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authorGeorg Brandl <georg@python.org>2007-08-15 14:26:55 (GMT)
committerGeorg Brandl <georg@python.org>2007-08-15 14:26:55 (GMT)
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-\chapter{Glossary\label{glossary}}
-
-%%% keep the entries sorted and include at least one \index{} item for each
-%%% cross-references are marked with \emph{entry}
-
-\begin{description}
-
-
-\index{>>>}
-\item[\code{>>>}]
-The typical Python prompt of the interactive shell. Often seen for
-code examples that can be tried right away in the interpreter.
-
-\index{...}
-\item[\code{.\code{.}.}]
-The typical Python prompt of the interactive shell when entering code
-for an indented code block.
-
-\index{BDFL}
-\item[BDFL]
-Benevolent Dictator For Life, a.k.a. \ulink{Guido van
-Rossum}{http://www.python.org/\textasciitilde{}guido/}, Python's creator.
-
-\index{byte code}
-\item[byte code]
-The internal representation of a Python program in the interpreter.
-The byte code is also cached in \code{.pyc} and \code{.pyo}
-files so that executing the same file is faster the second time
-(recompilation from source to byte code can be avoided). This
-``intermediate language'' is said to run on a ``virtual
-machine'' that calls the subroutines corresponding to each bytecode.
-
-\index{classic class}
-\item[classic class]
-Any class which does not inherit from \class{object}. See
-\emph{new-style class}.
-
-\index{coercion}
-\item[coercion]
-The implicit conversion of an instance of one type to another during an
-operation which involves two arguments of the same type. For example,
-{}\code{int(3.15)} converts the floating point number to the integer
-{}\code{3}, but in {}\code{3+4.5}, each argument is of a different type (one
-int, one float), and both must be converted to the same type before they can
-be added or it will raise a {}\code{TypeError}. Coercion between two
-operands can be performed with the {}\code{coerce} builtin function; thus,
-{}\code{3+4.5} is equivalent to calling {}\code{operator.add(*coerce(3,
-4.5))} and results in {}\code{operator.add(3.0, 4.5)}. Without coercion,
-all arguments of even compatible types would have to be normalized to the
-same value by the programmer, e.g., {}\code{float(3)+4.5} rather than just
-{}\code{3+4.5}.
-
-\index{complex number}
-\item[complex number]
-An extension of the familiar real number system in which all numbers are
-expressed as a sum of a real part and an imaginary part. Imaginary numbers
-are real multiples of the imaginary unit (the square root of {}\code{-1}),
-often written {}\code{i} in mathematics or {}\code{j} in engineering.
-Python has builtin support for complex numbers, which are written with this
-latter notation; the imaginary part is written with a {}\code{j} suffix,
-e.g., {}\code{3+1j}. To get access to complex equivalents of the
-{}\module{math} module, use {}\module{cmath}. Use of complex numbers is a
-fairly advanced mathematical feature. If you're not aware of a need for them,
-it's almost certain you can safely ignore them.
-
-\index{descriptor}
-\item[descriptor]
-Any \emph{new-style} object that defines the methods
-{}\method{__get__()}, \method{__set__()}, or \method{__delete__()}.
-When a class attribute is a descriptor, its special binding behavior
-is triggered upon attribute lookup. Normally, writing \var{a.b} looks
-up the object \var{b} in the class dictionary for \var{a}, but if
-{}\var{b} is a descriptor, the defined method gets called.
-Understanding descriptors is a key to a deep understanding of Python
-because they are the basis for many features including functions,
-methods, properties, class methods, static methods, and reference to
-super classes.
-
-\index{dictionary}
-\item[dictionary]
-An associative array, where arbitrary keys are mapped to values. The
-use of \class{dict} much resembles that for \class{list}, but the keys
-can be any object with a \method{__hash__()} function, not just
-integers starting from zero. Called a hash in Perl.
-
-\index{duck-typing}
-\item[duck-typing]
-Pythonic programming style that determines an object's type by inspection
-of its method or attribute signature rather than by explicit relationship
-to some type object ("If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it
-must be a duck.") By emphasizing interfaces rather than specific types,
-well-designed code improves its flexibility by allowing polymorphic
-substitution. Duck-typing avoids tests using \function{type()} or
-\function{isinstance()}. Instead, it typically employs
-\function{hasattr()} tests or {}\emph{EAFP} programming.
-
-\index{EAFP}
-\item[EAFP]
-Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. This common Python
-coding style assumes the existence of valid keys or attributes and
-catches exceptions if the assumption proves false. This clean and
-fast style is characterized by the presence of many \keyword{try} and
-{}\keyword{except} statements. The technique contrasts with the
-{}\emph{LBYL} style that is common in many other languages such as C.
-
-\index{__future__}
-\item[__future__]
-A pseudo module which programmers can use to enable new language
-features which are not compatible with the current interpreter. For
-example, the expression \code{11/4} currently evaluates to \code{2}.
-If the module in which it is executed had enabled \emph{true division}
-by executing:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-from __future__ import division
-\end{verbatim}
-
-the expression \code{11/4} would evaluate to \code{2.75}. By
-importing the \ulink{\module{__future__}}{../lib/module-future.html}
-module and evaluating its variables, you can see when a new feature
-was first added to the language and when it will become the default:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import __future__
->>> __future__.division
-_Feature((2, 2, 0, 'alpha', 2), (3, 0, 0, 'alpha', 0), 8192)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\index{generator}
-\item[generator]
-A function that returns an iterator. It looks like a normal function except
-that values are returned to the caller using a \keyword{yield} statement
-instead of a {}\keyword{return} statement. Generator functions often
-contain one or more {}\keyword{for} or \keyword{while} loops that
-\keyword{yield} elements back to the caller. The function execution is
-stopped at the {}\keyword{yield} keyword (returning the result) and is
-resumed there when the next element is requested by calling the
-\method{next()} method of the returned iterator.
-
-\index{generator expression}
-\item[generator expression]
-An expression that returns a generator. It looks like a normal expression
-followed by a \keyword{for} expression defining a loop variable, range, and
-an optional \keyword{if} expression. The combined expression generates
-values for an enclosing function:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> sum(i*i for i in range(10)) # sum of squares 0, 1, 4, ... 81
-285
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\index{GIL}
-\item[GIL]
-See \emph{global interpreter lock}.
-
-\index{global interpreter lock}
-\item[global interpreter lock]
-The lock used by Python threads to assure that only one thread can be
-run at a time. This simplifies Python by assuring that no two
-processes can access the same memory at the same time. Locking the
-entire interpreter makes it easier for the interpreter to be
-multi-threaded, at the expense of some parallelism on multi-processor
-machines. Efforts have been made in the past to create a
-``free-threaded'' interpreter (one which locks shared data at a much
-finer granularity), but performance suffered in the common
-single-processor case.
-
-\index{IDLE}
-\item[IDLE]
-An Integrated Development Environment for Python. IDLE is a
-basic editor and interpreter environment that ships with the standard
-distribution of Python. Good for beginners, it also serves as clear
-example code for those wanting to implement a moderately
-sophisticated, multi-platform GUI application.
-
-\index{immutable}
-\item[immutable]
-An object with fixed value. Immutable objects are numbers, strings or
-tuples (and more). Such an object cannot be altered. A new object
-has to be created if a different value has to be stored. They play an
-important role in places where a constant hash value is needed, for
-example as a key in a dictionary.
-
-\index{integer division}
-\item[integer division]
-Mathematical division discarding any remainder. For example, the
-expression \code{11/4} currently evaluates to \code{2} in contrast
-to the \code{2.75} returned by float division. Also called
-{}\emph{floor division}. When dividing two integers the outcome will
-always be another integer (having the floor function applied to it).
-However, if one of the operands is another numeric type (such as a
-{}\class{float}), the result will be coerced (see \emph{coercion}) to
-a common type. For example, an integer divided by a float will result
-in a float value, possibly with a decimal fraction. Integer division
-can be forced by using the \code{//} operator instead of the \code{/}
-operator. See also \emph{__future__}.
-
-\index{interactive}
-\item[interactive]
-Python has an interactive interpreter which means that you can try out
-things and immediately see their results. Just launch \code{python} with no
-arguments (possibly by selecting it from your computer's main menu).
-It is a very powerful way to test out new ideas or inspect modules and
-packages (remember \code{help(x)}).
-
-\index{interpreted}
-\item[interpreted]
-Python is an interpreted language, as opposed to a compiled one. This means
-that the source files can be run directly without first creating an
-executable which is then run. Interpreted languages typically have a
-shorter development/debug cycle than compiled ones, though their programs
-generally also run more slowly. See also {}\emph{interactive}.
-
-\index{iterable}
-\item[iterable]
-A container object capable of returning its members one at a time.
-Examples of iterables include all sequence types (such as \class{list},
-{}\class{str}, and \class{tuple}) and some non-sequence types like
-{}\class{dict} and \class{file} and objects of any classes you define
-with an \method{__iter__()} or \method{__getitem__()} method. Iterables
-can be used in a \keyword{for} loop and in many other places where a
-sequence is needed (\function{zip()}, \function{map()}, ...). When an
-iterable object is passed as an argument to the builtin function
-{}\function{iter()}, it returns an iterator for the object. This
-iterator is good for one pass over the set of values. When using
-iterables, it is usually not necessary to call \function{iter()} or
-deal with iterator objects yourself. The \code{for} statement does
-that automatically for you, creating a temporary unnamed variable to
-hold the iterator for the duration of the loop. See also
-{}\emph{iterator}, \emph{sequence}, and \emph{generator}.
-
-\index{iterator}
-\item[iterator]
-An object representing a stream of data. Repeated calls to the
-iterator's \method{next()} method return successive items in the
-stream. When no more data is available a \exception{StopIteration}
-exception is raised instead. At this point, the iterator object is
-exhausted and any further calls to its \method{next()} method just
-raise \exception{StopIteration} again. Iterators are required to have
-an \method{__iter__()} method that returns the iterator object
-itself so every iterator is also iterable and may be used in most
-places where other iterables are accepted. One notable exception is
-code that attempts multiple iteration passes. A container object
-(such as a \class{list}) produces a fresh new iterator each time you
-pass it to the \function{iter()} function or use it in a
-{}\keyword{for} loop. Attempting this with an iterator will just
-return the same exhausted iterator object used in the previous iteration
-pass, making it appear like an empty container.
-
-\index{LBYL}
-\item[LBYL]
-Look before you leap. This coding style explicitly tests for
-pre-conditions before making calls or lookups. This style contrasts
-with the \emph{EAFP} approach and is characterized by the presence of
-many \keyword{if} statements.
-
-\index{list comprehension}
-\item[list comprehension]
-A compact way to process all or a subset of elements in a sequence and
-return a list with the results. \code{result = ["0x\%02x"
-\% x for x in range(256) if x \% 2 == 0]} generates a list of strings
-containing hex numbers (0x..) that are even and in the range from 0 to 255.
-The \keyword{if} clause is optional. If omitted, all elements in
-{}\code{range(256)} are processed.
-
-\index{mapping}
-\item[mapping]
-A container object (such as \class{dict}) that supports arbitrary key
-lookups using the special method \method{__getitem__()}.
-
-\index{metaclass}
-\item[metaclass]
-The class of a class. Class definitions create a class name, a class
-dictionary, and a list of base classes. The metaclass is responsible
-for taking those three arguments and creating the class. Most object
-oriented programming languages provide a default implementation. What
-makes Python special is that it is possible to create custom
-metaclasses. Most users never need this tool, but when the need
-arises, metaclasses can provide powerful, elegant solutions. They
-have been used for logging attribute access, adding thread-safety,
-tracking object creation, implementing singletons, and many other
-tasks.
-
-\index{mutable}
-\item[mutable]
-Mutable objects can change their value but keep their \function{id()}.
-See also \emph{immutable}.
-
-\index{namespace}
-\item[namespace]
-The place where a variable is stored. Namespaces are implemented as
-dictionaries. There are the local, global and builtin namespaces
-as well as nested namespaces in objects (in methods). Namespaces support
-modularity by preventing naming conflicts. For instance, the
-functions \function{__builtin__.open()} and \function{os.open()} are
-distinguished by their namespaces. Namespaces also aid readability
-and maintainability by making it clear which module implements a
-function. For instance, writing \function{random.seed()} or
-{}\function{itertools.izip()} makes it clear that those functions are
-implemented by the \ulink{\module{random}}{../lib/module-random.html}
-and \ulink{\module{itertools}}{../lib/module-itertools.html} modules
-respectively.
-
-\index{nested scope}
-\item[nested scope]
-The ability to refer to a variable in an enclosing definition. For
-instance, a function defined inside another function can refer to
-variables in the outer function. Note that nested scopes work only
-for reference and not for assignment which will always write to the
-innermost scope. In contrast, local variables both read and write in
-the innermost scope. Likewise, global variables read and write to the
-global namespace.
-
-\index{new-style class}
-\item[new-style class]
-Any class that inherits from \class{object}. This includes all
-built-in types like \class{list} and \class{dict}. Only new-style
-classes can use Python's newer, versatile features like
-{}\method{__slots__}, descriptors, properties,
-\method{__getattribute__()}, class methods, and static methods.
-
-\index{Python3000}
-\item[Python3000]
-A mythical python release, not required to be backward compatible, with
-telepathic interface.
-
-\index{__slots__}
-\item[__slots__]
-A declaration inside a \emph{new-style class} that saves memory by
-pre-declaring space for instance attributes and eliminating instance
-dictionaries. Though popular, the technique is somewhat tricky to get
-right and is best reserved for rare cases where there are large
-numbers of instances in a memory-critical application.
-
-\index{sequence}
-\item[sequence]
-An \emph{iterable} which supports efficient element access using
-integer indices via the \method{__getitem__()} and
-{}\method{__len__()} special methods. Some built-in sequence types
-are \class{list}, \class{str}, \class{tuple}, and \class{unicode}.
-Note that \class{dict} also supports \method{__getitem__()} and
-{}\method{__len__()}, but is considered a mapping rather than a
-sequence because the lookups use arbitrary \emph{immutable} keys
-rather than integers.
-
-\index{Zen of Python}
-\item[Zen of Python]
-Listing of Python design principles and philosophies that are helpful
-in understanding and using the language. The listing can be found by
-typing ``\code{import this}'' at the interactive prompt.
-
-\end{description}
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-\documentclass{manual}
-\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
-\usepackage{textcomp}
-
-% Things to do:
-% Should really move the Python startup file info to an appendix
-
-\title{Python Tutorial}
-
-\input{boilerplate}
-
-\makeindex
-
-\begin{document}
-
-\maketitle
-
-\ifhtml
-\chapter*{Front Matter\label{front}}
-\fi
-
-\input{copyright}
-
-\begin{abstract}
-
-\noindent
-Python is an easy to learn, powerful programming language. It has
-efficient high-level data structures and a simple but effective
-approach to object-oriented programming. Python's elegant syntax and
-dynamic typing, together with its interpreted nature, make it an ideal
-language for scripting and rapid application development in many areas
-on most platforms.
-
-The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library are freely
-available in source or binary form for all major platforms from the
-Python Web site, \url{http://www.python.org/}, and may be freely
-distributed. The same site also contains distributions of and
-pointers to many free third party Python modules, programs and tools,
-and additional documentation.
-
-The Python interpreter is easily extended with new functions and data
-types implemented in C or \Cpp{} (or other languages callable from C).
-Python is also suitable as an extension language for customizable
-applications.
-
-This tutorial introduces the reader informally to the basic concepts
-and features of the Python language and system. It helps to have a
-Python interpreter handy for hands-on experience, but all examples are
-self-contained, so the tutorial can be read off-line as well.
-
-For a description of standard objects and modules, see the
-\citetitle[../lib/lib.html]{Python Library Reference} document. The
-\citetitle[../ref/ref.html]{Python Reference Manual} gives a more
-formal definition of the language. To write extensions in C or
-\Cpp, read \citetitle[../ext/ext.html]{Extending and Embedding the
-Python Interpreter} and \citetitle[../api/api.html]{Python/C API
-Reference}. There are also several books covering Python in depth.
-
-This tutorial does not attempt to be comprehensive and cover every
-single feature, or even every commonly used feature. Instead, it
-introduces many of Python's most noteworthy features, and will give
-you a good idea of the language's flavor and style. After reading it,
-you will be able to read and write Python modules and programs, and
-you will be ready to learn more about the various Python library
-modules described in the \citetitle[../lib/lib.html]{Python Library
-Reference}.
-
-\end{abstract}
-
-\tableofcontents
-
-
-\chapter{Whetting Your Appetite \label{intro}}
-
-If you do much work on computers, eventually you find that there's
-some task you'd like to automate. For example, you may wish to
-perform a search-and-replace over a large number of text files, or
-rename and rearrange a bunch of photo files in a complicated way.
-Perhaps you'd like to write a small custom database, or a specialized
-GUI application, or a simple game.
-
-If you're a professional software developer, you may have to work with
-several C/\Cpp/Java libraries but find the usual
-write/compile/test/re-compile cycle is too slow. Perhaps you're
-writing a test suite for such a library and find writing the testing
-code a tedious task. Or maybe you've written a program that could use
-an extension language, and you don't want to design and implement a
-whole new language for your application.
-
-Python is just the language for you.
-
-You could write a {\UNIX} shell script or Windows batch files for some
-of these tasks, but shell scripts are best at moving around files and
-changing text data, not well-suited for GUI applications or games.
-You could write a C/{\Cpp}/Java program, but it can take a lot of
-development time to get even a first-draft program. Python is simpler
-to use, available on Windows, MacOS X, and {\UNIX} operating systems,
-and will help you get the job done more quickly.
-
-Python is simple to use, but it is a real programming language,
-offering much more structure and support for large programs than shell
-scripts or batch files can offer. On the other hand, Python also
-offers much more error checking than C, and, being a
-\emph{very-high-level language}, it has high-level data types built
-in, such as flexible arrays and dictionaries. Because of its more
-general data types Python is applicable to a much larger problem
-domain than Awk or even Perl, yet many things are at
-least as easy in Python as in those languages.
-
-Python allows you to split your program into modules that can be
-reused in other Python programs. It comes with a large collection of
-standard modules that you can use as the basis of your programs --- or
-as examples to start learning to program in Python. Some of these
-modules provide things like file I/O, system calls,
-sockets, and even interfaces to graphical user interface toolkits like Tk.
