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Python Essential Reference 4th Edition
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Python Essential Reference is the definitive reference guide to the Python programming language ― the one authoritative handbook that reliably untangles and explains both the core Python language and the most essential parts of the Python library.
Designed for the practicing programmer, the book is concise, to the point, and highly accessible. It also includes detailed information on the Python library and many advanced subjects that is not available in either the official Python documentation or any other single reference source.
Thoroughly updated to reflect the significant new programming language features and library modules that have been introduced in Python 2.6 and Python 3, the fourth edition of Python Essential Reference is the definitive guide for programmers who need to modernize existing Python code or who are planning an eventual migration to Python 3. If you are starting a new Python project, you will find detailed coverage of contemporary Python programming idioms.
- ISBN-100672329786
- ISBN-13978-0672329784
- Edition4th
- PublisherAddison-Wesley Professional
- Publication dateJuly 9, 2009
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions5.9 x 1.1 x 8.9 inches
- Print length717 pages
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Customer Reviews |
4.6 out of 5 stars
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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Price | $11.60$11.60 | — | $28.05$28.05 | $45.05$45.05 | — |
Title | Effective Python | Effective Python LiveLessons | Python Essential Reference | The Python Standard Library by Example | Modern Python LiveLessons: Big Ideas and Little Code in Python |
Author | Brett Slatkin | Brett Slatkin | David Beazley | Doug Hellmann | Raymond Hettinger |
User Experience Level | Intermediate and advanced level Python programmers | Intermediate and advanced level Python programmers | Assumes that the reader has prior programming experience with Python or another language such as C or Java | Intermediate-level Python programmers | Intermediate-level Python programmers |
What You Will Learn | How to harness Python’s full power to write exceptionally robust and well-performing code. | The Pythonic way of writing programs, building on a fundamental understanding of Python to help you write programs more effectively. | The core Python language, and the most essential parts of the Python library. | How to utilize the Python 3.x library to jump-start application development. | How to elegantly code powerful solutions succinctly and efficiently with Python. |
Core Concept | Using the concise, scenario-driven style pioneered in Scott Meyers’ best-selling Effective C++, Brett Slatkin brings together 59 Python best practices, tips, and shortcuts, and explains them with realistic code examples. | Hands-on demonstration of a broad but related set of items designed to provide concise and specific guidance on what to do and what to avoid when writing programs using Python. | Accurate and concise reference to the most important parts of Python. | Presents selected examples from the hundereds of modules in the Python standard linrary demonstrating how to use the most commonly used features of the modules that support Python’s 'batteries included' slogan. | Provides developers with an approach to programming in Python that expresses big ideas succinctly, with the minimum of code, allowing the business logic to shine through. |
Key Topics Covered | Best practices for writing functions that clarify intention, promote reuse, and avoid bugs; Expressing behaviors with classes and objects; Avoid pitfalls with metaclasses and dynamic attributes; Efficient approaches to concurrency and parallelism; Techniques and idioms for using Python’s built-in modules; Tools and best practices for collaborative development | Methods; Comprehensions and generators; Functions and classes; Concurrency and parallelism; How to make programs more robust | Language features, libraries, and modules; Generators, coroutines, closures, metaclasses, and decorators; How to use Python 2.6’s forward compatibility mode to evaluate code for Python 3 compatibility; Low-level system and networking library modules | Python 3.x’s new libraries, significant functionality changes, and new layout and naming conventions. Expert porting guidance for moving code from 2.x Python standard library modules to their Python 3.x equivalents. | Newer features from Python 3.6, including f-strings and type hinting; ETL (extract-transform-load) techniques to prepare real-world data for analysis; How to improve code reliability |
Python Versions Covered | 3.x and 2.x | Python 3 | Python 2.6 and 3.0. Omits features of Python 2 that have been removed from Python 3. Does not features of Python 3 that have not been back-ported. | Python 3 In an effort to maintain clear and concise descriptions for each example, the differences between Python 2 and 3 are not highlighted in each chapter. | Python 3.6 |
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
Designed for the professional programmer, the book is concise, to the point, and highly accessible. It also includes detailed information on the Python library and many advanced subjects that is not available in either the official Python documentation or any other single reference source.
