signed char

Python type
None
bool
int

Notes
the None object

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign%20function%20interface

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Extending with ctypes

ctypes name
c_char
c_char_p
c_double
c_oat
c_int
c_long
c_longlong
c_short
c_ubyte
c_uint
c_ulong
c_ulonglong
c_ushort
c_void_p
c_wchar
c_wchar_p

172

C type
signed char
char *
double
oat
signed int
signed long
signed long long
signed short
unsigned char
unsigned int
unsigned long
unsigned long long
unsigned short
void *
wchar_t
wchar_t *

Python type
str
str
oat
oat
int
long
long
long
int
int
long
long
int
int
unicode
unicode

Notes
length of one

length of one

34 WSGI web programming

173

35 WSGI Web Programming

35.1 External Resources
http://docs.python.org/library/wsgiref.html

175

36 References
36.1 Language reference
The latest documentation for the standard python libraries and modules can always be
found at The Python.org documents section1

http://www.python.org/doc/

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https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:Unionhawk
https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php%3ftitle=User:Watchduck&action=edit&redlink=1
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:Webaware
https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php%3ftitle=User:Wenhaosparty~enwikibooks&action=edit&redlink=1
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:Whym
https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php%3ftitle=User:WikiNazi&action=edit&redlink=1
https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php%3ftitle=User:Wilbur.harvey&action=edit&redlink=1
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:Withinfocus
https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php%3ftitle=User:Wolf104&action=edit&redlink=1
https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php%3ftitle=User:Wolma&action=edit&redlink=1
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:Xania
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:Yasondinalt
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:Yath~enwikibooks
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:%25CE%25A3

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If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided above

cannot be given local legal eect according to their terms, reviewing
courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the Program, unless a
warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a copy of the Program
in return for a fee.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS How to Apply These Terms

to Your New Programs

If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a short notice

like this when it starts in an interactive mode:

If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest

possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
terms.

<program> Copyright (C) <year> <name of author> This program

comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type show
w. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under
certain conditions; type show c for details.

To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to

attach them to the start of each source le to most eectively state the
exclusion of warranty; and each le should have at least the copyright
line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
<one line to give the programs name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty
of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper

mail.

The hypothetical commands show w and show c should show the

appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, your programs commands might be dierent; for a GUI interface, you would
use an about box.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or
school, if any, to sign a copyright disclaimer for the program, if necessary. For more information on this, and how to apply and follow the
GNU GPL, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
The GNU General Public License does not permit incorporating your
program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine
library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary
applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the
GNU Lesser General Public License instead of this License. But rst,
please read <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-not-lgpl.html>.

38.2 GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008
Copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation,
Inc. <http://fsf.org/>
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
license document, but changing it is not allowed. 0. PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
functional and useful document free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the eective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or
without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to
get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for
modications made by others.
This License is a kind of copyleft, which means that derivative works
of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license
designed for free software.
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the
software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals;
it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or
whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium,
that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can
be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a
world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work
under the conditions stated herein. The Document, below, refers to
any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and
is addressed as you. You accept the license if you copy, modify or
distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law.
A Modied Version of the Document means any work containing the
Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modications and/or translated into another language.
A Secondary Section is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of
the publishers or authors of the Document to the Documents overall
subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall
directly within that overall subject. (Thus, if the Document is in part
a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any
mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal, commercial,
philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them.
The Invariant Sections are certain Secondary Sections whose titles
are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that
says that the Document is released under this License. If a section does
not t the above denition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be
designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant
Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections
then there are none.
The Cover Texts are certain short passages of text that are listed, as
Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that
the Document is released under this License. A Front-Cover Text may
be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words.
A Transparent copy of the Document means a machine-readable
copy, represented in a format whose specication is available to the
general public, that is suitable for revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels)
generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing
editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic
translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters.
A copy made in an otherwise Transparent le format whose markup,
or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modication by readers is not Transparent. An image format
is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy
that is not Transparent is called Opaque.
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standardconforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human
modication. Examples of transparent image formats include PNG,
XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can
be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or
XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally
available, and the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only.
The Title Page means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus
such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this
License requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats
which do not have any title page as such, Title Page means the text
near the most prominent appearance of the works title, preceding the
beginning of the body of the text.
The publisher means any person or entity that distributes copies of
the Document to the public.
A section Entitled XYZ means a named subunit of the Document
whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses

following text that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ

stands for a specic section name mentioned below, such as Acknowledgements, Dedications, Endorsements, or History.) To Preserve
the Title of such a section when you modify the Document means that
it remains a section Entitled XYZ according to this denition.
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice
which states that this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this
License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no
eect on the meaning of this License. 2. VERBATIM COPYING
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies
to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no
other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use
technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept
compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough
number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and
you may publicly display copies. 3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have
printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the
Documents license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the
copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts:
Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the
back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as
the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title
with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add
other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited
to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and
satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other
respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to t legibly,
you should put the rst ones listed (as many as t reasonably) on the
actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering
more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque
copy a computer-network location from which the general networkusing public has access to download using public-standard network
protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added
material. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity,
to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the
stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute
an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that
edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the
Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to
give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the
Document. 4. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modied Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release
the Modied Version under precisely this License, with the Modied
Version lling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution
and modication of the Modied Version to whoever possesses a copy
of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modied Version:
* A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions
(which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section of
the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if
the original publisher of that version gives permission. * B. List on
the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible
for authorship of the modications in the Modied Version, together
with at least ve of the principal authors of the Document (all of its
principal authors, if it has fewer than ve), unless they release you
from this requirement. * C. State on the Title page the name of the
publisher of the Modied Version, as the publisher. * D. Preserve
all the copyright notices of the Document. * E. Add an appropriate
copyright notice for your modications adjacent to the other copyright
notices. * F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license
notice giving the public permission to use the Modied Version under
the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
* G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections
and required Cover Texts given in the Documents license notice. *
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License. * I. Preserve the section
Entitled History, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at
least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modied Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled History
in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item
describing the Modied Version as stated in the previous sentence. *
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for
public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the
network locations given in the Document for previous versions it was
based on. These may be placed in the History section. You may omit
a network location for a work that was published at least four years
before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it
refers to gives permission. * K. For any section Entitled Acknowledgements or Dedications, Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve
in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein. * L. Preserve all
the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and

in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered

part of the section titles. * M. Delete any section Entitled Endorsements. Such a section may not be included in the Modied Version.
* N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled Endorsements
or to conict in title with any Invariant Section. * O. Preserve any
Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modied Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied
from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of
these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of
Invariant Sections in the Modied Versions license notice. These titles
must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled Endorsements, provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modied Version by various
partiesfor example, statements of peer review or that the text has
been approved by an organization as the authoritative denition of a
standard.
You may add a passage of up to ve words as a Front-Cover Text,
and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end
of the list of Cover Texts in the Modied Version. Only one passage
of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by
(or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document
already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by
you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on
behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one,
on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old
one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modied Version. 5. COMBINING
DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under
this License, under the terms dened in section 4 above for modied
versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodied, and list
them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license
notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name
but dierent contents, make the title of each such section unique by
adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number.
Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant
Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled History
in the various original documents, forming one section Entitled History; likewise combine any sections Entitled Acknowledgements, and
any sections Entitled Dedications. You must delete all sections Entitled Endorsements. 6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies
of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is
included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this
License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other
respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy
of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License
in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document. 7.
AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate
and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or
distribution medium, is called an aggregate if the copyright resulting
from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilations users beyond what the individual works permit. When the
Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not apply to
the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative
works of the Document.
If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies
of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of the
entire aggregate, the Documents Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic
equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise
they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate.
8. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modication, so you may distribute
translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing
Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from
their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all
Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License, and all the
license notices in the Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this License
and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a
disagreement between the translation and the original version of this
License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will prevail.
If a section in the Document is Entitled Acknowledgements, Dedications, or History, the requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title

(section 1) will typically require changing the actual title. 9. TERMINATION

You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document
except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute it is void, and will
automatically terminate your rights under this License.
However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license
from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and nally terminates
your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days
after the cessation.
Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated
permanently if the copyright holder noties you of the violation by
some reasonable means, this is the rst time you have received notice
of violation of this License (for any work) from that copyright holder,
and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the
notice.
Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the
licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under
this License. If your rights have been terminated and not permanently
reinstated, receipt of a copy of some or all of the same material does
not give you any rights to use it. 10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS
LICENSE
The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions
of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such
new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but
may dier in detail to address new problems or concerns. See
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number.
If the Document species that a particular numbered version of this
License or any later version applies to it, you have the option of
following the terms and conditions either of that specied version or
of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the
Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version
number of this License, you may choose any version ever published
(not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document
species that a proxy can decide which future versions of this License
can be used, that proxys public statement of acceptance of a version
permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Document.
11. RELICENSING
Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site (or MMC Site) means any
World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also
provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works. A public
wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server. A Massive
Multiauthor Collaboration (or MMC) contained in the site means
any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC site.
CC-BY-SA means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
3.0 license published by Creative Commons Corporation, a not-forprot corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco,
California, as well as future copyleft versions of that license published
by that same organization.
Incorporate means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or
in part, as part of another Document.
An MMC is eligible for relicensing if it is licensed under this License,
and if all works that were rst published under this License somewhere
other than this MMC, and subsequently incorporated in whole or in
part into the MMC, (1) had no cover texts or invariant sections, and
(2) were thus incorporated prior to November 1, 2008.
The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in
the site under CC-BY-SA on the same site at any time before August
1, 2009, provided the MMC is eligible for relicensing. ADDENDUM:
How to use this License for your documents
To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy
of the License in the document and put the following copyright and
license notices just after the title page:
Copyright (C) YEAR YOUR NAME. Permission is granted to copy,
distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU
Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections,
no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license
is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.
If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover
Texts, replace the with Texts. line with this:
with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the
Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being
LIST.
If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other
combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of
free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free software.