-
-Python is an interpreted language, which can save you considerable time
-during program development because no compilation and linking is
-necessary. The interpreter can be used interactively, which makes it
-easy to experiment with features of the language, to write throw-away
-programs, or to test functions during bottom-up program development.
-It is also a handy desk calculator.
-
-Python enables programs to be written compactly and readably. Programs
-written in Python are typically much shorter than equivalent C,
-\Cpp{}, or Java programs, for several reasons:
-\begin{itemize}
-\item
-the high-level data types allow you to express complex operations in a
-single statement;
-\item
-statement grouping is done by indentation instead of beginning and ending
-brackets;
-\item
-no variable or argument declarations are necessary.
-\end{itemize}
-
-Python is \emph{extensible}: if you know how to program in C it is easy
-to add a new built-in function or module to the interpreter, either to
-perform critical operations at maximum speed, or to link Python
-programs to libraries that may only be available in binary form (such
-as a vendor-specific graphics library). Once you are really hooked,
-you can link the Python interpreter into an application written in C
-and use it as an extension or command language for that application.
-
-By the way, the language is named after the BBC show ``Monty Python's
-Flying Circus'' and has nothing to do with nasty reptiles. Making
-references to Monty Python skits in documentation is not only allowed,
-it is encouraged!
-
-%\section{Where From Here \label{where}}
-
-Now that you are all excited about Python, you'll want to examine it
-in some more detail. Since the best way to learn a language is
-to use it, the tutorial invites you to play with the Python interpreter
-as you read.
-
-In the next chapter, the mechanics of using the interpreter are
-explained. This is rather mundane information, but essential for
-trying out the examples shown later.
-
-The rest of the tutorial introduces various features of the Python
-language and system through examples, beginning with simple
-expressions, statements and data types, through functions and modules,
-and finally touching upon advanced concepts like exceptions
-and user-defined classes.
-
-\chapter{Using the Python Interpreter \label{using}}
-
-\section{Invoking the Interpreter \label{invoking}}
-
-The Python interpreter is usually installed as
-\file{/usr/local/bin/python} on those machines where it is available;
-putting \file{/usr/local/bin} in your \UNIX{} shell's search path
-makes it possible to start it by typing the command
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-python
-\end{verbatim}
-
-to the shell. Since the choice of the directory where the interpreter
-lives is an installation option, other places are possible; check with
-your local Python guru or system administrator. (E.g.,
-\file{/usr/local/python} is a popular alternative location.)
-
-On Windows machines, the Python installation is usually placed in
-\file{C:\e Python26}, though you can change this when you're running
-the installer. To add this directory to your path,
-you can type the following command into the command prompt in a DOS box:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-set path=%path%;C:\python26
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-Typing an end-of-file character (\kbd{Control-D} on \UNIX,
-\kbd{Control-Z} on Windows) at the primary prompt causes the
-interpreter to exit with a zero exit status. If that doesn't work,
-you can exit the interpreter by typing the following commands:
-\samp{import sys; sys.exit()}.
-
-The interpreter's line-editing features usually aren't very
-sophisticated. On \UNIX, whoever installed the interpreter may have
-enabled support for the GNU readline library, which adds more
-elaborate interactive editing and history features. Perhaps the
-quickest check to see whether command line editing is supported is
-typing Control-P to the first Python prompt you get. If it beeps, you
-have command line editing; see Appendix \ref{interacting} for an
-introduction to the keys. If nothing appears to happen, or if
-\code{\^P} is echoed, command line editing isn't available; you'll
-only be able to use backspace to remove characters from the current
-line.
-
-The interpreter operates somewhat like the \UNIX{} shell: when called
-with standard input connected to a tty device, it reads and executes
-commands interactively; when called with a file name argument or with
-a file as standard input, it reads and executes a \emph{script} from
-that file.
-
-A second way of starting the interpreter is
-\samp{\program{python} \programopt{-c} \var{command} [arg] ...}, which
-executes the statement(s) in \var{command}, analogous to the shell's
-\programopt{-c} option. Since Python statements often contain spaces
-or other characters that are special to the shell, it is best to quote
-\var{command} in its entirety with double quotes.
-
-Some Python modules are also useful as scripts. These can be invoked using
-\samp{\program{python} \programopt{-m} \var{module} [arg] ...}, which
-executes the source file for \var{module} as if you had spelled out its
-full name on the command line.
-
-Note that there is a difference between \samp{python file} and
-\samp{python <file}. In the latter case, input requests from the
-program, such as calls to \function{input()} and \function{raw_input()}, are
-satisfied from \emph{file}. Since this file has already been read
-until the end by the parser before the program starts executing, the
-program will encounter end-of-file immediately. In the former case
-(which is usually what you want) they are satisfied from whatever file
-or device is connected to standard input of the Python interpreter.
-
-When a script file is used, it is sometimes useful to be able to run
-the script and enter interactive mode afterwards. This can be done by
-passing \programopt{-i} before the script. (This does not work if the
-script is read from standard input, for the same reason as explained
-in the previous paragraph.)
-
-\subsection{Argument Passing \label{argPassing}}
-
-When known to the interpreter, the script name and additional
-arguments thereafter are passed to the script in the variable
-\code{sys.argv}, which is a list of strings. Its length is at least
-one; when no script and no arguments are given, \code{sys.argv[0]} is
-an empty string. When the script name is given as \code{'-'} (meaning
-standard input), \code{sys.argv[0]} is set to \code{'-'}. When
-\programopt{-c} \var{command} is used, \code{sys.argv[0]} is set to
-\code{'-c'}. When \programopt{-m} \var{module} is used, \code{sys.argv[0]}
-is set to the full name of the located module. Options found after
-\programopt{-c} \var{command} or \programopt{-m} \var{module} are not consumed
-by the Python interpreter's option processing but left in \code{sys.argv} for
-the command or module to handle.
-
-\subsection{Interactive Mode \label{interactive}}
-
-When commands are read from a tty, the interpreter is said to be in
-\emph{interactive mode}. In this mode it prompts for the next command
-with the \emph{primary prompt}, usually three greater-than signs
-(\samp{>>>~}); for continuation lines it prompts with the
-\emph{secondary prompt}, by default three dots (\samp{...~}).
-The interpreter prints a welcome message stating its version number
-and a copyright notice before printing the first prompt:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-python
-Python 1.5.2b2 (#1, Feb 28 1999, 00:02:06) [GCC 2.8.1] on sunos5
-Copyright 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam
->>>
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Continuation lines are needed when entering a multi-line construct.
-As an example, take a look at this \keyword{if} statement:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> the_world_is_flat = 1
->>> if the_world_is_flat:
-... print "Be careful not to fall off!"
-...
-Be careful not to fall off!
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{The Interpreter and Its Environment \label{interp}}
-
-\subsection{Error Handling \label{error}}
-
-When an error occurs, the interpreter prints an error
-message and a stack trace. In interactive mode, it then returns to
-the primary prompt; when input came from a file, it exits with a
-nonzero exit status after printing
-the stack trace. (Exceptions handled by an \keyword{except} clause in a
-\keyword{try} statement are not errors in this context.) Some errors are
-unconditionally fatal and cause an exit with a nonzero exit; this
-applies to internal inconsistencies and some cases of running out of
-memory. All error messages are written to the standard error stream;
-normal output from executed commands is written to standard
-output.
-
-Typing the interrupt character (usually Control-C or DEL) to the
-primary or secondary prompt cancels the input and returns to the
-primary prompt.\footnote{
- A problem with the GNU Readline package may prevent this.
-}
-Typing an interrupt while a command is executing raises the
-\exception{KeyboardInterrupt} exception, which may be handled by a
-\keyword{try} statement.
-
-\subsection{Executable Python Scripts \label{scripts}}
-
-On BSD'ish \UNIX{} systems, Python scripts can be made directly
-executable, like shell scripts, by putting the line
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-#! /usr/bin/env python
-\end{verbatim}
-
-(assuming that the interpreter is on the user's \envvar{PATH}) at the
-beginning of the script and giving the file an executable mode. The
-\samp{\#!} must be the first two characters of the file. On some
-platforms, this first line must end with a \UNIX-style line ending
-(\character{\e n}), not a Mac OS (\character{\e r}) or Windows
-(\character{\e r\e n}) line ending. Note that
-the hash, or pound, character, \character{\#}, is used to start a
-comment in Python.
-
-The script can be given an executable mode, or permission, using the
-\program{chmod} command:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-$ chmod +x myscript.py
-\end{verbatim} % $ <-- bow to font-lock
-
-
-\subsection{Source Code Encoding}
-
-It is possible to use encodings different than \ASCII{} in Python source
-files. The best way to do it is to put one more special comment line
-right after the \code{\#!} line to define the source file encoding:
-
-\begin{alltt}
-# -*- coding: \var{encoding} -*-
-\end{alltt}
-
-With that declaration, all characters in the source file will be treated as
-having the encoding \var{encoding}, and it will be
-possible to directly write Unicode string literals in the selected
-encoding. The list of possible encodings can be found in the
-\citetitle[../lib/lib.html]{Python Library Reference}, in the section
-on \ulink{\module{codecs}}{../lib/module-codecs.html}.
-
-For example, to write Unicode literals including the Euro currency
-symbol, the ISO-8859-15 encoding can be used, with the Euro symbol
-having the ordinal value 164. This script will print the value 8364
-(the Unicode codepoint corresponding to the Euro symbol) and then
-exit:
-
-\begin{alltt}
-# -*- coding: iso-8859-15 -*-
-
-currency = u"\texteuro"
-print ord(currency)
-\end{alltt}
-
-If your editor supports saving files as \code{UTF-8} with a UTF-8
-\emph{byte order mark} (aka BOM), you can use that instead of an
-encoding declaration. IDLE supports this capability if
-\code{Options/General/Default Source Encoding/UTF-8} is set. Notice
-that this signature is not understood in older Python releases (2.2
-and earlier), and also not understood by the operating system for
-script files with \code{\#!} lines (only used on \UNIX{} systems).
-
-By using UTF-8 (either through the signature or an encoding
-declaration), characters of most languages in the world can be used
-simultaneously in string literals and comments. Using non-\ASCII{}
-characters in identifiers is not supported. To display all these
-characters properly, your editor must recognize that the file is
-UTF-8, and it must use a font that supports all the characters in the
-file.
-
-\subsection{The Interactive Startup File \label{startup}}
-
-% XXX This should probably be dumped in an appendix, since most people
-% don't use Python interactively in non-trivial ways.
-
-When you use Python interactively, it is frequently handy to have some
-standard commands executed every time the interpreter is started. You
-can do this by setting an environment variable named
-\envvar{PYTHONSTARTUP} to the name of a file containing your start-up
-commands. This is similar to the \file{.profile} feature of the
-\UNIX{} shells.
-
-This file is only read in interactive sessions, not when Python reads
-commands from a script, and not when \file{/dev/tty} is given as the
-explicit source of commands (which otherwise behaves like an
-interactive session). It is executed in the same namespace where
-interactive commands are executed, so that objects that it defines or
-imports can be used without qualification in the interactive session.
-You can also change the prompts \code{sys.ps1} and \code{sys.ps2} in
-this file.
-
-If you want to read an additional start-up file from the current
-directory, you can program this in the global start-up file using code
-like \samp{if os.path.isfile('.pythonrc.py'):
-execfile('.pythonrc.py')}. If you want to use the startup file in a
-script, you must do this explicitly in the script:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-import os
-filename = os.environ.get('PYTHONSTARTUP')
-if filename and os.path.isfile(filename):
- execfile(filename)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\chapter{An Informal Introduction to Python \label{informal}}
-
-In the following examples, input and output are distinguished by the
-presence or absence of prompts (\samp{>>>~} and \samp{...~}): to repeat
-the example, you must type everything after the prompt, when the
-prompt appears; lines that do not begin with a prompt are output from
-the interpreter. %
-%\footnote{
-% I'd prefer to use different fonts to distinguish input
-% from output, but the amount of LaTeX hacking that would require
-% is currently beyond my ability.
-%}
-Note that a secondary prompt on a line by itself in an example means
-you must type a blank line; this is used to end a multi-line command.
-
-Many of the examples in this manual, even those entered at the
-interactive prompt, include comments. Comments in Python start with
-the hash character, \character{\#}, and extend to the end of the
-physical line. A comment may appear at the start of a line or
-following whitespace or code, but not within a string literal. A hash
-character within a string literal is just a hash character.
-
-Some examples:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-# this is the first comment
-SPAM = 1 # and this is the second comment
- # ... and now a third!
-STRING = "# This is not a comment."
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Using Python as a Calculator \label{calculator}}
-
-Let's try some simple Python commands. Start the interpreter and wait
-for the primary prompt, \samp{>>>~}. (It shouldn't take long.)
-
-\subsection{Numbers \label{numbers}}
-
-The interpreter acts as a simple calculator: you can type an
-expression at it and it will write the value. Expression syntax is
-straightforward: the operators \code{+}, \code{-}, \code{*} and
-\code{/} work just like in most other languages (for example, Pascal
-or C); parentheses can be used for grouping. For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 2+2
-4
->>> # This is a comment
-... 2+2
-4
->>> 2+2 # and a comment on the same line as code
-4
->>> (50-5*6)/4
-5
->>> # Integer division returns the floor:
-... 7/3
-2
->>> 7/-3
--3
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The equal sign (\character{=}) is used to assign a value to a variable.
-Afterwards, no result is displayed before the next interactive prompt:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> width = 20
->>> height = 5*9
->>> width * height
-900
-\end{verbatim}
-
-A value can be assigned to several variables simultaneously:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> x = y = z = 0 # Zero x, y and z
->>> x
-0
->>> y
-0
->>> z
-0
-\end{verbatim}
-
-There is full support for floating point; operators with mixed type
-operands convert the integer operand to floating point:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 3 * 3.75 / 1.5
-7.5
->>> 7.0 / 2
-3.5
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Complex numbers are also supported; imaginary numbers are written with
-a suffix of \samp{j} or \samp{J}. Complex numbers with a nonzero
-real component are written as \samp{(\var{real}+\var{imag}j)}, or can
-be created with the \samp{complex(\var{real}, \var{imag})} function.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 1j * 1J
-(-1+0j)
->>> 1j * complex(0,1)
-(-1+0j)
->>> 3+1j*3
-(3+3j)
->>> (3+1j)*3
-(9+3j)
->>> (1+2j)/(1+1j)
-(1.5+0.5j)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Complex numbers are always represented as two floating point numbers,
-the real and imaginary part. To extract these parts from a complex
-number \var{z}, use \code{\var{z}.real} and \code{\var{z}.imag}.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> a=1.5+0.5j
->>> a.real
-1.5
->>> a.imag
-0.5
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The conversion functions to floating point and integer
-(\function{float()}, \function{int()} and \function{long()}) don't
-work for complex numbers --- there is no one correct way to convert a
-complex number to a real number. Use \code{abs(\var{z})} to get its
-magnitude (as a float) or \code{z.real} to get its real part.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> a=3.0+4.0j
->>> float(a)
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-TypeError: can't convert complex to float; use abs(z)
->>> a.real
-3.0
->>> a.imag
-4.0
->>> abs(a) # sqrt(a.real**2 + a.imag**2)
-5.0
->>>
-\end{verbatim}
-
-In interactive mode, the last printed expression is assigned to the
-variable \code{_}. This means that when you are using Python as a
-desk calculator, it is somewhat easier to continue calculations, for
-example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> tax = 12.5 / 100
->>> price = 100.50
->>> price * tax
-12.5625
->>> price + _
-113.0625
->>> round(_, 2)
-113.06
->>>
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This variable should be treated as read-only by the user. Don't
-explicitly assign a value to it --- you would create an independent
-local variable with the same name masking the built-in variable with
-its magic behavior.
-
-\subsection{Strings \label{strings}}
-
-Besides numbers, Python can also manipulate strings, which can be
-expressed in several ways. They can be enclosed in single quotes or
-double quotes:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 'spam eggs'
-'spam eggs'
->>> 'doesn\'t'
-"doesn't"
->>> "doesn't"
-"doesn't"
->>> '"Yes," he said.'
-'"Yes," he said.'
->>> "\"Yes,\" he said."
-'"Yes," he said.'
->>> '"Isn\'t," she said.'
-'"Isn\'t," she said.'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-String literals can span multiple lines in several ways. Continuation
-lines can be used, with a backslash as the last character on the line
-indicating that the next line is a logical continuation of the line:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-hello = "This is a rather long string containing\n\
-several lines of text just as you would do in C.\n\
- Note that whitespace at the beginning of the line is\
- significant."
-
-print hello
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that newlines still need to be embedded in the string using
-\code{\e n}; the newline following the trailing backslash is
-discarded. This example would print the following:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-This is a rather long string containing
-several lines of text just as you would do in C.
- Note that whitespace at the beginning of the line is significant.
-\end{verbatim}
-
-If we make the string literal a ``raw'' string, however, the
-\code{\e n} sequences are not converted to newlines, but the backslash
-at the end of the line, and the newline character in the source, are
-both included in the string as data. Thus, the example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-hello = r"This is a rather long string containing\n\
-several lines of text much as you would do in C."
-
-print hello
-\end{verbatim}
-
-would print:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-This is a rather long string containing\n\
-several lines of text much as you would do in C.
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Or, strings can be surrounded in a pair of matching triple-quotes:
-\code{"""} or \code{'\code{'}'}. End of lines do not need to be escaped
-when using triple-quotes, but they will be included in the string.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-print """
-Usage: thingy [OPTIONS]
- -h Display this usage message
- -H hostname Hostname to connect to
-"""
-\end{verbatim}
-
-produces the following output:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-Usage: thingy [OPTIONS]
- -h Display this usage message
- -H hostname Hostname to connect to
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The interpreter prints the result of string operations in the same way
-as they are typed for input: inside quotes, and with quotes and other
-funny characters escaped by backslashes, to show the precise
-value. The string is enclosed in double quotes if the string contains
-a single quote and no double quotes, else it's enclosed in single
-quotes. (The \keyword{print} statement, described later, can be used
-to write strings without quotes or escapes.)