Thoroughly updated to reflect the significant new programming language features and library modules that have been introduced in Python 2.6 and Python 3, the fourth edition of Python Essential Reference is the definitive guide for programmers who need to modernize existing Python code or who are planning an eventual migration to Python 3. Programmers starting a new Python project will find detailed coverage of contemporary Python programming idioms.
This fourth edition of Python Essential Reference features numerous improvements, additions, and updates:
- Coverage of new language features, libraries, and modules
- Practical coverage of Python's more advanced features including generators, coroutines, closures, metaclasses, and decorators
- Expanded coverage of library modules related to concurrent programming including threads, subprocesses, and the new multiprocessing module
- Up-to-the-minute coverage of how to use Python 2.6’s forward compatibility mode to evaluate code for Python 3 compatibility
- Improved organization for even faster answers and better usability
- Updates to reflect modern Python programming style and idioms
- Updated and improved example code
- Deep coverage of low-level system and networking library modules ― including options not covered in the standard documentation
About the Author
David M. Beazley has been programming Python since 1996. While working at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he helped pioneer the use of Python with scientific computing software. Through his company, Dabeaz LLC, he provides software development, training, and consulting related to the practical use of dynamic programming languages such as Python, Ruby, and Perl, especially in systems programming. He is author of all previous editions of Python Essential Reference, and was contributing author of Steve Holden’s Python Web Programming. He is a member of the Python Software Foundation.
Product details
- Publisher : Addison-Wesley Professional; 4th edition (July 9, 2009)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 717 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0672329786
- ISBN-13 : 978-0672329784
- Item Weight : 1.86 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.9 x 1.1 x 8.9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #587,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #100 in Computer Operating Systems (Books)
- #381 in Computer Programming Languages
- #594 in Python Programming
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![David M. Beazley](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/rr80441q2v8kg6514q7vov9aft._SY600_.jpg)
I've been programming computers of various sorts for more than 25 years. For the most part, I would consider myself to be a die-hard C programmer although I have to admit that I also really like assembly language programming. Oddly enough, however, I'm probably best known for my work with the Python programming language. I first came across Python in 1996 when I was writing high-performance software for supercomputers. At the time, I became interested in using it as a control-language for interfacing with software components written in C. As a result, I wrote some tools to simplify this process and became fairly active in the Python community. Python is definitely my language of choice for doing just about everything that would be annoyingly tedious to do in C.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the reference book a good introduction to Python with a nice mix of tutorial notes and explanations. They find the content clear and organized, making it highly readable and easily accessible. The pacing is rapid, making it ideal for experienced programmers. Many consider it an invaluable resource and say the price is worth the contents. However, some customers feel the font size is too small and the code examples are small and don't resize. There are mixed opinions on the content quality, with some finding it straightforward and no-frills, while others feel some parts seem stripped from other sources.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book a good reference guide with tutorial notes to explain details. It provides a thorough introduction to Python for those who prefer a no-frills, get-to-the-point approach. The book starts with examples and is a thorough reference to the Python standard library. They like that it's simple to use with lots of accessible information. The author does a good job providing references to external resources like lectures. The examples are always enlightening, clever, but never obfuscating.
"...The examples are always enlightening, sometimes clever, but never obfuscating. Finally, the writing may not be flawless but overall it is quite good...." Read more
"...It has a great deal of information contained therein, with good code examples and explanations so that it's easy to find what you need and put it to..." Read more
"...Part I: The Python Language (199 pages) will give you a thorough introduction to Python/the standard library...." Read more
"...theoretical text, but it's possible to read between the lines and see some logic, and I find it helps me understand better, even though I'm unlikely..." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's clear presentation and well-organized content. They find it useful for a quick overview of the language, highly readable with well-explained details. The no-frills, get-to-the-point style of writing is easy for someone with good programming knowledge to understand. The book packs a lot of information into 717 pages and includes an extremely rigorous introduction to the language.