38.3 GNU Lesser General Public License

GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 3, 29 June 2007
Copyright 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. <http://fsf.org/>

The Corresponding Application Code for a Combined Work means

the object code and/or source code for the Application, including any
data and utility programs needed for reproducing the Combined Work
from the Application, but excluding the System Libraries of the Combined Work. 1. Exception to Section 3 of the GNU GPL.

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this

license document, but changing it is not allowed.

You may convey a covered work under sections 3 and 4 of this License
without being bound by section 3 of the GNU GPL. 2. Conveying
Modied Versions.

This version of the GNU Lesser General Public License incorporates

the terms and conditions of version 3 of the GNU General Public License, supplemented by the additional permissions listed below. 0.
Additional Denitions.

If you modify a copy of the Library, and, in your modications, a facility refers to a function or data to be supplied by an Application that
uses the facility (other than as an argument passed when the facility
is invoked), then you may convey a copy of the modied version:

As used herein, this License refers to version 3 of the GNU Lesser

General Public License, and the GNU GPL refers to version 3 of the
GNU General Public License.

* a) under this License, provided that you make a good faith eort to
ensure that, in the event an Application does not supply the function
or data, the facility still operates, and performs whatever part of its
purpose remains meaningful, or * b) under the GNU GPL, with none
of the additional permissions of this License applicable to that copy.

The Library refers to a covered work governed by this License, other

than an Application or a Combined Work as dened below.

3. Object Code Incorporating Material from Library Header Files.

An Application is any work that makes use of an interface provided
by the Library, but which is not otherwise based on the Library. Dening a subclass of a class dened by the Library is deemed a mode of
using an interface provided by the Library.
A Combined Work is a work produced by combining or linking an
Application with the Library. The particular version of the Library
with which the Combined Work was made is also called the Linked
Version.
The Minimal Corresponding Source for a Combined Work means the
Corresponding Source for the Combined Work, excluding any source
code for portions of the Combined Work that, considered in isolation,
are based on the Application, and not on the Linked Version.

The object code form of an Application may incorporate material from

a header le that is part of the Library. You may convey such object
code under terms of your choice, provided that, if the incorporated material is not limited to numerical parameters, data structure layouts
and accessors, or small macros, inline functions and templates (ten or
fewer lines in length), you do both of the following:
* a) Give prominent notice with each copy of the object code that the
Library is used in it and that the Library and its use are covered by
this License. * b) Accompany the object code with a copy of the GNU
GPL and this license document.
4. Combined Works.

You may convey a Combined Work under terms of your choice that,
taken together, eectively do not restrict modication of the portions
of the Library contained in the Combined Work and reverse engineering for debugging such modications, if you also do each of the following:

You may place library facilities that are a work based on the Library
side by side in a single library together with other library facilities that
are not Applications and are not covered by this License, and convey
such a combined library under terms of your choice, if you do both of
the following:

* a) Give prominent notice with each copy of the Combined Work

that the Library is used in it and that the Library and its use are
covered by this License. * b) Accompany the Combined Work with a
copy of the GNU GPL and this license document. * c) For a Combined Work that displays copyright notices during execution, include
the copyright notice for the Library among these notices, as well as a
reference directing the user to the copies of the GNU GPL and this
license document. * d) Do one of the following: o 0) Convey the
Minimal Corresponding Source under the terms of this License, and
the Corresponding Application Code in a form suitable for, and under
terms that permit, the user to recombine or relink the Application
with a modied version of the Linked Version to produce a modied
Combined Work, in the manner specied by section 6 of the GNU
GPL for conveying Corresponding Source. o 1) Use a suitable shared
library mechanism for linking with the Library. A suitable mechanism
is one that (a) uses at run time a copy of the Library already present
on the users computer system, and (b) will operate properly with a
modied version of the Library that is interface-compatible with the
Linked Version. * e) Provide Installation Information, but only if you
would otherwise be required to provide such information under section
6 of the GNU GPL, and only to the extent that such information is
necessary to install and execute a modied version of the Combined
Work produced by recombining or relinking the Application with a
modied version of the Linked Version. (If you use option 4d0, the
Installation Information must accompany the Minimal Corresponding
Source and Corresponding Application Code. If you use option 4d1,
you must provide the Installation Information in the manner specied
by section 6 of the GNU GPL for conveying Corresponding Source.)

* a) Accompany the combined library with a copy of the same work

based on the Library, uncombined with any other library facilities,
conveyed under the terms of this License. * b) Give prominent notice with the combined library that part of it is a work based on the
Library, and explaining where to nd the accompanying uncombined
form of the same work.

5. Combined Libraries.

6. Revised Versions of the GNU Lesser General Public License.

The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the GNU Lesser General Public License from time to time.
Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but
may dier in detail to address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Library
as you received it species that a certain numbered version of the GNU
Lesser General Public License or any later version applies to it, you
have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that
published version or of any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation. If the Library as you received it does not specify a version
number of the GNU Lesser General Public License, you may choose
any version of the GNU Lesser General Public License ever published
by the Free Software Foundation.
If the Library as you received it species that a proxy can decide
whether future versions of the GNU Lesser General Public License
shall apply, that proxys public statement of acceptance of any version is permanent authorization for you to choose that version for the
Library.