-
-Strings can be concatenated (glued together) with the
-\code{+} operator, and repeated with \code{*}:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> word = 'Help' + 'A'
->>> word
-'HelpA'
->>> '<' + word*5 + '>'
-'<HelpAHelpAHelpAHelpAHelpA>'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Two string literals next to each other are automatically concatenated;
-the first line above could also have been written \samp{word = 'Help'
-'A'}; this only works with two literals, not with arbitrary string
-expressions:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 'str' 'ing' # <- This is ok
-'string'
->>> 'str'.strip() + 'ing' # <- This is ok
-'string'
->>> 'str'.strip() 'ing' # <- This is invalid
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
- 'str'.strip() 'ing'
- ^
-SyntaxError: invalid syntax
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Strings can be subscripted (indexed); like in C, the first character
-of a string has subscript (index) 0. There is no separate character
-type; a character is simply a string of size one. Like in Icon,
-substrings can be specified with the \emph{slice notation}: two indices
-separated by a colon.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> word[4]
-'A'
->>> word[0:2]
-'He'
->>> word[2:4]
-'lp'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Slice indices have useful defaults; an omitted first index defaults to
-zero, an omitted second index defaults to the size of the string being
-sliced.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> word[:2] # The first two characters
-'He'
->>> word[2:] # Everything except the first two characters
-'lpA'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Unlike a C string, Python strings cannot be changed. Assigning to an
-indexed position in the string results in an error:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> word[0] = 'x'
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-TypeError: object doesn't support item assignment
->>> word[:1] = 'Splat'
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-TypeError: object doesn't support slice assignment
-\end{verbatim}
-
-However, creating a new string with the combined content is easy and
-efficient:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 'x' + word[1:]
-'xelpA'
->>> 'Splat' + word[4]
-'SplatA'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Here's a useful invariant of slice operations:
-\code{s[:i] + s[i:]} equals \code{s}.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> word[:2] + word[2:]
-'HelpA'
->>> word[:3] + word[3:]
-'HelpA'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Degenerate slice indices are handled gracefully: an index that is too
-large is replaced by the string size, an upper bound smaller than the
-lower bound returns an empty string.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> word[1:100]
-'elpA'
->>> word[10:]
-''
->>> word[2:1]
-''
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Indices may be negative numbers, to start counting from the right.
-For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> word[-1] # The last character
-'A'
->>> word[-2] # The last-but-one character
-'p'
->>> word[-2:] # The last two characters
-'pA'
->>> word[:-2] # Everything except the last two characters
-'Hel'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-But note that -0 is really the same as 0, so it does not count from
-the right!
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> word[-0] # (since -0 equals 0)
-'H'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Out-of-range negative slice indices are truncated, but don't try this
-for single-element (non-slice) indices:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> word[-100:]
-'HelpA'
->>> word[-10] # error
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-IndexError: string index out of range
-\end{verbatim}
-
-One way to remember how slices work is to think of the indices as
-pointing \emph{between} characters, with the left edge of the first
-character numbered 0. Then the right edge of the last character of a
-string of \var{n} characters has index \var{n}, for example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- +---+---+---+---+---+
- | H | e | l | p | A |
- +---+---+---+---+---+
- 0 1 2 3 4 5
--5 -4 -3 -2 -1
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The first row of numbers gives the position of the indices 0...5 in
-the string; the second row gives the corresponding negative indices.
-The slice from \var{i} to \var{j} consists of all characters between
-the edges labeled \var{i} and \var{j}, respectively.
-
-For non-negative indices, the length of a slice is the difference of
-the indices, if both are within bounds. For example, the length of
-\code{word[1:3]} is 2.
-
-The built-in function \function{len()} returns the length of a string:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> s = 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'
->>> len(s)
-34
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\begin{seealso}
- \seetitle[../lib/typesseq.html]{Sequence Types}%
- {Strings, and the Unicode strings described in the next
- section, are examples of \emph{sequence types}, and
- support the common operations supported by such types.}
- \seetitle[../lib/string-methods.html]{String Methods}%
- {Both strings and Unicode strings support a large number of
- methods for basic transformations and searching.}
- \seetitle[../lib/typesseq-strings.html]{String Formatting Operations}%
- {The formatting operations invoked when strings and Unicode
- strings are the left operand of the \code{\%} operator are
- described in more detail here.}
-\end{seealso}
-
-
-\subsection{Unicode Strings \label{unicodeStrings}}
-\sectionauthor{Marc-Andre Lemburg}{mal@lemburg.com}
-
-Starting with Python 2.0 a new data type for storing text data is
-available to the programmer: the Unicode object. It can be used to
-store and manipulate Unicode data (see \url{http://www.unicode.org/})
-and integrates well with the existing string objects, providing
-auto-conversions where necessary.
-
-Unicode has the advantage of providing one ordinal for every character
-in every script used in modern and ancient texts. Previously, there
-were only 256 possible ordinals for script characters. Texts were
-typically bound to a code page which mapped the ordinals to script
-characters. This lead to very much confusion especially with respect
-to internationalization (usually written as \samp{i18n} ---
-\character{i} + 18 characters + \character{n}) of software. Unicode
-solves these problems by defining one code page for all scripts.
-
-Creating Unicode strings in Python is just as simple as creating
-normal strings:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> u'Hello World !'
-u'Hello World !'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The small \character{u} in front of the quote indicates that a
-Unicode string is supposed to be created. If you want to include
-special characters in the string, you can do so by using the Python
-\emph{Unicode-Escape} encoding. The following example shows how:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> u'Hello\u0020World !'
-u'Hello World !'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The escape sequence \code{\e u0020} indicates to insert the Unicode
-character with the ordinal value 0x0020 (the space character) at the
-given position.
-
-Other characters are interpreted by using their respective ordinal
-values directly as Unicode ordinals. If you have literal strings
-in the standard Latin-1 encoding that is used in many Western countries,
-you will find it convenient that the lower 256 characters
-of Unicode are the same as the 256 characters of Latin-1.
-
-For experts, there is also a raw mode just like the one for normal
-strings. You have to prefix the opening quote with 'ur' to have
-Python use the \emph{Raw-Unicode-Escape} encoding. It will only apply
-the above \code{\e uXXXX} conversion if there is an uneven number of
-backslashes in front of the small 'u'.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> ur'Hello\u0020World !'
-u'Hello World !'
->>> ur'Hello\\u0020World !'
-u'Hello\\\\u0020World !'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The raw mode is most useful when you have to enter lots of
-backslashes, as can be necessary in regular expressions.
-
-Apart from these standard encodings, Python provides a whole set of
-other ways of creating Unicode strings on the basis of a known
-encoding.
-
-The built-in function \function{unicode()}\bifuncindex{unicode} provides
-access to all registered Unicode codecs (COders and DECoders). Some of
-the more well known encodings which these codecs can convert are
-\emph{Latin-1}, \emph{ASCII}, \emph{UTF-8}, and \emph{UTF-16}.
-The latter two are variable-length encodings that store each Unicode
-character in one or more bytes. The default encoding is
-normally set to \ASCII, which passes through characters in the range
-0 to 127 and rejects any other characters with an error.
-When a Unicode string is printed, written to a file, or converted
-with \function{str()}, conversion takes place using this default encoding.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> u"abc"
-u'abc'
->>> str(u"abc")
-'abc'
->>> u"äöü"
-u'\xe4\xf6\xfc'
->>> str(u"äöü")
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode characters in position 0-2: ordinal not in range(128)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-To convert a Unicode string into an 8-bit string using a specific
-encoding, Unicode objects provide an \function{encode()} method
-that takes one argument, the name of the encoding. Lowercase names
-for encodings are preferred.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> u"äöü".encode('utf-8')
-'\xc3\xa4\xc3\xb6\xc3\xbc'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-If you have data in a specific encoding and want to produce a
-corresponding Unicode string from it, you can use the
-\function{unicode()} function with the encoding name as the second
-argument.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> unicode('\xc3\xa4\xc3\xb6\xc3\xbc', 'utf-8')
-u'\xe4\xf6\xfc'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\subsection{Lists \label{lists}}
-
-Python knows a number of \emph{compound} data types, used to group
-together other values. The most versatile is the \emph{list}, which
-can be written as a list of comma-separated values (items) between
-square brackets. List items need not all have the same type.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> a = ['spam', 'eggs', 100, 1234]
->>> a
-['spam', 'eggs', 100, 1234]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Like string indices, list indices start at 0, and lists can be sliced,
-concatenated and so on:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> a[0]
-'spam'
->>> a[3]
-1234
->>> a[-2]
-100
->>> a[1:-1]
-['eggs', 100]
->>> a[:2] + ['bacon', 2*2]
-['spam', 'eggs', 'bacon', 4]
->>> 3*a[:3] + ['Boo!']
-['spam', 'eggs', 100, 'spam', 'eggs', 100, 'spam', 'eggs', 100, 'Boo!']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Unlike strings, which are \emph{immutable}, it is possible to change
-individual elements of a list:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> a
-['spam', 'eggs', 100, 1234]
->>> a[2] = a[2] + 23
->>> a
-['spam', 'eggs', 123, 1234]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Assignment to slices is also possible, and this can even change the size
-of the list or clear it entirely:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> # Replace some items:
-... a[0:2] = [1, 12]
->>> a
-[1, 12, 123, 1234]
->>> # Remove some:
-... a[0:2] = []
->>> a
-[123, 1234]
->>> # Insert some:
-... a[1:1] = ['bletch', 'xyzzy']
->>> a
-[123, 'bletch', 'xyzzy', 1234]
->>> # Insert (a copy of) itself at the beginning
->>> a[:0] = a
->>> a
-[123, 'bletch', 'xyzzy', 1234, 123, 'bletch', 'xyzzy', 1234]
->>> # Clear the list: replace all items with an empty list
->>> a[:] = []
->>> a
-[]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The built-in function \function{len()} also applies to lists:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> len(a)
-8
-\end{verbatim}
-
-It is possible to nest lists (create lists containing other lists),
-for example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> q = [2, 3]
->>> p = [1, q, 4]
->>> len(p)
-3
->>> p[1]
-[2, 3]
->>> p[1][0]
-2
->>> p[1].append('xtra') # See section 5.1
->>> p
-[1, [2, 3, 'xtra'], 4]
->>> q
-[2, 3, 'xtra']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that in the last example, \code{p[1]} and \code{q} really refer to
-the same object! We'll come back to \emph{object semantics} later.
-
-\section{First Steps Towards Programming \label{firstSteps}}
-
-Of course, we can use Python for more complicated tasks than adding
-two and two together. For instance, we can write an initial
-sub-sequence of the \emph{Fibonacci} series as follows:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> # Fibonacci series:
-... # the sum of two elements defines the next
-... a, b = 0, 1
->>> while b < 10:
-... print b
-... a, b = b, a+b
-...
-1
-1
-2
-3
-5
-8
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This example introduces several new features.
-
-\begin{itemize}
-
-\item
-The first line contains a \emph{multiple assignment}: the variables
-\code{a} and \code{b} simultaneously get the new values 0 and 1. On the
-last line this is used again, demonstrating that the expressions on
-the right-hand side are all evaluated first before any of the
-assignments take place. The right-hand side expressions are evaluated
-from the left to the right.
-
-\item
-The \keyword{while} loop executes as long as the condition (here:
-\code{b < 10}) remains true. In Python, like in C, any non-zero
-integer value is true; zero is false. The condition may also be a
-string or list value, in fact any sequence; anything with a non-zero
-length is true, empty sequences are false. The test used in the
-example is a simple comparison. The standard comparison operators are
-written the same as in C: \code{<} (less than), \code{>} (greater than),
-\code{==} (equal to), \code{<=} (less than or equal to),
-\code{>=} (greater than or equal to) and \code{!=} (not equal to).
-
-\item
-The \emph{body} of the loop is \emph{indented}: indentation is Python's
-way of grouping statements. Python does not (yet!) provide an
-intelligent input line editing facility, so you have to type a tab or
-space(s) for each indented line. In practice you will prepare more
-complicated input for Python with a text editor; most text editors have
-an auto-indent facility. When a compound statement is entered
-interactively, it must be followed by a blank line to indicate
-completion (since the parser cannot guess when you have typed the last
-line). Note that each line within a basic block must be indented by
-the same amount.
-
-\item
-The \keyword{print} statement writes the value of the expression(s) it is
-given. It differs from just writing the expression you want to write
-(as we did earlier in the calculator examples) in the way it handles
-multiple expressions and strings. Strings are printed without quotes,
-and a space is inserted between items, so you can format things nicely,
-like this:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> i = 256*256
->>> print 'The value of i is', i
-The value of i is 65536
-\end{verbatim}
-
-A trailing comma avoids the newline after the output:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> a, b = 0, 1
->>> while b < 1000:
-... print b,
-... a, b = b, a+b
-...
-1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that the interpreter inserts a newline before it prints the next
-prompt if the last line was not completed.
-
-\end{itemize}
-
-
-\chapter{More Control Flow Tools \label{moreControl}}
-
-Besides the \keyword{while} statement just introduced, Python knows
-the usual control flow statements known from other languages, with
-some twists.
-
-\section{\keyword{if} Statements \label{if}}
-
-Perhaps the most well-known statement type is the
-\keyword{if} statement. For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> x = int(raw_input("Please enter an integer: "))
->>> if x < 0:
-... x = 0
-... print 'Negative changed to zero'
-... elif x == 0:
-... print 'Zero'
-... elif x == 1:
-... print 'Single'
-... else:
-... print 'More'
-...
-\end{verbatim}
-
-There can be zero or more \keyword{elif} parts, and the
-\keyword{else} part is optional. The keyword `\keyword{elif}' is
-short for `else if', and is useful to avoid excessive indentation. An
-\keyword{if} \ldots\ \keyword{elif} \ldots\ \keyword{elif} \ldots\ sequence
-% Weird spacings happen here if the wrapping of the source text
-% gets changed in the wrong way.
-is a substitute for the \keyword{switch} or
-\keyword{case} statements found in other languages.
-
-
-\section{\keyword{for} Statements \label{for}}
-
-The \keyword{for}\stindex{for} statement in Python differs a bit from
-what you may be used to in C or Pascal. Rather than always
-iterating over an arithmetic progression of numbers (like in Pascal),
-or giving the user the ability to define both the iteration step and
-halting condition (as C), Python's
-\keyword{for}\stindex{for} statement iterates over the items of any
-sequence (a list or a string), in the order that they appear in
-the sequence. For example (no pun intended):
-% One suggestion was to give a real C example here, but that may only
-% serve to confuse non-C programmers.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> # Measure some strings:
-... a = ['cat', 'window', 'defenestrate']
->>> for x in a:
-... print x, len(x)
-...
-cat 3
-window 6
-defenestrate 12
-\end{verbatim}
-
-It is not safe to modify the sequence being iterated over in the loop
-(this can only happen for mutable sequence types, such as lists). If
-you need to modify the list you are iterating over (for example, to
-duplicate selected items) you must iterate over a copy. The slice
-notation makes this particularly convenient:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> for x in a[:]: # make a slice copy of the entire list
-... if len(x) > 6: a.insert(0, x)
-...
->>> a
-['defenestrate', 'cat', 'window', 'defenestrate']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{The \function{range()} Function \label{range}}
-
-If you do need to iterate over a sequence of numbers, the built-in
-function \function{range()} comes in handy. It generates lists
-containing arithmetic progressions:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> range(10)
-[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The given end point is never part of the generated list;
-\code{range(10)} generates a list of 10 values, the legal
-indices for items of a sequence of length 10. It is possible to let
-the range start at another number, or to specify a different increment
-(even negative; sometimes this is called the `step'):
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> range(5, 10)
-[5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
->>> range(0, 10, 3)
-[0, 3, 6, 9]
->>> range(-10, -100, -30)
-[-10, -40, -70]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-To iterate over the indices of a sequence, combine
-\function{range()} and \function{len()} as follows:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> a = ['Mary', 'had', 'a', 'little', 'lamb']
->>> for i in range(len(a)):
-... print i, a[i]
-...
-0 Mary
-1 had
-2 a
-3 little
-4 lamb
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{\keyword{break} and \keyword{continue} Statements, and
- \keyword{else} Clauses on Loops
- \label{break}}
-
-The \keyword{break} statement, like in C, breaks out of the smallest
-enclosing \keyword{for} or \keyword{while} loop.
-
-The \keyword{continue} statement, also borrowed from C, continues
-with the next iteration of the loop.
-
-Loop statements may have an \code{else} clause; it is executed when
-the loop terminates through exhaustion of the list (with
-\keyword{for}) or when the condition becomes false (with
-\keyword{while}), but not when the loop is terminated by a
-\keyword{break} statement. This is exemplified by the following loop,
-which searches for prime numbers:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> for n in range(2, 10):
-... for x in range(2, n):
-... if n % x == 0:
-... print n, 'equals', x, '*', n/x
-... break
-... else:
-... # loop fell through without finding a factor
-... print n, 'is a prime number'
-...
-2 is a prime number
-3 is a prime number
-4 equals 2 * 2
-5 is a prime number
-6 equals 2 * 3
-7 is a prime number
-8 equals 2 * 4
-9 equals 3 * 3
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{\keyword{pass} Statements \label{pass}}
-
-The \keyword{pass} statement does nothing.
-It can be used when a statement is required syntactically but the
-program requires no action.
-For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> while True:
-... pass # Busy-wait for keyboard interrupt
-...
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Defining Functions \label{functions}}
-
-We can create a function that writes the Fibonacci series to an
-arbitrary boundary:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def fib(n): # write Fibonacci series up to n
-... """Print a Fibonacci series up to n."""
-... a, b = 0, 1
-... while b < n:
-... print b,
-... a, b = b, a+b
-...
->>> # Now call the function we just defined:
-... fib(2000)
-1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987 1597
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The keyword \keyword{def} introduces a function \emph{definition}. It
-must be followed by the function name and the parenthesized list of
-formal parameters. The statements that form the body of the function
-start at the next line, and must be indented. The first statement of
-the function body can optionally be a string literal; this string
-literal is the function's \index{documentation strings}documentation
-string, or \dfn{docstring}.\index{docstrings}\index{strings, documentation}
-
-There are tools which use docstrings to automatically produce online
-or printed documentation, or to let the user interactively browse
-through code; it's good practice to include docstrings in code that
-you write, so try to make a habit of it.
-
-The \emph{execution} of a function introduces a new symbol table used
-for the local variables of the function. More precisely, all variable
-assignments in a function store the value in the local symbol table;
-whereas variable references first look in the local symbol table, then
-in the global symbol table, and then in the table of built-in names.
