The Python Standard Library by Example

Master the Powerful Python Standard Library through Real Code Examples
The Python Standard Library contains hundreds of modules for interacting with the operating system, interpreter, and Internet—all extensively tested and ready to jump-start your application development. The Python Standard Library by Example introduces virtually every important area of the Python 2.7 library through concise, stand-alone source code/output examples, designed for easy learning and reuse.

Building on his popular Python Module of the Week blog series, author and Python expert Doug Hellmann focuses on “showing” not “telling.” He explains code behavior through downloadable examples that fully demonstrate each feature.

You’ll find practical code for working with text, data types, algorithms, math, file systems, networking, the Internet, XML, email, cryptography, concurrency, runtime and language services, and much more. Each section fully covers one module, and links to valuable additional resources, making this book an ideal tutorial and reference. Coverage includes
Manipulating text with string, textwrap, re, and difflib
Implementing data structures: collections, array, queue, struct, copy, and more
Reading, writing, and manipulating files and directories
Regular expression pattern matching
Exchanging data and providing for persistence Archiving and data compression
Managing processes and threads
Using application “building blocks”: parsing command-line options, prompting for passwords, scheduling events, and logging
Testing, debugging, and compilation
Controlling runtime configuration
Using module and package utilities

If you’re new to Python, this book will quickly give you access to a whole new world of functionality. If you’ve worked with Python before, you’ll discover new, powerful solutions and better ways to use the modules you’ve already tried.