"...essentially gets two books for the price of one: the part on the language can be read linearly, while the library part can be read in chunks as the..." Read more
"...It has a great deal of information contained therein, with good code examples and explanations so that it's easy to find what you need and put it to..." Read more
"...this book includes a wide variety of topics, most of them presented in a sensible order. Beazley's coverage of each topic is quite terse...." Read more
"...shift to 3.x -- this isn't a theoretical text, but it's possible to read between the lines and see some logic, and I find it helps me understand..." Read more
Customers find the book's pacing fast and extensive. They say it's well-organized and items can be found faster with the book than online. The content is suitable for experienced programmers, and the author's writing style is easy to read.
"...This volume's pace is rapid and the coverage is quite extensive, so this probably shouldn't be the first Python book one reads...." Read more
"...the first ("Introducing Python:...", by Lubanovic) was a faster read but left many open questions...." Read more
"...The content is ideally paced for experienced programmers, and the author's writing style is very easy to read...." Read more
"...cgi, etc, I was able I found this handy-dandy reference and get up and running quickly...." Read more
Customers find the book provides good value for money. They say it's a valuable and useful Python tutorial and an invaluable resource.
"...Despite this, the book is still an amazingly invaluable resource. Yes, almost all the information is available for free online...." Read more
"...You'll definitely get your money's worth on this volume!..." Read more
"...IMO, the $ was definitely worth the contents of this book...." Read more
"...to do so AND if you are an experienced developer, then this is the most valuable and useful Python tutorial + reference book...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's coverage. They find the material extensive and well-covered, with depth expanding over time.
"...This volume's pace is rapid and the coverage is quite extensive, so this probably shouldn't be the first Python book one reads...." Read more
"...I found these parts to be slightly less readable although coverage was extremely thorough...." Read more
"...The quality stays constant and the material and coverage expands." Read more
"...It covers more material in greater depth...." Read more
Customers have different views on the content quality. Some find it concise and straightforward, with no frills or clever language. Others feel that the content is stripped from Python without much substance and feels incomplete.
"...so that he says exactly what needs to be said and wastes no one's time with fluff...." Read more
"...only problem I have with this book is that a great deal of the content seems stripped, verbatim, from the Python Documentation ([...])...." Read more
"...no-frills, get-to-the-damn-point style of writing. Despite this, it's slow to read due to the density of the information covered...." Read more
"its OK but incomplete to me, the book starts ok with examples but the author assume that the reader remeber each page :P and can't put more examples..." Read more
Customers find the font size in the printed edition too small and hard to read. They also mention that the code examples are small and don't resize.
"...All of the code examples were pasted in as images, and were much too small and faint for me to read even on my large iMac...." Read more
"...a high resolution screen is extremely taxing, as all code listings are fixed-size raster images...." Read more
"...The Good: this book is approximately 700 pages long; even so, it's not that bulky and is therefore quite manageable...." Read more
"...my main problem is, like some others have said, that the print is way too small to read. I had to return it...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2011David Beazley's "Python Essential Reference, Fourth Edition" covers Python 2.6 and 3.0, and is thus quite (though not completely) up to date. The author has in essence chosen to present the intersection of the two branches, i.e. omit features of Python 2 that have been removed from Python 3. This volume's pace is rapid and the coverage is quite extensive, so this probably shouldn't be the first Python book one reads.