-Thus, global variables cannot be directly assigned a value within a
-function (unless named in a \keyword{global} statement), although
-they may be referenced.
-
-The actual parameters (arguments) to a function call are introduced in
-the local symbol table of the called function when it is called; thus,
-arguments are passed using \emph{call by value} (where the
-\emph{value} is always an object \emph{reference}, not the value of
-the object).\footnote{
- Actually, \emph{call by object reference} would be a better
- description, since if a mutable object is passed, the caller
- will see any changes the callee makes to it (items
- inserted into a list).
-} When a function calls another function, a new local symbol table is
-created for that call.
-
-A function definition introduces the function name in the current
-symbol table. The value of the function name
-has a type that is recognized by the interpreter as a user-defined
-function. This value can be assigned to another name which can then
-also be used as a function. This serves as a general renaming
-mechanism:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> fib
-<function fib at 10042ed0>
->>> f = fib
->>> f(100)
-1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89
-\end{verbatim}
-
-You might object that \code{fib} is not a function but a procedure. In
-Python, like in C, procedures are just functions that don't return a
-value. In fact, technically speaking, procedures do return a value,
-albeit a rather boring one. This value is called \code{None} (it's a
-built-in name). Writing the value \code{None} is normally suppressed by
-the interpreter if it would be the only value written. You can see it
-if you really want to:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> print fib(0)
-None
-\end{verbatim}
-
-It is simple to write a function that returns a list of the numbers of
-the Fibonacci series, instead of printing it:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def fib2(n): # return Fibonacci series up to n
-... """Return a list containing the Fibonacci series up to n."""
-... result = []
-... a, b = 0, 1
-... while b < n:
-... result.append(b) # see below
-... a, b = b, a+b
-... return result
-...
->>> f100 = fib2(100) # call it
->>> f100 # write the result
-[1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This example, as usual, demonstrates some new Python features:
-
-\begin{itemize}
-
-\item
-The \keyword{return} statement returns with a value from a function.
-\keyword{return} without an expression argument returns \code{None}.
-Falling off the end of a procedure also returns \code{None}.
-
-\item
-The statement \code{result.append(b)} calls a \emph{method} of the list
-object \code{result}. A method is a function that `belongs' to an
-object and is named \code{obj.methodname}, where \code{obj} is some
-object (this may be an expression), and \code{methodname} is the name
-of a method that is defined by the object's type. Different types
-define different methods. Methods of different types may have the
-same name without causing ambiguity. (It is possible to define your
-own object types and methods, using \emph{classes}, as discussed later
-in this tutorial.)
-The method \method{append()} shown in the example is defined for
-list objects; it adds a new element at the end of the list. In this
-example it is equivalent to \samp{result = result + [b]}, but more
-efficient.
-
-\end{itemize}
-
-\section{More on Defining Functions \label{defining}}
-
-It is also possible to define functions with a variable number of
-arguments. There are three forms, which can be combined.
-
-\subsection{Default Argument Values \label{defaultArgs}}
-
-The most useful form is to specify a default value for one or more
-arguments. This creates a function that can be called with fewer
-arguments than it is defined to allow. For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-def ask_ok(prompt, retries=4, complaint='Yes or no, please!'):
- while True:
- ok = raw_input(prompt)
- if ok in ('y', 'ye', 'yes'): return True
- if ok in ('n', 'no', 'nop', 'nope'): return False
- retries = retries - 1
- if retries < 0: raise IOError, 'refusenik user'
- print complaint
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This function can be called either like this:
-\code{ask_ok('Do you really want to quit?')} or like this:
-\code{ask_ok('OK to overwrite the file?', 2)}.
-
-This example also introduces the \keyword{in} keyword. This tests
-whether or not a sequence contains a certain value.
-
-The default values are evaluated at the point of function definition
-in the \emph{defining} scope, so that
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-i = 5
-
-def f(arg=i):
- print arg
-
-i = 6
-f()
-\end{verbatim}
-
-will print \code{5}.
-
-\strong{Important warning:} The default value is evaluated only once.
-This makes a difference when the default is a mutable object such as a
-list, dictionary, or instances of most classes. For example, the
-following function accumulates the arguments passed to it on
-subsequent calls:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-def f(a, L=[]):
- L.append(a)
- return L
-
-print f(1)
-print f(2)
-print f(3)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This will print
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-[1]
-[1, 2]
-[1, 2, 3]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-If you don't want the default to be shared between subsequent calls,
-you can write the function like this instead:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-def f(a, L=None):
- if L is None:
- L = []
- L.append(a)
- return L
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\subsection{Keyword Arguments \label{keywordArgs}}
-
-Functions can also be called using
-keyword arguments of the form \samp{\var{keyword} = \var{value}}. For
-instance, the following function:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-def parrot(voltage, state='a stiff', action='voom', type='Norwegian Blue'):
- print "-- This parrot wouldn't", action,
- print "if you put", voltage, "volts through it."
- print "-- Lovely plumage, the", type
- print "-- It's", state, "!"
-\end{verbatim}
-
-could be called in any of the following ways:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-parrot(1000)
-parrot(action = 'VOOOOOM', voltage = 1000000)
-parrot('a thousand', state = 'pushing up the daisies')
-parrot('a million', 'bereft of life', 'jump')
-\end{verbatim}
-
-but the following calls would all be invalid:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-parrot() # required argument missing
-parrot(voltage=5.0, 'dead') # non-keyword argument following keyword
-parrot(110, voltage=220) # duplicate value for argument
-parrot(actor='John Cleese') # unknown keyword
-\end{verbatim}
-
-In general, an argument list must have any positional arguments
-followed by any keyword arguments, where the keywords must be chosen
-from the formal parameter names. It's not important whether a formal
-parameter has a default value or not. No argument may receive a
-value more than once --- formal parameter names corresponding to
-positional arguments cannot be used as keywords in the same calls.
-Here's an example that fails due to this restriction:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def function(a):
-... pass
-...
->>> function(0, a=0)
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-TypeError: function() got multiple values for keyword argument 'a'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-When a final formal parameter of the form \code{**\var{name}} is
-present, it receives a \ulink{dictionary}{../lib/typesmapping.html}
-containing all keyword arguments except for those corresponding to
-a formal parameter. This may be
-combined with a formal parameter of the form
-\code{*\var{name}} (described in the next subsection) which receives a
-tuple containing the positional arguments beyond the formal parameter
-list. (\code{*\var{name}} must occur before \code{**\var{name}}.)
-For example, if we define a function like this:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-def cheeseshop(kind, *arguments, **keywords):
- print "-- Do you have any", kind, '?'
- print "-- I'm sorry, we're all out of", kind
- for arg in arguments: print arg
- print '-'*40
- keys = keywords.keys()
- keys.sort()
- for kw in keys: print kw, ':', keywords[kw]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-It could be called like this:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-cheeseshop('Limburger', "It's very runny, sir.",
- "It's really very, VERY runny, sir.",
- client='John Cleese',
- shopkeeper='Michael Palin',
- sketch='Cheese Shop Sketch')
-\end{verbatim}
-
-and of course it would print:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
--- Do you have any Limburger ?
--- I'm sorry, we're all out of Limburger
-It's very runny, sir.
-It's really very, VERY runny, sir.
-----------------------------------------
-client : John Cleese
-shopkeeper : Michael Palin
-sketch : Cheese Shop Sketch
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that the \method{sort()} method of the list of keyword argument
-names is called before printing the contents of the \code{keywords}
-dictionary; if this is not done, the order in which the arguments are
-printed is undefined.
-
-
-\subsection{Arbitrary Argument Lists \label{arbitraryArgs}}
-
-Finally, the least frequently used option is to specify that a
-function can be called with an arbitrary number of arguments. These
-arguments will be wrapped up in a tuple. Before the variable number
-of arguments, zero or more normal arguments may occur.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-def fprintf(file, format, *args):
- file.write(format % args)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\subsection{Unpacking Argument Lists \label{unpacking-arguments}}
-
-The reverse situation occurs when the arguments are already in a list
-or tuple but need to be unpacked for a function call requiring separate
-positional arguments. For instance, the built-in \function{range()}
-function expects separate \var{start} and \var{stop} arguments. If they
-are not available separately, write the function call with the
-\code{*}-operator to unpack the arguments out of a list or tuple:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> range(3, 6) # normal call with separate arguments
-[3, 4, 5]
->>> args = [3, 6]
->>> range(*args) # call with arguments unpacked from a list
-[3, 4, 5]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-In the same fashion, dictionaries can deliver keyword arguments with the
-\code{**}-operator:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def parrot(voltage, state='a stiff', action='voom'):
-... print "-- This parrot wouldn't", action,
-... print "if you put", voltage, "volts through it.",
-... print "E's", state, "!"
-...
->>> d = {"voltage": "four million", "state": "bleedin' demised", "action": "VOOM"}
->>> parrot(**d)
--- This parrot wouldn't VOOM if you put four million volts through it. E's bleedin' demised !
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\subsection{Lambda Forms \label{lambda}}
-
-By popular demand, a few features commonly found in functional
-programming languages like Lisp have been added to Python. With the
-\keyword{lambda} keyword, small anonymous functions can be created.
-Here's a function that returns the sum of its two arguments:
-\samp{lambda a, b: a+b}. Lambda forms can be used wherever function
-objects are required. They are syntactically restricted to a single
-expression. Semantically, they are just syntactic sugar for a normal
-function definition. Like nested function definitions, lambda forms
-can reference variables from the containing scope:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def make_incrementor(n):
-... return lambda x: x + n
-...
->>> f = make_incrementor(42)
->>> f(0)
-42
->>> f(1)
-43
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\subsection{Documentation Strings \label{docstrings}}
-
-There are emerging conventions about the content and formatting of
-documentation strings.
-\index{docstrings}\index{documentation strings}
-\index{strings, documentation}
-
-The first line should always be a short, concise summary of the
-object's purpose. For brevity, it should not explicitly state the
-object's name or type, since these are available by other means
-(except if the name happens to be a verb describing a function's
-operation). This line should begin with a capital letter and end with
-a period.
-
-If there are more lines in the documentation string, the second line
-should be blank, visually separating the summary from the rest of the
-description. The following lines should be one or more paragraphs
-describing the object's calling conventions, its side effects, etc.
-
-The Python parser does not strip indentation from multi-line string
-literals in Python, so tools that process documentation have to strip
-indentation if desired. This is done using the following convention.
-The first non-blank line \emph{after} the first line of the string
-determines the amount of indentation for the entire documentation
-string. (We can't use the first line since it is generally adjacent
-to the string's opening quotes so its indentation is not apparent in
-the string literal.) Whitespace ``equivalent'' to this indentation is
-then stripped from the start of all lines of the string. Lines that
-are indented less should not occur, but if they occur all their
-leading whitespace should be stripped. Equivalence of whitespace
-should be tested after expansion of tabs (to 8 spaces, normally).
-
-Here is an example of a multi-line docstring:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def my_function():
-... """Do nothing, but document it.
-...
-... No, really, it doesn't do anything.
-... """
-... pass
-...
->>> print my_function.__doc__
-Do nothing, but document it.
-
- No, really, it doesn't do anything.
-
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-
-\chapter{Data Structures \label{structures}}
-
-This chapter describes some things you've learned about already in
-more detail, and adds some new things as well.
-
-
-\section{More on Lists \label{moreLists}}
-
-The list data type has some more methods. Here are all of the methods
-of list objects:
-
-\begin{methoddesc}[list]{append}{x}
-Add an item to the end of the list;
-equivalent to \code{a[len(a):] = [\var{x}]}.
-\end{methoddesc}
-
-\begin{methoddesc}[list]{extend}{L}
-Extend the list by appending all the items in the given list;
-equivalent to \code{a[len(a):] = \var{L}}.
-\end{methoddesc}
-
-\begin{methoddesc}[list]{insert}{i, x}
-Insert an item at a given position. The first argument is the index
-of the element before which to insert, so \code{a.insert(0, \var{x})}
-inserts at the front of the list, and \code{a.insert(len(a), \var{x})}
-is equivalent to \code{a.append(\var{x})}.
-\end{methoddesc}
-
-\begin{methoddesc}[list]{remove}{x}
-Remove the first item from the list whose value is \var{x}.
-It is an error if there is no such item.
-\end{methoddesc}
-
-\begin{methoddesc}[list]{pop}{\optional{i}}
-Remove the item at the given position in the list, and return it. If
-no index is specified, \code{a.pop()} removes and returns the last item
-in the list. (The square brackets
-around the \var{i} in the method signature denote that the parameter
-is optional, not that you should type square brackets at that
-position. You will see this notation frequently in the
-\citetitle[../lib/lib.html]{Python Library Reference}.)
-\end{methoddesc}
-
-\begin{methoddesc}[list]{index}{x}
-Return the index in the list of the first item whose value is \var{x}.
-It is an error if there is no such item.
-\end{methoddesc}
-
-\begin{methoddesc}[list]{count}{x}
-Return the number of times \var{x} appears in the list.
-\end{methoddesc}
-
-\begin{methoddesc}[list]{sort}{}
-Sort the items of the list, in place.
-\end{methoddesc}
-
-\begin{methoddesc}[list]{reverse}{}
-Reverse the elements of the list, in place.
-\end{methoddesc}
-
-An example that uses most of the list methods:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> a = [66.25, 333, 333, 1, 1234.5]
->>> print a.count(333), a.count(66.25), a.count('x')
-2 1 0
->>> a.insert(2, -1)
->>> a.append(333)
->>> a
-[66.25, 333, -1, 333, 1, 1234.5, 333]
->>> a.index(333)
-1
->>> a.remove(333)
->>> a
-[66.25, -1, 333, 1, 1234.5, 333]
->>> a.reverse()
->>> a
-[333, 1234.5, 1, 333, -1, 66.25]
->>> a.sort()
->>> a
-[-1, 1, 66.25, 333, 333, 1234.5]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\subsection{Using Lists as Stacks \label{lists-as-stacks}}
-\sectionauthor{Ka-Ping Yee}{ping@lfw.org}
-
-The list methods make it very easy to use a list as a stack, where the
-last element added is the first element retrieved (``last-in,
-first-out''). To add an item to the top of the stack, use
-\method{append()}. To retrieve an item from the top of the stack, use
-\method{pop()} without an explicit index. For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> stack = [3, 4, 5]
->>> stack.append(6)
->>> stack.append(7)
->>> stack
-[3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
->>> stack.pop()
-7
->>> stack
-[3, 4, 5, 6]
->>> stack.pop()
-6
->>> stack.pop()
-5
->>> stack
-[3, 4]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\subsection{Using Lists as Queues \label{lists-as-queues}}
-\sectionauthor{Ka-Ping Yee}{ping@lfw.org}
-
-You can also use a list conveniently as a queue, where the first
-element added is the first element retrieved (``first-in,
-first-out''). To add an item to the back of the queue, use
-\method{append()}. To retrieve an item from the front of the queue,
-use \method{pop()} with \code{0} as the index. For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> queue = ["Eric", "John", "Michael"]
->>> queue.append("Terry") # Terry arrives
->>> queue.append("Graham") # Graham arrives
->>> queue.pop(0)
-'Eric'
->>> queue.pop(0)
-'John'
->>> queue
-['Michael', 'Terry', 'Graham']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\subsection{Functional Programming Tools \label{functional}}
-
-There are three built-in functions that are very useful when used with
-lists: \function{filter()}, \function{map()}, and \function{reduce()}.
-
-\samp{filter(\var{function}, \var{sequence})} returns a sequence
-consisting of those items from the
-sequence for which \code{\var{function}(\var{item})} is true.
-If \var{sequence} is a \class{string} or \class{tuple}, the result will
-be of the same type; otherwise, it is always a \class{list}.
-For example, to compute some primes:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def f(x): return x % 2 != 0 and x % 3 != 0
-...
->>> filter(f, range(2, 25))
-[5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\samp{map(\var{function}, \var{sequence})} calls
-\code{\var{function}(\var{item})} for each of the sequence's items and
-returns a list of the return values. For example, to compute some
-cubes:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def cube(x): return x*x*x
-...
->>> map(cube, range(1, 11))
-[1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, 343, 512, 729, 1000]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-More than one sequence may be passed; the function must then have as
-many arguments as there are sequences and is called with the
-corresponding item from each sequence (or \code{None} if some sequence
-is shorter than another). For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> seq = range(8)
->>> def add(x, y): return x+y
-...
->>> map(add, seq, seq)
-[0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\samp{reduce(\var{function}, \var{sequence})} returns a single value
-constructed by calling the binary function \var{function} on the first two
-items of the sequence, then on the result and the next item, and so
-on. For example, to compute the sum of the numbers 1 through 10:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def add(x,y): return x+y
-...
->>> reduce(add, range(1, 11))
-55
-\end{verbatim}
-
-If there's only one item in the sequence, its value is returned; if
-the sequence is empty, an exception is raised.
-
-A third argument can be passed to indicate the starting value. In this
-case the starting value is returned for an empty sequence, and the
-function is first applied to the starting value and the first sequence
-item, then to the result and the next item, and so on. For example,
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def sum(seq):
-... def add(x,y): return x+y
-... return reduce(add, seq, 0)
-...
->>> sum(range(1, 11))
-55
->>> sum([])
-0
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Don't use this example's definition of \function{sum()}: since summing
-numbers is such a common need, a built-in function
-\code{sum(\var{sequence})} is already provided, and works exactly like
-this.
-\versionadded{2.3}
-
-\subsection{List Comprehensions}
-
-List comprehensions provide a concise way to create lists without resorting
-to use of \function{map()}, \function{filter()} and/or \keyword{lambda}.
-The resulting list definition tends often to be clearer than lists built
-using those constructs. Each list comprehension consists of an expression
-followed by a \keyword{for} clause, then zero or more \keyword{for} or
-\keyword{if} clauses. The result will be a list resulting from evaluating
-the expression in the context of the \keyword{for} and \keyword{if} clauses
-which follow it. If the expression would evaluate to a tuple, it must be
-parenthesized.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> freshfruit = [' banana', ' loganberry ', 'passion fruit ']
->>> [weapon.strip() for weapon in freshfruit]
-['banana', 'loganberry', 'passion fruit']
->>> vec = [2, 4, 6]
->>> [3*x for x in vec]
-[6, 12, 18]
->>> [3*x for x in vec if x > 3]
-[12, 18]
->>> [3*x for x in vec if x < 2]
-[]
->>> [[x,x**2] for x in vec]
-[[2, 4], [4, 16], [6, 36]]
->>> [x, x**2 for x in vec] # error - parens required for tuples
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
- [x, x**2 for x in vec]
- ^
-SyntaxError: invalid syntax
->>> [(x, x**2) for x in vec]
-[(2, 4), (4, 16), (6, 36)]
->>> vec1 = [2, 4, 6]
->>> vec2 = [4, 3, -9]
->>> [x*y for x in vec1 for y in vec2]
-[8, 6, -18, 16, 12, -36, 24, 18, -54]
->>> [x+y for x in vec1 for y in vec2]
-[6, 5, -7, 8, 7, -5, 10, 9, -3]
->>> [vec1[i]*vec2[i] for i in range(len(vec1))]
-[8, 12, -54]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-List comprehensions are much more flexible than \function{map()} and can be
-applied to complex expressions and nested functions:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> [str(round(355/113.0, i)) for i in range(1,6)]
-['3.1', '3.14', '3.142', '3.1416', '3.14159']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{The \keyword{del} statement \label{del}}
-
-There is a way to remove an item from a list given its index instead
-of its value: the \keyword{del} statement. This differs from the
-\method{pop()} method which returns a value. The \keyword{del}
-statement can also be used to remove slices from a list or clear the
-entire list (which we did earlier by assignment of an empty list to
-the slice). For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> a = [-1, 1, 66.25, 333, 333, 1234.5]
->>> del a[0]
->>> a
-[1, 66.25, 333, 333, 1234.5]
->>> del a[2:4]
->>> a
-[1, 66.25, 1234.5]
->>> del a[:]
->>> a
-[]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\keyword{del} can also be used to delete entire variables:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> del a
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Referencing the name \code{a} hereafter is an error (at least until
-another value is assigned to it). We'll find other uses for
-\keyword{del} later.
-
-
-\section{Tuples and Sequences \label{tuples}}
-
-We saw that lists and strings have many common properties, such as
-indexing and slicing operations. They are two examples of
-\ulink{\emph{sequence} data types}{../lib/typesseq.html}. Since
-Python is an evolving language, other sequence data types may be
-added. There is also another standard sequence data type: the
-\emph{tuple}.
-
-A tuple consists of a number of values separated by commas, for
-instance:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> t = 12345, 54321, 'hello!'
->>> t[0]
-12345
->>> t
-(12345, 54321, 'hello!')
->>> # Tuples may be nested:
-... u = t, (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
->>> u
-((12345, 54321, 'hello!'), (1, 2, 3, 4, 5))
-\end{verbatim}
-
-As you see, on output tuples are always enclosed in parentheses, so
-that nested tuples are interpreted correctly; they may be input with
-or without surrounding parentheses, although often parentheses are
-necessary anyway (if the tuple is part of a larger expression).
-
-Tuples have many uses. For example: (x, y) coordinate pairs, employee
-records from a database, etc. Tuples, like strings, are immutable: it
-is not possible to assign to the individual items of a tuple (you can
-simulate much of the same effect with slicing and concatenation,
-though). It is also possible to create tuples which contain mutable
-objects, such as lists.
-
-A special problem is the construction of tuples containing 0 or 1
-items: the syntax has some extra quirks to accommodate these. Empty
-tuples are constructed by an empty pair of parentheses; a tuple with
-one item is constructed by following a value with a comma
-(it is not sufficient to enclose a single value in parentheses).
-Ugly, but effective. For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> empty = ()
->>> singleton = 'hello', # <-- note trailing comma
->>> len(empty)
-0
->>> len(singleton)
-1
->>> singleton
-('hello',)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The statement \code{t = 12345, 54321, 'hello!'} is an example of
-\emph{tuple packing}: the values \code{12345}, \code{54321} and
-\code{'hello!'} are packed together in a tuple. The reverse operation
-is also possible:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> x, y, z = t
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This is called, appropriately enough, \emph{sequence unpacking}.
-Sequence unpacking requires the list of variables on the left to
-have the same number of elements as the length of the sequence. Note
-that multiple assignment is really just a combination of tuple packing
-and sequence unpacking!
-
-There is a small bit of asymmetry here: packing multiple values
-always creates a tuple, and unpacking works for any sequence.
-
-% XXX Add a bit on the difference between tuples and lists.
-
-
-\section{Sets \label{sets}}
-
-Python also includes a data type for \emph{sets}. A set is an unordered
-collection with no duplicate elements. Basic uses include membership
-testing and eliminating duplicate entries. Set objects also support
-mathematical operations like union, intersection, difference, and
-symmetric difference.
-
-Here is a brief demonstration:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> basket = ['apple', 'orange', 'apple', 'pear', 'orange', 'banana']
->>> fruit = set(basket) # create a set without duplicates
->>> fruit
-set(['orange', 'pear', 'apple', 'banana'])
->>> 'orange' in fruit # fast membership testing
-True
->>> 'crabgrass' in fruit
-False
-
->>> # Demonstrate set operations on unique letters from two words
-...
->>> a = set('abracadabra')
->>> b = set('alacazam')
->>> a # unique letters in a
-set(['a', 'r', 'b', 'c', 'd'])
->>> a - b # letters in a but not in b
-set(['r', 'd', 'b'])
->>> a | b # letters in either a or b
-set(['a', 'c', 'r', 'd', 'b', 'm', 'z', 'l'])
->>> a & b # letters in both a and b
-set(['a', 'c'])
->>> a ^ b # letters in a or b but not both
-set(['r', 'd', 'b', 'm', 'z', 'l'])
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Dictionaries \label{dictionaries}}
-
-Another useful data type built into Python is the
-\ulink{\emph{dictionary}}{../lib/typesmapping.html}.
-Dictionaries are sometimes found in other languages as ``associative
-memories'' or ``associative arrays''. Unlike sequences, which are
-indexed by a range of numbers, dictionaries are indexed by \emph{keys},
-which can be any immutable type; strings and numbers can always be
-keys. Tuples can be used as keys if they contain only strings,
-numbers, or tuples; if a tuple contains any mutable object either
-directly or indirectly, it cannot be used as a key. You can't use
-lists as keys, since lists can be modified in place using
-index assignments, slice assignments, or methods like
-\method{append()} and \method{extend()}.
-
-It is best to think of a dictionary as an unordered set of
-\emph{key: value} pairs, with the requirement that the keys are unique
-(within one dictionary).
-A pair of braces creates an empty dictionary: \code{\{\}}.
-Placing a comma-separated list of key:value pairs within the
-braces adds initial key:value pairs to the dictionary; this is also the
-way dictionaries are written on output.
-
-The main operations on a dictionary are storing a value with some key
-and extracting the value given the key. It is also possible to delete
-a key:value pair
-with \code{del}.
-If you store using a key that is already in use, the old value
-associated with that key is forgotten. It is an error to extract a
-value using a non-existent key.
-
-The \method{keys()} method of a dictionary object returns a list of all
-the keys used in the dictionary, in arbitrary order (if you want it
-sorted, just apply the \method{sort()} method to the list of keys). To
-check whether a single key is in the dictionary, either use the dictionary's
-\method{has_key()} method or the \keyword{in} keyword.
-
-Here is a small example using a dictionary:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> tel = {'jack': 4098, 'sape': 4139}
->>> tel['guido'] = 4127
->>> tel
-{'sape': 4139, 'guido': 4127, 'jack': 4098}
->>> tel['jack']
-4098
->>> del tel['sape']
->>> tel['irv'] = 4127
->>> tel
-{'guido': 4127, 'irv': 4127, 'jack': 4098}
->>> tel.keys()
-['guido', 'irv', 'jack']
->>> tel.has_key('guido')
-True
->>> 'guido' in tel
-True
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \function{dict()} constructor builds dictionaries directly from
-lists of key-value pairs stored as tuples. When the pairs form a
-pattern, list comprehensions can compactly specify the key-value list.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> dict([('sape', 4139), ('guido', 4127), ('jack', 4098)])
-{'sape': 4139, 'jack': 4098, 'guido': 4127}
->>> dict([(x, x**2) for x in (2, 4, 6)]) # use a list comprehension
-{2: 4, 4: 16, 6: 36}
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Later in the tutorial, we will learn about Generator Expressions
-which are even better suited for the task of supplying key-values pairs to
-the \function{dict()} constructor.
-
-When the keys are simple strings, it is sometimes easier to specify
-pairs using keyword arguments:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> dict(sape=4139, guido=4127, jack=4098)
-{'sape': 4139, 'jack': 4098, 'guido': 4127}
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Looping Techniques \label{loopidioms}}
-
-When looping through dictionaries, the key and corresponding value can
-be retrieved at the same time using the \method{iteritems()} method.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> knights = {'gallahad': 'the pure', 'robin': 'the brave'}
->>> for k, v in knights.iteritems():
-... print k, v
-...
-gallahad the pure
-robin the brave
-\end{verbatim}
-
-When looping through a sequence, the position index and corresponding
-value can be retrieved at the same time using the
-\function{enumerate()} function.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> for i, v in enumerate(['tic', 'tac', 'toe']):
-... print i, v
-...
-0 tic
-1 tac
-2 toe
-\end{verbatim}
-
-To loop over two or more sequences at the same time, the entries
-can be paired with the \function{zip()} function.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> questions = ['name', 'quest', 'favorite color']
->>> answers = ['lancelot', 'the holy grail', 'blue']
->>> for q, a in zip(questions, answers):
-... print 'What is your %s? It is %s.' % (q, a)
-...
-What is your name? It is lancelot.
-What is your quest? It is the holy grail.
-What is your favorite color? It is blue.
-\end{verbatim}
-
-To loop over a sequence in reverse, first specify the sequence
-in a forward direction and then call the \function{reversed()}
-function.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> for i in reversed(xrange(1,10,2)):
-... print i
-...
-9
-7
-5
-3
-1
-\end{verbatim}
-
-To loop over a sequence in sorted order, use the \function{sorted()}
-function which returns a new sorted list while leaving the source
-unaltered.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> basket = ['apple', 'orange', 'apple', 'pear', 'orange', 'banana']
->>> for f in sorted(set(basket)):
-... print f
-...
-apple
-banana
-orange
-pear
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\section{More on Conditions \label{conditions}}
-
-The conditions used in \code{while} and \code{if} statements can
-contain any operators, not just comparisons.
-
-The comparison operators \code{in} and \code{not in} check whether a value
-occurs (does not occur) in a sequence. The operators \code{is} and
-\code{is not} compare whether two objects are really the same object; this
-only matters for mutable objects like lists. All comparison operators
-have the same priority, which is lower than that of all numerical
-operators.
-
-Comparisons can be chained. For example, \code{a < b == c} tests
-whether \code{a} is less than \code{b} and moreover \code{b} equals
-\code{c}.
-
-Comparisons may be combined using the Boolean operators \code{and} and
-\code{or}, and the outcome of a comparison (or of any other Boolean
-expression) may be negated with \code{not}. These have lower
-priorities than comparison operators; between them, \code{not} has
-the highest priority and \code{or} the lowest, so that
-\code{A and not B or C} is equivalent to \code{(A and (not B)) or C}.
-As always, parentheses can be used to express the desired composition.
-
-The Boolean operators \code{and} and \code{or} are so-called
-\emph{short-circuit} operators: their arguments are evaluated from
-left to right, and evaluation stops as soon as the outcome is
-determined. For example, if \code{A} and \code{C} are true but
-\code{B} is false, \code{A and B and C} does not evaluate the
-expression \code{C}. When used as a general value and not as a
-Boolean, the return value of a short-circuit operator is the last
-evaluated argument.
-
-It is possible to assign the result of a comparison or other Boolean
-expression to a variable. For example,
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> string1, string2, string3 = '', 'Trondheim', 'Hammer Dance'
->>> non_null = string1 or string2 or string3
->>> non_null
-'Trondheim'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that in Python, unlike C, assignment cannot occur inside expressions.
-C programmers may grumble about this, but it avoids a common class of
-problems encountered in C programs: typing \code{=} in an expression when
-\code{==} was intended.
-
-
-\section{Comparing Sequences and Other Types \label{comparing}}
-
-Sequence objects may be compared to other objects with the same
-sequence type. The comparison uses \emph{lexicographical} ordering:
-first the first two items are compared, and if they differ this
-determines the outcome of the comparison; if they are equal, the next
-two items are compared, and so on, until either sequence is exhausted.
-If two items to be compared are themselves sequences of the same type,
-the lexicographical comparison is carried out recursively. If all
-items of two sequences compare equal, the sequences are considered
-equal. If one sequence is an initial sub-sequence of the other, the
-shorter sequence is the smaller (lesser) one. Lexicographical
-ordering for strings uses the \ASCII{} ordering for individual
-characters. Some examples of comparisons between sequences of the
-same type:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-(1, 2, 3) < (1, 2, 4)
-[1, 2, 3] < [1, 2, 4]
-'ABC' < 'C' < 'Pascal' < 'Python'
-(1, 2, 3, 4) < (1, 2, 4)
-(1, 2) < (1, 2, -1)
-(1, 2, 3) == (1.0, 2.0, 3.0)
-(1, 2, ('aa', 'ab')) < (1, 2, ('abc', 'a'), 4)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that comparing objects of different types is legal. The outcome
-is deterministic but arbitrary: the types are ordered by their name.
-Thus, a list is always smaller than a string, a string is always
-smaller than a tuple, etc. \footnote{
- The rules for comparing objects of different types should
- not be relied upon; they may change in a future version of
- the language.
-} Mixed numeric types are compared according to their numeric value, so
-0 equals 0.0, etc.
-
-
-\chapter{Modules \label{modules}}
-
-If you quit from the Python interpreter and enter it again, the
-definitions you have made (functions and variables) are lost.
-Therefore, if you want to write a somewhat longer program, you are
-better off using a text editor to prepare the input for the interpreter
-and running it with that file as input instead. This is known as creating a
-\emph{script}. As your program gets longer, you may want to split it
-into several files for easier maintenance. You may also want to use a
-handy function that you've written in several programs without copying
-its definition into each program.
-
-To support this, Python has a way to put definitions in a file and use
-them in a script or in an interactive instance of the interpreter.
-Such a file is called a \emph{module}; definitions from a module can be
-\emph{imported} into other modules or into the \emph{main} module (the
-collection of variables that you have access to in a script
-executed at the top level
-and in calculator mode).
-
-A module is a file containing Python definitions and statements. The
-file name is the module name with the suffix \file{.py} appended. Within
-a module, the module's name (as a string) is available as the value of
-the global variable \code{__name__}. For instance, use your favorite text
-editor to create a file called \file{fibo.py} in the current directory
-with the following contents:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-# Fibonacci numbers module
-
-def fib(n): # write Fibonacci series up to n
- a, b = 0, 1
- while b < n:
- print b,
- a, b = b, a+b
-
-def fib2(n): # return Fibonacci series up to n
- result = []
- a, b = 0, 1
- while b < n:
- result.append(b)
- a, b = b, a+b
- return result
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Now enter the Python interpreter and import this module with the
-following command:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import fibo
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This does not enter the names of the functions defined in \code{fibo}
-directly in the current symbol table; it only enters the module name
-\code{fibo} there.
-Using the module name you can access the functions:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> fibo.fib(1000)
-1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987
->>> fibo.fib2(100)
-[1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89]
->>> fibo.__name__
-'fibo'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-If you intend to use a function often you can assign it to a local name:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> fib = fibo.fib
->>> fib(500)
-1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{More on Modules \label{moreModules}}
-
-A module can contain executable statements as well as function
-definitions.
-These statements are intended to initialize the module.
-They are executed only the
-\emph{first} time the module is imported somewhere.\footnote{
- In fact function definitions are also `statements' that are
- `executed'; the execution enters the function name in the
- module's global symbol table.
-}
-
-Each module has its own private symbol table, which is used as the
-global symbol table by all functions defined in the module.
-Thus, the author of a module can use global variables in the module
-without worrying about accidental clashes with a user's global
-variables.
-On the other hand, if you know what you are doing you can touch a
-module's global variables with the same notation used to refer to its
-functions,
-\code{modname.itemname}.
-
-Modules can import other modules. It is customary but not required to
-place all \keyword{import} statements at the beginning of a module (or
-script, for that matter). The imported module names are placed in the
-importing module's global symbol table.
-
-There is a variant of the \keyword{import} statement that imports
-names from a module directly into the importing module's symbol
-table. For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> from fibo import fib, fib2
->>> fib(500)
-1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This does not introduce the module name from which the imports are taken
-in the local symbol table (so in the example, \code{fibo} is not
-defined).
-
-There is even a variant to import all names that a module defines:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> from fibo import *
->>> fib(500)
-1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This imports all names except those beginning with an underscore
-(\code{_}).
-
-\subsection{Executing modules as scripts \label{modulesAsScripts}}
-
-When you run a Python module with
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-python fibo.py <arguments>
-\end{verbatim}
-
-the code in the module will be executed, just as if you imported it, but
-with the \code{__name__} set to \code{"__main__"}. That means that by
-adding this code at the end of your module:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-if __name__ == "__main__":
- import sys
- fib(int(sys.argv[1]))
-\end{verbatim}
-
-you can make the file usable as a script as well as an importable module,
-because the code that parses the command line only runs if the module is
-executed as the ``main'' file:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-$ python fibo.py 50
-1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34
-\end{verbatim}
-
-If the module is imported, the code is not run:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import fibo
->>>
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This is often used either to provide a convenient user interface to a
-module, or for testing purposes (running the module as a script executes
-a test suite).
-
-
-\subsection{The Module Search Path \label{searchPath}}
-
-\indexiii{module}{search}{path}
-When a module named \module{spam} is imported, the interpreter searches
-for a file named \file{spam.py} in the current directory,
-and then in the list of directories specified by
-the environment variable \envvar{PYTHONPATH}. This has the same syntax as
-the shell variable \envvar{PATH}, that is, a list of
-directory names. When \envvar{PYTHONPATH} is not set, or when the file
-is not found there, the search continues in an installation-dependent
-default path; on \UNIX, this is usually \file{.:/usr/local/lib/python}.