The Good: this book is approximately 700 pages long; even so, it's not that bulky and is therefore quite manageable. It is split into two parts: 200 pages on the language and roughly 400 pages on the library. The first part is very good, while the second part is unrivaled as of this writing (though this may change when Doug Hellmann's "The Python Standard Library by Example" comes out). Thus, the reader essentially gets two books for the price of one: the part on the language can be read linearly, while the library part can be read in chunks as the need arises. The book also includes an extremely useful Index which is approximately 80 pages long (and also contains unexpected entries, e.g. "chicken, multithreaded, 414"). Moving on to the material covered: Beazley includes an appendix on Python 3-specific concepts, but also offers useful advice on Python 3 throughout the main text (e.g. "To keep your brain from exploding, encoded byte strings and unencoded strings should never be mixed together in expressions"). I particularly enjoyed the sections on decorators, generators, and coroutines in the chapter on functional programming. Beazley has also posted on his website two tutorials on these topics that nicely complement the material in the book. Similarly, the chapter on multiprocessing and threading is impressive, and forms a nice set with the author's talk slides on the Global Interpreter Lock -- it's important to note that Beazley used to be a professor of Computer Science. Probably the most significant aspect of this book is the abundance of examples. I'm pretty sure the phrase that is most often repeated in this volume is "Here's an example". The examples are always enlightening, sometimes clever, but never obfuscating. Finally, the writing may not be flawless but overall it is quite good. Of course, any reference text is bound to be somewhat dry, but within the confines of the genre Beazley has truly done wonders: he has a personality and he's not afraid to show it. This jovial aspect of the writing is present when giving advice (e.g "Try not to mix threads and multiprocessing together in the same program unless you're vastly trying to improve your job security", p. 435), or just for its own sake (e.g. "If you change the code to only poll after every six-pack of beer", p. 469)
The Bad: chapter 1 is fun to read but it is deceptively titled ("A Tutorial Introduction"). For example, Beazley uses a decorator and the seek file method, without explaining anything about either of them. Of course, this book isn't supposed to be introductory, so strictly speaking my quibble is with the first chapter's title, not its content. The biggest problem I encountered while reading the book was the page layout in the majority of Part II: a module is introduced and then its methods are described by showing a name in bold, followed by a description on a separate line. This confused me to no end: whenever I saw a name, for a split second I would wonder if I should look up or down to find the description. This could have been avoided if the more standard tabular form had been chosen more often: name on one column, description on the other. Of course, I understand that this would have increased the size of the book considerably, perhaps prohibitively so. Moving on to more detailed complaints: for some modules (e.g. struct, shutil, os.path) Beazley gives a listing of the contents but, unfortunately, no corresponding examples. To be fair, he does use os.path functionality in a number of places throughout the book (though the index is no help tracking them down), just not in the appropriate section. Delving into even more detail: any book of this breadth is bound to contain minor errors. Here's a selection of such slips, all drawn from the same chapter: in some cases the prose is obscure, e.g. "A method is a function that performs some sort of operation on an object when the method is invoked as a function." (p. 33); sometimes a statement is contradicted in a later chapter, e.g. we read on p. 39 that "Sequences represent ordered sets of objects indexed by non-negative integers and include strings, lists, and tuples." only to find out on p. 68 that "Negative indices can be used to fetch characters from the end of a sequence."; similarly, on p. 45 we read that for dictionary methods like keys() "in Python 3 the result is an iterator that iterates over the current contents of the mapping", while on p. 632 we learn that "these methods return so-called view objects".
These days, the aspiring intermediate Python programmer doesn't have too many books to choose from: Martelli/Ravenscroft/Ascher's "Python Cookbook" is out of date, Ziade's "Expert Python Programming" contains too much material that is not Python-specific, and Alchin's "Pro Python" is only ~ 250 pages long. Thus, for the time being Beazley's "Python Essential Reference" is the obvious choice for a second book on Python. All in all, four and a half stars.
Alex Gezerlis
- Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2010This book is a wonderful, and very thorough, reference to the Python Programming Language. It has a great deal of information contained therein, with good code examples and explanations so that it's easy to find what you need and put it to good use. It also manages to cover both Python 2 and Python 3 in the same text, which is VERY useful if you're migrating, or even if you're just curious about what differences exist between the two.
The only problem I have with this book is that a great deal of the content seems stripped, verbatim, from the Python Documentation ([...]). Code examples are the same, explanations and descriptions are the same... It's like the author copy-pasted from the python documentation, then glued it all together with a little insight and experience. Perhaps the author contributed to the Python Documentation website as well?
Despite this, the book is still an amazingly invaluable resource. Yes, almost all the information is available for free online. And yes, you can download a local copy of the Python Documentation from the website, for both Python 2 and Python 3, for free. However, in this book, you have a nigh complete reference of BOTH, including insights into each, all in an easy-to-use paperback form. (While I love e-books, they suck for programming. I'd prefer not to alt-tab between the reference and the code all the time.)
So if you don't want to spend money, go download the Python Documentation, it's free and contains pretty much everything the book talks about.