-
-Actually, modules are searched in the list of directories given by the
-variable \code{sys.path} which is initialized from the directory
-containing the input script (or the current directory),
-\envvar{PYTHONPATH} and the installation-dependent default. This allows
-Python programs that know what they're doing to modify or replace the
-module search path. Note that because the directory containing the
-script being run is on the search path, it is important that the
-script not have the same name as a standard module, or Python will
-attempt to load the script as a module when that module is imported.
-This will generally be an error. See section~\ref{standardModules},
-``Standard Modules,'' for more information.
-
-
-\subsection{``Compiled'' Python files}
-
-As an important speed-up of the start-up time for short programs that
-use a lot of standard modules, if a file called \file{spam.pyc} exists
-in the directory where \file{spam.py} is found, this is assumed to
-contain an already-``byte-compiled'' version of the module \module{spam}.
-The modification time of the version of \file{spam.py} used to create
-\file{spam.pyc} is recorded in \file{spam.pyc}, and the
-\file{.pyc} file is ignored if these don't match.
-
-Normally, you don't need to do anything to create the
-\file{spam.pyc} file. Whenever \file{spam.py} is successfully
-compiled, an attempt is made to write the compiled version to
-\file{spam.pyc}. It is not an error if this attempt fails; if for any
-reason the file is not written completely, the resulting
-\file{spam.pyc} file will be recognized as invalid and thus ignored
-later. The contents of the \file{spam.pyc} file are platform
-independent, so a Python module directory can be shared by machines of
-different architectures.
-
-Some tips for experts:
-
-\begin{itemize}
-
-\item
-When the Python interpreter is invoked with the \programopt{-O} flag,
-optimized code is generated and stored in \file{.pyo} files. The
-optimizer currently doesn't help much; it only removes
-\keyword{assert} statements. When \programopt{-O} is used, \emph{all}
-bytecode is optimized; \code{.pyc} files are ignored and \code{.py}
-files are compiled to optimized bytecode.
-
-\item
-Passing two \programopt{-O} flags to the Python interpreter
-(\programopt{-OO}) will cause the bytecode compiler to perform
-optimizations that could in some rare cases result in malfunctioning
-programs. Currently only \code{__doc__} strings are removed from the
-bytecode, resulting in more compact \file{.pyo} files. Since some
-programs may rely on having these available, you should only use this
-option if you know what you're doing.
-
-\item
-A program doesn't run any faster when it is read from a \file{.pyc} or
-\file{.pyo} file than when it is read from a \file{.py} file; the only
-thing that's faster about \file{.pyc} or \file{.pyo} files is the
-speed with which they are loaded.
-
-\item
-When a script is run by giving its name on the command line, the
-bytecode for the script is never written to a \file{.pyc} or
-\file{.pyo} file. Thus, the startup time of a script may be reduced
-by moving most of its code to a module and having a small bootstrap
-script that imports that module. It is also possible to name a
-\file{.pyc} or \file{.pyo} file directly on the command line.
-
-\item
-It is possible to have a file called \file{spam.pyc} (or
-\file{spam.pyo} when \programopt{-O} is used) without a file
-\file{spam.py} for the same module. This can be used to distribute a
-library of Python code in a form that is moderately hard to reverse
-engineer.
-
-\item
-The module \ulink{\module{compileall}}{../lib/module-compileall.html}%
-{} \refstmodindex{compileall} can create \file{.pyc} files (or
-\file{.pyo} files when \programopt{-O} is used) for all modules in a
-directory.
-
-\end{itemize}
-
-
-\section{Standard Modules \label{standardModules}}
-
-Python comes with a library of standard modules, described in a separate
-document, the \citetitle[../lib/lib.html]{Python Library Reference}
-(``Library Reference'' hereafter). Some modules are built into the
-interpreter; these provide access to operations that are not part of
-the core of the language but are nevertheless built in, either for
-efficiency or to provide access to operating system primitives such as
-system calls. The set of such modules is a configuration option which
-also depends on the underlying platform For example,
-the \module{winreg} module is only provided on Windows systems.
-One particular module deserves some
-attention: \ulink{\module{sys}}{../lib/module-sys.html}%
-\refstmodindex{sys}, which is built into every
-Python interpreter. The variables \code{sys.ps1} and
-\code{sys.ps2} define the strings used as primary and secondary
-prompts:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import sys
->>> sys.ps1
-'>>> '
->>> sys.ps2
-'... '
->>> sys.ps1 = 'C> '
-C> print 'Yuck!'
-Yuck!
-C>
-
-\end{verbatim}
-
-These two variables are only defined if the interpreter is in
-interactive mode.
-
-The variable \code{sys.path} is a list of strings that determines the
-interpreter's search path for modules. It is initialized to a default
-path taken from the environment variable \envvar{PYTHONPATH}, or from
-a built-in default if \envvar{PYTHONPATH} is not set. You can modify
-it using standard list operations:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import sys
->>> sys.path.append('/ufs/guido/lib/python')
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\section{The \function{dir()} Function \label{dir}}
-
-The built-in function \function{dir()} is used to find out which names
-a module defines. It returns a sorted list of strings:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import fibo, sys
->>> dir(fibo)
-['__name__', 'fib', 'fib2']
->>> dir(sys)
-['__displayhook__', '__doc__', '__excepthook__', '__name__', '__stderr__',
- '__stdin__', '__stdout__', '_getframe', 'api_version', 'argv',
- 'builtin_module_names', 'byteorder', 'callstats', 'copyright',
- 'displayhook', 'exc_clear', 'exc_info', 'exc_type', 'excepthook',
- 'exec_prefix', 'executable', 'exit', 'getdefaultencoding', 'getdlopenflags',
- 'getrecursionlimit', 'getrefcount', 'hexversion', 'maxint', 'maxunicode',
- 'meta_path', 'modules', 'path', 'path_hooks', 'path_importer_cache',
- 'platform', 'prefix', 'ps1', 'ps2', 'setcheckinterval', 'setdlopenflags',
- 'setprofile', 'setrecursionlimit', 'settrace', 'stderr', 'stdin', 'stdout',
- 'version', 'version_info', 'warnoptions']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Without arguments, \function{dir()} lists the names you have defined
-currently:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
->>> import fibo
->>> fib = fibo.fib
->>> dir()
-['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__name__', 'a', 'fib', 'fibo', 'sys']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that it lists all types of names: variables, modules, functions, etc.
-
-\function{dir()} does not list the names of built-in functions and
-variables. If you want a list of those, they are defined in the
-standard module \module{__builtin__}\refbimodindex{__builtin__}:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import __builtin__
->>> dir(__builtin__)
-['ArithmeticError', 'AssertionError', 'AttributeError', 'DeprecationWarning',
- 'EOFError', 'Ellipsis', 'EnvironmentError', 'Exception', 'False',
- 'FloatingPointError', 'FutureWarning', 'IOError', 'ImportError',
- 'IndentationError', 'IndexError', 'KeyError', 'KeyboardInterrupt',
- 'LookupError', 'MemoryError', 'NameError', 'None', 'NotImplemented',
- 'NotImplementedError', 'OSError', 'OverflowError',
- 'PendingDeprecationWarning', 'ReferenceError', 'RuntimeError',
- 'RuntimeWarning', 'StandardError', 'StopIteration', 'SyntaxError',
- 'SyntaxWarning', 'SystemError', 'SystemExit', 'TabError', 'True',
- 'TypeError', 'UnboundLocalError', 'UnicodeDecodeError',
- 'UnicodeEncodeError', 'UnicodeError', 'UnicodeTranslateError',
- 'UserWarning', 'ValueError', 'Warning', 'WindowsError',
- 'ZeroDivisionError', '_', '__debug__', '__doc__', '__import__',
- '__name__', 'abs', 'apply', 'basestring', 'bool', 'buffer',
- 'callable', 'chr', 'classmethod', 'cmp', 'coerce', 'compile',
- 'complex', 'copyright', 'credits', 'delattr', 'dict', 'dir', 'divmod',
- 'enumerate', 'eval', 'execfile', 'exit', 'file', 'filter', 'float',
- 'frozenset', 'getattr', 'globals', 'hasattr', 'hash', 'help', 'hex',
- 'id', 'input', 'int', 'intern', 'isinstance', 'issubclass', 'iter',
- 'len', 'license', 'list', 'locals', 'long', 'map', 'max', 'min',
- 'object', 'oct', 'open', 'ord', 'pow', 'property', 'quit', 'range',
- 'raw_input', 'reduce', 'reload', 'repr', 'reversed', 'round', 'set',
- 'setattr', 'slice', 'sorted', 'staticmethod', 'str', 'sum', 'super',
- 'tuple', 'type', 'unichr', 'unicode', 'vars', 'xrange', 'zip']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Packages \label{packages}}
-
-Packages are a way of structuring Python's module namespace
-by using ``dotted module names''. For example, the module name
-\module{A.B} designates a submodule named \samp{B} in a package named
-\samp{A}. Just like the use of modules saves the authors of different
-modules from having to worry about each other's global variable names,
-the use of dotted module names saves the authors of multi-module
-packages like NumPy or the Python Imaging Library from having to worry
-about each other's module names.
-
-Suppose you want to design a collection of modules (a ``package'') for
-the uniform handling of sound files and sound data. There are many
-different sound file formats (usually recognized by their extension,
-for example: \file{.wav}, \file{.aiff}, \file{.au}), so you may need
-to create and maintain a growing collection of modules for the
-conversion between the various file formats. There are also many
-different operations you might want to perform on sound data (such as
-mixing, adding echo, applying an equalizer function, creating an
-artificial stereo effect), so in addition you will be writing a
-never-ending stream of modules to perform these operations. Here's a
-possible structure for your package (expressed in terms of a
-hierarchical filesystem):
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-sound/ Top-level package
- __init__.py Initialize the sound package
- formats/ Subpackage for file format conversions
- __init__.py
- wavread.py
- wavwrite.py
- aiffread.py
- aiffwrite.py
- auread.py
- auwrite.py
- ...
- effects/ Subpackage for sound effects
- __init__.py
- echo.py
- surround.py
- reverse.py
- ...
- filters/ Subpackage for filters
- __init__.py
- equalizer.py
- vocoder.py
- karaoke.py
- ...
-\end{verbatim}
-
-When importing the package, Python searches through the directories
-on \code{sys.path} looking for the package subdirectory.
-
-The \file{__init__.py} files are required to make Python treat the
-directories as containing packages; this is done to prevent
-directories with a common name, such as \samp{string}, from
-unintentionally hiding valid modules that occur later on the module
-search path. In the simplest case, \file{__init__.py} can just be an
-empty file, but it can also execute initialization code for the
-package or set the \code{__all__} variable, described later.
-
-Users of the package can import individual modules from the
-package, for example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-import sound.effects.echo
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This loads the submodule \module{sound.effects.echo}. It must be referenced
-with its full name.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-sound.effects.echo.echofilter(input, output, delay=0.7, atten=4)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-An alternative way of importing the submodule is:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-from sound.effects import echo
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This also loads the submodule \module{echo}, and makes it available without
-its package prefix, so it can be used as follows:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-echo.echofilter(input, output, delay=0.7, atten=4)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Yet another variation is to import the desired function or variable directly:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-from sound.effects.echo import echofilter
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Again, this loads the submodule \module{echo}, but this makes its function
-\function{echofilter()} directly available:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-echofilter(input, output, delay=0.7, atten=4)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that when using \code{from \var{package} import \var{item}}, the
-item can be either a submodule (or subpackage) of the package, or some
-other name defined in the package, like a function, class or
-variable. The \code{import} statement first tests whether the item is
-defined in the package; if not, it assumes it is a module and attempts
-to load it. If it fails to find it, an
-\exception{ImportError} exception is raised.
-
-Contrarily, when using syntax like \code{import
-\var{item.subitem.subsubitem}}, each item except for the last must be
-a package; the last item can be a module or a package but can't be a
-class or function or variable defined in the previous item.
-
-\subsection{Importing * From a Package \label{pkg-import-star}}
-%The \code{__all__} Attribute
-
-\ttindex{__all__}
-Now what happens when the user writes \code{from sound.effects import
-*}? Ideally, one would hope that this somehow goes out to the
-filesystem, finds which submodules are present in the package, and
-imports them all. Unfortunately, this operation does not work very
-well on Windows platforms, where the filesystem does not
-always have accurate information about the case of a filename! On
-these platforms, there is no guaranteed way to know whether a file
-\file{ECHO.PY} should be imported as a module \module{echo},
-\module{Echo} or \module{ECHO}. (For example, Windows 95 has the
-annoying practice of showing all file names with a capitalized first
-letter.) The DOS 8+3 filename restriction adds another interesting
-problem for long module names.
-
-The only solution is for the package author to provide an explicit
-index of the package. The import statement uses the following
-convention: if a package's \file{__init__.py} code defines a list
-named \code{__all__}, it is taken to be the list of module names that
-should be imported when \code{from \var{package} import *} is
-encountered. It is up to the package author to keep this list
-up-to-date when a new version of the package is released. Package
-authors may also decide not to support it, if they don't see a use for
-importing * from their package. For example, the file
-\file{sounds/effects/__init__.py} could contain the following code:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-__all__ = ["echo", "surround", "reverse"]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This would mean that \code{from sound.effects import *} would
-import the three named submodules of the \module{sound} package.
-
-If \code{__all__} is not defined, the statement \code{from sound.effects
-import *} does \emph{not} import all submodules from the package
-\module{sound.effects} into the current namespace; it only ensures that the
-package \module{sound.effects} has been imported (possibly running any
-initialization code in \file{__init__.py}) and then imports whatever names are
-defined in the package. This includes any names defined (and
-submodules explicitly loaded) by \file{__init__.py}. It also includes any
-submodules of the package that were explicitly loaded by previous
-import statements. Consider this code:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-import sound.effects.echo
-import sound.effects.surround
-from sound.effects import *
-\end{verbatim}
-
-In this example, the echo and surround modules are imported in the
-current namespace because they are defined in the
-\module{sound.effects} package when the \code{from...import} statement
-is executed. (This also works when \code{__all__} is defined.)
-
-Note that in general the practice of importing \code{*} from a module or
-package is frowned upon, since it often causes poorly readable code.
-However, it is okay to use it to save typing in interactive sessions,
-and certain modules are designed to export only names that follow
-certain patterns.
-
-Remember, there is nothing wrong with using \code{from Package
-import specific_submodule}! In fact, this is the
-recommended notation unless the importing module needs to use
-submodules with the same name from different packages.
-
-
-\subsection{Intra-package References}
-
-The submodules often need to refer to each other. For example, the
-\module{surround} module might use the \module{echo} module. In fact,
-such references are so common that the \keyword{import} statement
-first looks in the containing package before looking in the standard
-module search path. Thus, the \module{surround} module can simply use
-\code{import echo} or \code{from echo import echofilter}. If the
-imported module is not found in the current package (the package of
-which the current module is a submodule), the \keyword{import}
-statement looks for a top-level module with the given name.
-
-When packages are structured into subpackages (as with the
-\module{sound} package in the example), you can use absolute
-imports to refer to submodules of siblings packages.
-For example, if the module \module{sound.filters.vocoder} needs to
-use the \module{echo} module in the \module{sound.effects} package,
-it can use \code{from sound.effects import echo}.
-
-Starting with Python 2.5, in addition to the implicit relative imports
-described above, you can also write explicit relative imports with the
-\code{from module import name} form of import statement. These explicit
-relative imports use leading dots to indicate the current and parent
-packages involved in the relative import. From the \module{surround}
-module for example, you might use:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-from . import echo
-from .. import formats
-from ..filters import equalizer
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that both explicit and implicit relative imports are based on the
-name of the current module. Since the name of the main module is always
-\code{"__main__"}, modules intended for use as the main module of a
-Python application should always use absolute imports.
-
-\subsection{Packages in Multiple Directories}
-
-Packages support one more special attribute, \member{__path__}. This
-is initialized to be a list containing the name of the directory
-holding the package's \file{__init__.py} before the code in that file
-is executed. This variable can be modified; doing so affects future
-searches for modules and subpackages contained in the package.
-
-While this feature is not often needed, it can be used to extend the
-set of modules found in a package.
-
-
-
-\chapter{Input and Output \label{io}}
-
-There are several ways to present the output of a program; data can be
-printed in a human-readable form, or written to a file for future use.
-This chapter will discuss some of the possibilities.
-
-
-\section{Fancier Output Formatting \label{formatting}}
-
-So far we've encountered two ways of writing values: \emph{expression
-statements} and the \keyword{print} statement. (A third way is using
-the \method{write()} method of file objects; the standard output file
-can be referenced as \code{sys.stdout}. See the Library Reference for
-more information on this.)
-
-Often you'll want more control over the formatting of your output than
-simply printing space-separated values. There are two ways to format
-your output; the first way is to do all the string handling yourself;
-using string slicing and concatenation operations you can create any
-layout you can imagine. The standard module
-\module{string}\refstmodindex{string} contains some useful operations
-for padding strings to a given column width; these will be discussed
-shortly. The second way is to use the \code{\%} operator with a
-string as the left argument. The \code{\%} operator interprets the
-left argument much like a \cfunction{sprintf()}-style format
-string to be applied to the right argument, and returns the string
-resulting from this formatting operation.
-
-One question remains, of course: how do you convert values to strings?
-Luckily, Python has ways to convert any value to a string: pass it to
-the \function{repr()} or \function{str()} functions. Reverse quotes
-(\code{``}) are equivalent to \function{repr()}, but they are no
-longer used in modern Python code and will likely not be in future
-versions of the language.
-
-The \function{str()} function is meant to return representations of
-values which are fairly human-readable, while \function{repr()} is
-meant to generate representations which can be read by the interpreter
-(or will force a \exception{SyntaxError} if there is not equivalent
-syntax). For objects which don't have a particular representation for
-human consumption, \function{str()} will return the same value as
-\function{repr()}. Many values, such as numbers or structures like
-lists and dictionaries, have the same representation using either
-function. Strings and floating point numbers, in particular, have two
-distinct representations.
-
-Some examples:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> s = 'Hello, world.'
->>> str(s)
-'Hello, world.'
->>> repr(s)
-"'Hello, world.'"
->>> str(0.1)
-'0.1'
->>> repr(0.1)
-'0.10000000000000001'
->>> x = 10 * 3.25
->>> y = 200 * 200
->>> s = 'The value of x is ' + repr(x) + ', and y is ' + repr(y) + '...'
->>> print s
-The value of x is 32.5, and y is 40000...
->>> # The repr() of a string adds string quotes and backslashes:
-... hello = 'hello, world\n'
->>> hellos = repr(hello)
->>> print hellos
-'hello, world\n'
->>> # The argument to repr() may be any Python object:
-... repr((x, y, ('spam', 'eggs')))
-"(32.5, 40000, ('spam', 'eggs'))"
->>> # reverse quotes are convenient in interactive sessions:
-... `x, y, ('spam', 'eggs')`
-"(32.5, 40000, ('spam', 'eggs'))"
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Here are two ways to write a table of squares and cubes:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> for x in range(1, 11):
-... print repr(x).rjust(2), repr(x*x).rjust(3),
-... # Note trailing comma on previous line
-... print repr(x*x*x).rjust(4)
-...
- 1 1 1
- 2 4 8
- 3 9 27
- 4 16 64
- 5 25 125
- 6 36 216
- 7 49 343
- 8 64 512
- 9 81 729
-10 100 1000
-
->>> for x in range(1,11):
-... print '%2d %3d %4d' % (x, x*x, x*x*x)
-...
- 1 1 1
- 2 4 8
- 3 9 27
- 4 16 64
- 5 25 125
- 6 36 216
- 7 49 343
- 8 64 512
- 9 81 729
-10 100 1000
-\end{verbatim}
-
-(Note that in the first example, one space between each column was
-added by the way \keyword{print} works: it always adds spaces between
-its arguments.)
-
-This example demonstrates the \method{rjust()} method of string objects,
-which right-justifies a string in a field of a given width by padding
-it with spaces on the left. There are similar methods
-\method{ljust()} and \method{center()}. These
-methods do not write anything, they just return a new string. If
-the input string is too long, they don't truncate it, but return it
-unchanged; this will mess up your column lay-out but that's usually
-better than the alternative, which would be lying about a value. (If
-you really want truncation you can always add a slice operation, as in
-\samp{x.ljust(n)[:n]}.)
-
-There is another method, \method{zfill()}, which pads a
-numeric string on the left with zeros. It understands about plus and
-minus signs:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> '12'.zfill(5)
-'00012'
->>> '-3.14'.zfill(7)
-'-003.14'
->>> '3.14159265359'.zfill(5)
-'3.14159265359'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Using the \code{\%} operator looks like this:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import math
->>> print 'The value of PI is approximately %5.3f.' % math.pi
-The value of PI is approximately 3.142.
-\end{verbatim}
-
-If there is more than one format in the string, you need to pass a
-tuple as right operand, as in this example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> table = {'Sjoerd': 4127, 'Jack': 4098, 'Dcab': 7678}
->>> for name, phone in table.items():
-... print '%-10s ==> %10d' % (name, phone)
-...
-Jack ==> 4098
-Dcab ==> 7678
-Sjoerd ==> 4127
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Most formats work exactly as in C and require that you pass the proper
-type; however, if you don't you get an exception, not a core dump.
-The \code{\%s} format is more relaxed: if the corresponding argument is
-not a string object, it is converted to string using the
-\function{str()} built-in function. Using \code{*} to pass the width
-or precision in as a separate (integer) argument is supported. The
-C formats \code{\%n} and \code{\%p} are not supported.
-
-If you have a really long format string that you don't want to split
-up, it would be nice if you could reference the variables to be
-formatted by name instead of by position. This can be done by using
-form \code{\%(name)format}, as shown here:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> table = {'Sjoerd': 4127, 'Jack': 4098, 'Dcab': 8637678}
->>> print 'Jack: %(Jack)d; Sjoerd: %(Sjoerd)d; Dcab: %(Dcab)d' % table
-Jack: 4098; Sjoerd: 4127; Dcab: 8637678
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This is particularly useful in combination with the new built-in
-\function{vars()} function, which returns a dictionary containing all
-local variables.
-
-\section{Reading and Writing Files \label{files}}
-
-% Opening files
-\function{open()}\bifuncindex{open} returns a file
-object\obindex{file}, and is most commonly used with two arguments:
-\samp{open(\var{filename}, \var{mode})}.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> f=open('/tmp/workfile', 'w')
->>> print f
-<open file '/tmp/workfile', mode 'w' at 80a0960>
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The first argument is a string containing the filename. The second
-argument is another string containing a few characters describing the
-way in which the file will be used. \var{mode} can be \code{'r'} when
-the file will only be read, \code{'w'} for only writing (an existing
-file with the same name will be erased), and \code{'a'} opens the file
-for appending; any data written to the file is automatically added to
-the end. \code{'r+'} opens the file for both reading and writing.
-The \var{mode} argument is optional; \code{'r'} will be assumed if
-it's omitted.
-
-On Windows and the Macintosh, \code{'b'} appended to the
-mode opens the file in binary mode, so there are also modes like
-\code{'rb'}, \code{'wb'}, and \code{'r+b'}. Windows makes a
-distinction between text and binary files; the end-of-line characters
-in text files are automatically altered slightly when data is read or
-written. This behind-the-scenes modification to file data is fine for
-\ASCII{} text files, but it'll corrupt binary data like that in \file{JPEG} or
-\file{EXE} files. Be very careful to use binary mode when reading and
-writing such files.
-
-\subsection{Methods of File Objects \label{fileMethods}}
-
-The rest of the examples in this section will assume that a file
-object called \code{f} has already been created.
-
-To read a file's contents, call \code{f.read(\var{size})}, which reads
-some quantity of data and returns it as a string. \var{size} is an
-optional numeric argument. When \var{size} is omitted or negative,
-the entire contents of the file will be read and returned; it's your
-problem if the file is twice as large as your machine's memory.
-Otherwise, at most \var{size} bytes are read and returned. If the end
-of the file has been reached, \code{f.read()} will return an empty
-string (\code {""}).
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> f.read()
-'This is the entire file.\n'
->>> f.read()
-''
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\code{f.readline()} reads a single line from the file; a newline
-character (\code{\e n}) is left at the end of the string, and is only
-omitted on the last line of the file if the file doesn't end in a
-newline. This makes the return value unambiguous; if
-\code{f.readline()} returns an empty string, the end of the file has
-been reached, while a blank line is represented by \code{'\e n'}, a
-string containing only a single newline.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> f.readline()
-'This is the first line of the file.\n'
->>> f.readline()
-'Second line of the file\n'
->>> f.readline()
-''
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\code{f.readlines()} returns a list containing all the lines of data
-in the file. If given an optional parameter \var{sizehint}, it reads
-that many bytes from the file and enough more to complete a line, and
-returns the lines from that. This is often used to allow efficient
-reading of a large file by lines, but without having to load the
-entire file in memory. Only complete lines will be returned.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> f.readlines()
-['This is the first line of the file.\n', 'Second line of the file\n']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-An alternate approach to reading lines is to loop over the file object.
-This is memory efficient, fast, and leads to simpler code:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> for line in f:
- print line,
-
-This is the first line of the file.
-Second line of the file
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The alternative approach is simpler but does not provide as fine-grained
-control. Since the two approaches manage line buffering differently,
-they should not be mixed.
-
-\code{f.write(\var{string})} writes the contents of \var{string} to
-the file, returning \code{None}.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> f.write('This is a test\n')
-\end{verbatim}
-
-To write something other than a string, it needs to be converted to a
-string first:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> value = ('the answer', 42)
->>> s = str(value)
->>> f.write(s)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\code{f.tell()} returns an integer giving the file object's current
-position in the file, measured in bytes from the beginning of the
-file. To change the file object's position, use
-\samp{f.seek(\var{offset}, \var{from_what})}. The position is
-computed from adding \var{offset} to a reference point; the reference
-point is selected by the \var{from_what} argument. A
-\var{from_what} value of 0 measures from the beginning of the file, 1
-uses the current file position, and 2 uses the end of the file as the
-reference point. \var{from_what} can be omitted and defaults to 0,
-using the beginning of the file as the reference point.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> f = open('/tmp/workfile', 'r+')
->>> f.write('0123456789abcdef')
->>> f.seek(5) # Go to the 6th byte in the file
->>> f.read(1)
-'5'
->>> f.seek(-3, 2) # Go to the 3rd byte before the end
->>> f.read(1)
-'d'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-When you're done with a file, call \code{f.close()} to close it and
-free up any system resources taken up by the open file. After calling
-\code{f.close()}, attempts to use the file object will automatically fail.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> f.close()
->>> f.read()
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-ValueError: I/O operation on closed file
-\end{verbatim}
-
-File objects have some additional methods, such as
-\method{isatty()} and \method{truncate()} which are less frequently
-used; consult the Library Reference for a complete guide to file
-objects.
-
-\subsection{The \module{pickle} Module \label{pickle}}
-\refstmodindex{pickle}
-
-Strings can easily be written to and read from a file. Numbers take a
-bit more effort, since the \method{read()} method only returns
-strings, which will have to be passed to a function like
-\function{int()}, which takes a string like \code{'123'} and
-returns its numeric value 123. However, when you want to save more
-complex data types like lists, dictionaries, or class instances,
-things get a lot more complicated.
-
-Rather than have users be constantly writing and debugging code to
-save complicated data types, Python provides a standard module called
-\ulink{\module{pickle}}{../lib/module-pickle.html}. This is an
-amazing module that can take almost
-any Python object (even some forms of Python code!), and convert it to
-a string representation; this process is called \dfn{pickling}.
-Reconstructing the object from the string representation is called
-\dfn{unpickling}. Between pickling and unpickling, the string
-representing the object may have been stored in a file or data, or
-sent over a network connection to some distant machine.
-
-If you have an object \code{x}, and a file object \code{f} that's been
-opened for writing, the simplest way to pickle the object takes only
-one line of code:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-pickle.dump(x, f)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-To unpickle the object again, if \code{f} is a file object which has
-been opened for reading:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-x = pickle.load(f)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-(There are other variants of this, used when pickling many objects or
-when you don't want to write the pickled data to a file; consult the
-complete documentation for
-\ulink{\module{pickle}}{../lib/module-pickle.html} in the
-\citetitle[../lib/]{Python Library Reference}.)
-
-\ulink{\module{pickle}}{../lib/module-pickle.html} is the standard way
-to make Python objects which can be stored and reused by other
-programs or by a future invocation of the same program; the technical
-term for this is a \dfn{persistent} object. Because
-\ulink{\module{pickle}}{../lib/module-pickle.html} is so widely used,
-many authors who write Python extensions take care to ensure that new
-data types such as matrices can be properly pickled and unpickled.
-
-
-
-\chapter{Errors and Exceptions \label{errors}}
-
-Until now error messages haven't been more than mentioned, but if you
-have tried out the examples you have probably seen some. There are
-(at least) two distinguishable kinds of errors:
-\emph{syntax errors} and \emph{exceptions}.
-
-\section{Syntax Errors \label{syntaxErrors}}
-
-Syntax errors, also known as parsing errors, are perhaps the most common
-kind of complaint you get while you are still learning Python:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> while True print 'Hello world'
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
- while True print 'Hello world'
- ^
-SyntaxError: invalid syntax
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The parser repeats the offending line and displays a little `arrow'
-pointing at the earliest point in the line where the error was
-detected. The error is caused by (or at least detected at) the token
-\emph{preceding} the arrow: in the example, the error is detected at
-the keyword \keyword{print}, since a colon (\character{:}) is missing
-before it. File name and line number are printed so you know where to
-look in case the input came from a script.
-
-\section{Exceptions \label{exceptions}}
-
-Even if a statement or expression is syntactically correct, it may
-cause an error when an attempt is made to execute it.
-Errors detected during execution are called \emph{exceptions} and are
-not unconditionally fatal: you will soon learn how to handle them in
-Python programs. Most exceptions are not handled by programs,
-however, and result in error messages as shown here:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 10 * (1/0)
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero
->>> 4 + spam*3
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-NameError: name 'spam' is not defined
->>> '2' + 2
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'int' objects
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The last line of the error message indicates what happened.
-Exceptions come in different types, and the type is printed as part of
-the message: the types in the example are
-\exception{ZeroDivisionError}, \exception{NameError} and
-\exception{TypeError}.
-The string printed as the exception type is the name of the built-in
-exception that occurred. This is true for all built-in
-exceptions, but need not be true for user-defined exceptions (although
-it is a useful convention).
-Standard exception names are built-in identifiers (not reserved
-keywords).
-
-The rest of the line provides detail based on the type of exception
-and what caused it.
-
-The preceding part of the error message shows the context where the
-exception happened, in the form of a stack traceback.
-In general it contains a stack traceback listing source lines; however,
-it will not display lines read from standard input.
-
-The \citetitle[../lib/module-exceptions.html]{Python Library
-Reference} lists the built-in exceptions and their meanings.
-
-
-\section{Handling Exceptions \label{handling}}
-
-It is possible to write programs that handle selected exceptions.
-Look at the following example, which asks the user for input until a
-valid integer has been entered, but allows the user to interrupt the
-program (using \kbd{Control-C} or whatever the operating system
-supports); note that a user-generated interruption is signalled by
-raising the \exception{KeyboardInterrupt} exception.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> while True:
-... try:
-... x = int(raw_input("Please enter a number: "))
-... break
-... except ValueError:
-... print "Oops! That was no valid number. Try again..."
-...
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \keyword{try} statement works as follows.
-
-\begin{itemize}
-\item
-First, the \emph{try clause} (the statement(s) between the
-\keyword{try} and \keyword{except} keywords) is executed.
-
-\item
-If no exception occurs, the \emph{except\ clause} is skipped and
-execution of the \keyword{try} statement is finished.
-
-\item
-If an exception occurs during execution of the try clause, the rest of
-the clause is skipped. Then if its type matches the exception named
-after the \keyword{except} keyword, the except clause is executed, and
-then execution continues after the \keyword{try} statement.
-
-\item
-If an exception occurs which does not match the exception named in the
-except clause, it is passed on to outer \keyword{try} statements; if
-no handler is found, it is an \emph{unhandled exception} and execution
-stops with a message as shown above.
-
-\end{itemize}
-
-A \keyword{try} statement may have more than one except clause, to
-specify handlers for different exceptions. At most one handler will
-be executed. Handlers only handle exceptions that occur in the
-corresponding try clause, not in other handlers of the same
-\keyword{try} statement. An except clause may name multiple exceptions
-as a parenthesized tuple, for example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-... except (RuntimeError, TypeError, NameError):
-... pass
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The last except clause may omit the exception name(s), to serve as a
-wildcard. Use this with extreme caution, since it is easy to mask a
-real programming error in this way! It can also be used to print an
-error message and then re-raise the exception (allowing a caller to
-handle the exception as well):
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-import sys
-
-try:
- f = open('myfile.txt')
- s = f.readline()
- i = int(s.strip())
-except IOError, (errno, strerror):
- print "I/O error(%s): %s" % (errno, strerror)
-except ValueError:
- print "Could not convert data to an integer."
-except:
- print "Unexpected error:", sys.exc_info()[0]
- raise
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \keyword{try} \ldots\ \keyword{except} statement has an optional
-\emph{else clause}, which, when present, must follow all except
-clauses. It is useful for code that must be executed if the try
-clause does not raise an exception. For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-for arg in sys.argv[1:]:
- try:
- f = open(arg, 'r')
- except IOError:
- print 'cannot open', arg
- else:
- print arg, 'has', len(f.readlines()), 'lines'
- f.close()
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The use of the \keyword{else} clause is better than adding additional
-code to the \keyword{try} clause because it avoids accidentally
-catching an exception that wasn't raised by the code being protected
-by the \keyword{try} \ldots\ \keyword{except} statement.
-
-
-When an exception occurs, it may have an associated value, also known as
-the exception's \emph{argument}.
-The presence and type of the argument depend on the exception type.
-
-The except clause may specify a variable after the exception name (or tuple).
-The variable is bound to an exception instance with the arguments stored
-in \code{instance.args}. For convenience, the exception instance
-defines \method{__getitem__} and \method{__str__} so the arguments can
-be accessed or printed directly without having to reference \code{.args}.
-
-But use of \code{.args} is discouraged. Instead, the preferred use is to pass
-a single argument to an exception (which can be a tuple if multiple arguments
-are needed) and have it bound to the \code{message} attribute. One may also
-instantiate an exception first before raising it and add any attributes to it
-as desired.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> try:
-... raise Exception('spam', 'eggs')
-... except Exception, inst:
-... print type(inst) # the exception instance
-... print inst.args # arguments stored in .args
-... print inst # __str__ allows args to printed directly
-... x, y = inst # __getitem__ allows args to be unpacked directly
-... print 'x =', x
-... print 'y =', y
-...
-<type 'exceptions.Exception'>
-('spam', 'eggs')
-('spam', 'eggs')
-x = spam
-y = eggs
-\end{verbatim}
-
-If an exception has an argument, it is printed as the last part
-(`detail') of the message for unhandled exceptions.
-
-Exception handlers don't just handle exceptions if they occur
-immediately in the try clause, but also if they occur inside functions
-that are called (even indirectly) in the try clause.
-For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def this_fails():
-... x = 1/0
-...
->>> try:
-... this_fails()
-... except ZeroDivisionError, detail:
-... print 'Handling run-time error:', detail
-...
-Handling run-time error: integer division or modulo by zero
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Raising Exceptions \label{raising}}
-
-The \keyword{raise} statement allows the programmer to force a
-specified exception to occur.
-For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> raise NameError, 'HiThere'
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-NameError: HiThere
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The first argument to \keyword{raise} names the exception to be
-raised. The optional second argument specifies the exception's
-argument. Alternatively, the above could be written as
-\code{raise NameError('HiThere')}. Either form works fine, but there
-seems to be a growing stylistic preference for the latter.
-
-If you need to determine whether an exception was raised but don't
-intend to handle it, a simpler form of the \keyword{raise} statement
-allows you to re-raise the exception:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> try:
-... raise NameError, 'HiThere'
-... except NameError:
-... print 'An exception flew by!'
-... raise
-...
-An exception flew by!
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 2, in ?
-NameError: HiThere
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{User-defined Exceptions \label{userExceptions}}
-
-Programs may name their own exceptions by creating a new exception
-class. Exceptions should typically be derived from the
-\exception{Exception} class, either directly or indirectly. For
-example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> class MyError(Exception):
-... def __init__(self, value):
-... self.value = value
-... def __str__(self):
-... return repr(self.value)
-...