But if you don't mind paying, you'll find that this is a wonderful addition to your Python Programmer's bookshelf.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2013DISCLAIMER: I have, thus far, only read Part I (the first 199 pages). I may update this review, once I've read Parts II and III
I bought this book about 6 months into learning Python. I had gone through many Python resources, including a 2-day intro course, followed by:
codecademy.com/tracks/python
python-course.eu/
and about 20 different videos on pyvideo.org, my favorite being Hettinger's 'Class Development Toolkit' (watch it. it is awesome.)
Eventually, I got stuck. I didn't know what else to learn, or in what order to learn it.
Fortunately, this book includes a wide variety of topics, most of them presented in a sensible order. Beazley's coverage of each topic is quite terse. For me, this was mostly good. I didn't waste time reading through things I already knew, and when I wanted to learn more about a topic, I consulted Google and Stack Overflow. Despite the succinct descriptions, the book spans over 700 pages due to its breadth. I would hate to imagine how large a book it might be otherwise.
That said, I would not recommend this as an introductory text (at least not for a beginning programmer). It isn't intended to be. Beazley describes this as "a concise reference to the Python Programming language" and says that while "an experienced programmer will probably be able to learn Python from the book, it is not intended to be an extended tutorial or treatise on how to program".
Of course, I used it as a bit of a tutorial, but your mileage may vary.
The vast majority of Beazley's descriptions are quite good. Unfortunately, I found the introductions to Abstract Base Classes and Metaclasses to be too short, with both difficult subjects covered in a mere 5 pages. He comes back to these subjects much later in the book (I haven't yet read those sections), but I would have preferred either a longer introduction, or no introduction at all. Reading this section, I had no idea what metaclasses were used for. I don't have trouble with brevity elsewhere, but metaclasses are notoriously confusing.
Despite that minor quibble, I found this book a tremendous resource, worthy of 5 stars. I have recently started on the Python Cookbook, which I am also enjoying thoroughly.
Structure:
Part I: The Python Language (199 pages) will give you a thorough introduction to Python/the standard library. I would call it a beginning and intermediate level course.
Part II (the Python Library) is 390 pages
Part III (Extending and Embedding) is 32 pages.
Part II covers a diverse collection of subjects (see the index), from math to testing to web programming. I expect to pick and choose from these; I see no reason to read them in order.
Note: According to the O'Reilly site, you can get the ebook version for only $5 more if you own the physical version. It is supposedly kindle-compatible. And non-DRM!
I STRONGLY recommend getting the physical version and, if you need the ebook, paying the $5 at the O'Reilly site.
The code is very hard to read in the ebook version (maybe it would work on the Kindle DX? it was terrible on the regular kindle). I ultimately decided I couldn't deal with it, and had to buy a physical copy. So, I bought the same book twice. Oh well.
Who knows; O'Reilly's ebook may be better than Amazon's. It comes in multiple (kindle compatible) formats. It would be hard to be worse.
Top reviews from other countries
- Alain2006Reviewed in Canada on July 7, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars I wouldd buy again
Excellent and quite complete
-
antonio arandaReviewed in Spain on February 16, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Llegò ràpido y en perfecto estado. Ya tenia ediciones anteriores pero no cubrian python 3.
La edicion es buena por cubrir en parte python 3 pero habrà que esperar a otra pròxima que lo cubra más extensamente.
-
Estevao Paiva FonsecaReviewed in Brazil on May 3, 2015
1.0 out of 5 stars Decepcionante
Muito frustrante a versão kindle desse livro. Os códigos-fontes exibidos no livro são imagens de baixíssima resolução. Não dá vontade de ler. Espero que corrijam isso.
- DeepakSReviewed in India on July 10, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars Must have Python book
Very good book.Author is an artist!
- Contents are concise and clear
- Book pages are of good quality.
-
achem91Reviewed in France on January 5, 2015
3.0 out of 5 stars Python, un langage tout simple, qu'ils disent !
Pas mal, ce livre, mais un livre de référence (que j'avais choisi pour ça) n'est pas l'idéal pour apprendre le langage et encore moins pour se convaincre que le langage est simple ! Le niveau intellectuel minimum requis n'est pas si moyen qu'on voudrait nous le faire croire !