->>> try:
-... raise MyError(2*2)
-... except MyError, e:
-... print 'My exception occurred, value:', e.value
-...
-My exception occurred, value: 4
->>> raise MyError, 'oops!'
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
-__main__.MyError: 'oops!'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-In this example, the default \method{__init__} of \class{Exception}
-has been overridden. The new behavior simply creates the \var{value}
-attribute. This replaces the default behavior of creating the
-\var{args} attribute.
-
-Exception classes can be defined which do anything any other class can
-do, but are usually kept simple, often only offering a number of
-attributes that allow information about the error to be extracted by
-handlers for the exception. When creating a module that can raise
-several distinct errors, a common practice is to create a base class
-for exceptions defined by that module, and subclass that to create
-specific exception classes for different error conditions:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-class Error(Exception):
- """Base class for exceptions in this module."""
- pass
-
-class InputError(Error):
- """Exception raised for errors in the input.
-
- Attributes:
- expression -- input expression in which the error occurred
- message -- explanation of the error
- """
-
- def __init__(self, expression, message):
- self.expression = expression
- self.message = message
-
-class TransitionError(Error):
- """Raised when an operation attempts a state transition that's not
- allowed.
-
- Attributes:
- previous -- state at beginning of transition
- next -- attempted new state
- message -- explanation of why the specific transition is not allowed
- """
-
- def __init__(self, previous, next, message):
- self.previous = previous
- self.next = next
- self.message = message
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Most exceptions are defined with names that end in ``Error,'' similar
-to the naming of the standard exceptions.
-
-Many standard modules define their own exceptions to report errors
-that may occur in functions they define. More information on classes
-is presented in chapter \ref{classes}, ``Classes.''
-
-
-\section{Defining Clean-up Actions \label{cleanup}}
-
-The \keyword{try} statement has another optional clause which is
-intended to define clean-up actions that must be executed under all
-circumstances. For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> try:
-... raise KeyboardInterrupt
-... finally:
-... print 'Goodbye, world!'
-...
-Goodbye, world!
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 2, in ?
-KeyboardInterrupt
-\end{verbatim}
-
-A \emph{finally clause} is always executed before leaving the
-\keyword{try} statement, whether an exception has occurred or not.
-When an exception has occurred in the \keyword{try} clause and has not
-been handled by an \keyword{except} clause (or it has occurred in a
-\keyword{except} or \keyword{else} clause), it is re-raised after the
-\keyword{finally} clause has been executed. The \keyword{finally} clause
-is also executed ``on the way out'' when any other clause of the
-\keyword{try} statement is left via a \keyword{break}, \keyword{continue}
-or \keyword{return} statement. A more complicated example (having
-\keyword{except} and \keyword{finally} clauses in the same \keyword{try}
-statement works as of Python 2.5):
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> def divide(x, y):
-... try:
-... result = x / y
-... except ZeroDivisionError:
-... print "division by zero!"
-... else:
-... print "result is", result
-... finally:
-... print "executing finally clause"
-...
->>> divide(2, 1)
-result is 2
-executing finally clause
->>> divide(2, 0)
-division by zero!
-executing finally clause
->>> divide("2", "1")
-executing finally clause
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
- File "<stdin>", line 3, in divide
-TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for /: 'str' and 'str'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-As you can see, the \keyword{finally} clause is executed in any
-event. The \exception{TypeError} raised by dividing two strings
-is not handled by the \keyword{except} clause and therefore
-re-raised after the \keyword{finally} clauses has been executed.
-
-In real world applications, the \keyword{finally} clause is useful
-for releasing external resources (such as files or network connections),
-regardless of whether the use of the resource was successful.
-
-
-\section{Predefined Clean-up Actions \label{cleanup-with}}
-
-Some objects define standard clean-up actions to be undertaken when
-the object is no longer needed, regardless of whether or not the
-operation using the object succeeded or failed.
-Look at the following example, which tries to open a file and print
-its contents to the screen.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-for line in open("myfile.txt"):
- print line
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The problem with this code is that it leaves the file open for an
-indeterminate amount of time after the code has finished executing.
-This is not an issue in simple scripts, but can be a problem for
-larger applications. The \keyword{with} statement allows
-objects like files to be used in a way that ensures they are
-always cleaned up promptly and correctly.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-with open("myfile.txt") as f:
- for line in f:
- print line
-\end{verbatim}
-
-After the statement is executed, the file \var{f} is always closed,
-even if a problem was encountered while processing the lines. Other
-objects which provide predefined clean-up actions will indicate
-this in their documentation.
-
-
-\chapter{Classes \label{classes}}
-
-Python's class mechanism adds classes to the language with a minimum
-of new syntax and semantics. It is a mixture of the class mechanisms
-found in \Cpp{} and Modula-3. As is true for modules, classes in Python
-do not put an absolute barrier between definition and user, but rather
-rely on the politeness of the user not to ``break into the
-definition.'' The most important features of classes are retained
-with full power, however: the class inheritance mechanism allows
-multiple base classes, a derived class can override any methods of its
-base class or classes, and a method can call the method of a base class with the
-same name. Objects can contain an arbitrary amount of private data.
-
-In \Cpp{} terminology, all class members (including the data members) are
-\emph{public}, and all member functions are \emph{virtual}. There are
-no special constructors or destructors. As in Modula-3, there are no
-shorthands for referencing the object's members from its methods: the
-method function is declared with an explicit first argument
-representing the object, which is provided implicitly by the call. As
-in Smalltalk, classes themselves are objects, albeit in the wider
-sense of the word: in Python, all data types are objects. This
-provides semantics for importing and renaming. Unlike
-\Cpp{} and Modula-3, built-in types can be used as base classes for
-extension by the user. Also, like in \Cpp{} but unlike in Modula-3, most
-built-in operators with special syntax (arithmetic operators,
-subscripting etc.) can be redefined for class instances.
-
-\section{A Word About Terminology \label{terminology}}
-
-Lacking universally accepted terminology to talk about classes, I will
-make occasional use of Smalltalk and \Cpp{} terms. (I would use Modula-3
-terms, since its object-oriented semantics are closer to those of
-Python than \Cpp, but I expect that few readers have heard of it.)
-
-Objects have individuality, and multiple names (in multiple scopes)
-can be bound to the same object. This is known as aliasing in other
-languages. This is usually not appreciated on a first glance at
-Python, and can be safely ignored when dealing with immutable basic
-types (numbers, strings, tuples). However, aliasing has an
-(intended!) effect on the semantics of Python code involving mutable
-objects such as lists, dictionaries, and most types representing
-entities outside the program (files, windows, etc.). This is usually
-used to the benefit of the program, since aliases behave like pointers
-in some respects. For example, passing an object is cheap since only
-a pointer is passed by the implementation; and if a function modifies
-an object passed as an argument, the caller will see the change --- this
-eliminates the need for two different argument passing mechanisms as in
-Pascal.
-
-
-\section{Python Scopes and Name Spaces \label{scopes}}
-
-Before introducing classes, I first have to tell you something about
-Python's scope rules. Class definitions play some neat tricks with
-namespaces, and you need to know how scopes and namespaces work to
-fully understand what's going on. Incidentally, knowledge about this
-subject is useful for any advanced Python programmer.
-
-Let's begin with some definitions.
-
-A \emph{namespace} is a mapping from names to objects. Most
-namespaces are currently implemented as Python dictionaries, but
-that's normally not noticeable in any way (except for performance),
-and it may change in the future. Examples of namespaces are: the set
-of built-in names (functions such as \function{abs()}, and built-in
-exception names); the global names in a module; and the local names in
-a function invocation. In a sense the set of attributes of an object
-also form a namespace. The important thing to know about namespaces
-is that there is absolutely no relation between names in different
-namespaces; for instance, two different modules may both define a
-function ``maximize'' without confusion --- users of the modules must
-prefix it with the module name.
-
-By the way, I use the word \emph{attribute} for any name following a
-dot --- for example, in the expression \code{z.real}, \code{real} is
-an attribute of the object \code{z}. Strictly speaking, references to
-names in modules are attribute references: in the expression
-\code{modname.funcname}, \code{modname} is a module object and
-\code{funcname} is an attribute of it. In this case there happens to
-be a straightforward mapping between the module's attributes and the
-global names defined in the module: they share the same namespace!
-\footnote{
- Except for one thing. Module objects have a secret read-only
- attribute called \member{__dict__} which returns the dictionary
- used to implement the module's namespace; the name
- \member{__dict__} is an attribute but not a global name.
- Obviously, using this violates the abstraction of namespace
- implementation, and should be restricted to things like
- post-mortem debuggers.
-}
-
-Attributes may be read-only or writable. In the latter case,
-assignment to attributes is possible. Module attributes are writable:
-you can write \samp{modname.the_answer = 42}. Writable attributes may
-also be deleted with the \keyword{del} statement. For example,
-\samp{del modname.the_answer} will remove the attribute
-\member{the_answer} from the object named by \code{modname}.
-
-Name spaces are created at different moments and have different
-lifetimes. The namespace containing the built-in names is created
-when the Python interpreter starts up, and is never deleted. The
-global namespace for a module is created when the module definition
-is read in; normally, module namespaces also last until the
-interpreter quits. The statements executed by the top-level
-invocation of the interpreter, either read from a script file or
-interactively, are considered part of a module called
-\module{__main__}, so they have their own global namespace. (The
-built-in names actually also live in a module; this is called
-\module{__builtin__}.)
-
-The local namespace for a function is created when the function is
-called, and deleted when the function returns or raises an exception
-that is not handled within the function. (Actually, forgetting would
-be a better way to describe what actually happens.) Of course,
-recursive invocations each have their own local namespace.
-
-A \emph{scope} is a textual region of a Python program where a
-namespace is directly accessible. ``Directly accessible'' here means
-that an unqualified reference to a name attempts to find the name in
-the namespace.
-
-Although scopes are determined statically, they are used dynamically.
-At any time during execution, there are at least three nested scopes whose
-namespaces are directly accessible: the innermost scope, which is searched
-first, contains the local names; the namespaces of any enclosing
-functions, which are searched starting with the nearest enclosing scope;
-the middle scope, searched next, contains the current module's global names;
-and the outermost scope (searched last) is the namespace containing built-in
-names.
-
-If a name is declared global, then all references and assignments go
-directly to the middle scope containing the module's global names.
-Otherwise, all variables found outside of the innermost scope are read-only
-(an attempt to write to such a variable will simply create a \emph{new}
-local variable in the innermost scope, leaving the identically named
-outer variable unchanged).
-
-Usually, the local scope references the local names of the (textually)
-current function. Outside functions, the local scope references
-the same namespace as the global scope: the module's namespace.
-Class definitions place yet another namespace in the local scope.
-
-It is important to realize that scopes are determined textually: the
-global scope of a function defined in a module is that module's
-namespace, no matter from where or by what alias the function is
-called. On the other hand, the actual search for names is done
-dynamically, at run time --- however, the language definition is
-evolving towards static name resolution, at ``compile'' time, so don't
-rely on dynamic name resolution! (In fact, local variables are
-already determined statically.)
-
-A special quirk of Python is that assignments always go into the
-innermost scope. Assignments do not copy data --- they just
-bind names to objects. The same is true for deletions: the statement
-\samp{del x} removes the binding of \code{x} from the namespace
-referenced by the local scope. In fact, all operations that introduce
-new names use the local scope: in particular, import statements and
-function definitions bind the module or function name in the local
-scope. (The \keyword{global} statement can be used to indicate that
-particular variables live in the global scope.)
-
-
-\section{A First Look at Classes \label{firstClasses}}
-
-Classes introduce a little bit of new syntax, three new object types,
-and some new semantics.
-
-
-\subsection{Class Definition Syntax \label{classDefinition}}
-
-The simplest form of class definition looks like this:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-class ClassName:
- <statement-1>
- .
- .
- .
- <statement-N>
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Class definitions, like function definitions
-(\keyword{def} statements) must be executed before they have any
-effect. (You could conceivably place a class definition in a branch
-of an \keyword{if} statement, or inside a function.)
-
-In practice, the statements inside a class definition will usually be
-function definitions, but other statements are allowed, and sometimes
-useful --- we'll come back to this later. The function definitions
-inside a class normally have a peculiar form of argument list,
-dictated by the calling conventions for methods --- again, this is
-explained later.
-
-When a class definition is entered, a new namespace is created, and
-used as the local scope --- thus, all assignments to local variables
-go into this new namespace. In particular, function definitions bind
-the name of the new function here.
-
-When a class definition is left normally (via the end), a \emph{class
-object} is created. This is basically a wrapper around the contents
-of the namespace created by the class definition; we'll learn more
-about class objects in the next section. The original local scope
-(the one in effect just before the class definition was entered) is
-reinstated, and the class object is bound here to the class name given
-in the class definition header (\class{ClassName} in the example).
-
-
-\subsection{Class Objects \label{classObjects}}
-
-Class objects support two kinds of operations: attribute references
-and instantiation.
-
-\emph{Attribute references} use the standard syntax used for all
-attribute references in Python: \code{obj.name}. Valid attribute
-names are all the names that were in the class's namespace when the
-class object was created. So, if the class definition looked like
-this:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-class MyClass:
- "A simple example class"
- i = 12345
- def f(self):
- return 'hello world'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-then \code{MyClass.i} and \code{MyClass.f} are valid attribute
-references, returning an integer and a function object, respectively.
-Class attributes can also be assigned to, so you can change the value
-of \code{MyClass.i} by assignment. \member{__doc__} is also a valid
-attribute, returning the docstring belonging to the class: \code{"A
-simple example class"}.
-
-Class \emph{instantiation} uses function notation. Just pretend that
-the class object is a parameterless function that returns a new
-instance of the class. For example (assuming the above class):
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-x = MyClass()
-\end{verbatim}
-
-creates a new \emph{instance} of the class and assigns this object to
-the local variable \code{x}.
-
-The instantiation operation (``calling'' a class object) creates an
-empty object. Many classes like to create objects with instances
-customized to a specific initial state.
-Therefore a class may define a special method named
-\method{__init__()}, like this:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- def __init__(self):
- self.data = []
-\end{verbatim}
-
-When a class defines an \method{__init__()} method, class
-instantiation automatically invokes \method{__init__()} for the
-newly-created class instance. So in this example, a new, initialized
-instance can be obtained by:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-x = MyClass()
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Of course, the \method{__init__()} method may have arguments for
-greater flexibility. In that case, arguments given to the class
-instantiation operator are passed on to \method{__init__()}. For
-example,
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> class Complex:
-... def __init__(self, realpart, imagpart):
-... self.r = realpart
-... self.i = imagpart
-...
->>> x = Complex(3.0, -4.5)
->>> x.r, x.i
-(3.0, -4.5)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\subsection{Instance Objects \label{instanceObjects}}
-
-Now what can we do with instance objects? The only operations
-understood by instance objects are attribute references. There are
-two kinds of valid attribute names, data attributes and methods.
-
-\emph{data attributes} correspond to
-``instance variables'' in Smalltalk, and to ``data members'' in
-\Cpp. Data attributes need not be declared; like local variables,
-they spring into existence when they are first assigned to. For
-example, if \code{x} is the instance of \class{MyClass} created above,
-the following piece of code will print the value \code{16}, without
-leaving a trace:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-x.counter = 1
-while x.counter < 10:
- x.counter = x.counter * 2
-print x.counter
-del x.counter
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The other kind of instance attribute reference is a \emph{method}.
-A method is a function that ``belongs to'' an
-object. (In Python, the term method is not unique to class instances:
-other object types can have methods as well. For example, list objects have
-methods called append, insert, remove, sort, and so on. However,
-in the following discussion, we'll use the term method exclusively to mean
-methods of class instance objects, unless explicitly stated otherwise.)
-
-Valid method names of an instance object depend on its class. By
-definition, all attributes of a class that are function
-objects define corresponding methods of its instances. So in our
-example, \code{x.f} is a valid method reference, since
-\code{MyClass.f} is a function, but \code{x.i} is not, since
-\code{MyClass.i} is not. But \code{x.f} is not the same thing as
-\code{MyClass.f} --- it is a \obindex{method}\emph{method object}, not
-a function object.
-
-
-\subsection{Method Objects \label{methodObjects}}
-
-Usually, a method is called right after it is bound:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-x.f()
-\end{verbatim}
-
-In the \class{MyClass} example, this will return the string \code{'hello world'}.
-However, it is not necessary to call a method right away:
-\code{x.f} is a method object, and can be stored away and called at a
-later time. For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-xf = x.f
-while True:
- print xf()
-\end{verbatim}
-
-will continue to print \samp{hello world} until the end of time.
-
-What exactly happens when a method is called? You may have noticed
-that \code{x.f()} was called without an argument above, even though
-the function definition for \method{f} specified an argument. What
-happened to the argument? Surely Python raises an exception when a
-function that requires an argument is called without any --- even if
-the argument isn't actually used...
-
-Actually, you may have guessed the answer: the special thing about
-methods is that the object is passed as the first argument of the
-function. In our example, the call \code{x.f()} is exactly equivalent
-to \code{MyClass.f(x)}. In general, calling a method with a list of
-\var{n} arguments is equivalent to calling the corresponding function
-with an argument list that is created by inserting the method's object
-before the first argument.
-
-If you still don't understand how methods work, a look at the
-implementation can perhaps clarify matters. When an instance
-attribute is referenced that isn't a data attribute, its class is
-searched. If the name denotes a valid class attribute that is a
-function object, a method object is created by packing (pointers to)
-the instance object and the function object just found together in an
-abstract object: this is the method object. When the method object is
-called with an argument list, it is unpacked again, a new argument
-list is constructed from the instance object and the original argument
-list, and the function object is called with this new argument list.
-
-
-\section{Random Remarks \label{remarks}}
-
-% [These should perhaps be placed more carefully...]
-
-
-Data attributes override method attributes with the same name; to
-avoid accidental name conflicts, which may cause hard-to-find bugs in
-large programs, it is wise to use some kind of convention that
-minimizes the chance of conflicts. Possible conventions include
-capitalizing method names, prefixing data attribute names with a small
-unique string (perhaps just an underscore), or using verbs for methods
-and nouns for data attributes.
-
-
-Data attributes may be referenced by methods as well as by ordinary
-users (``clients'') of an object. In other words, classes are not
-usable to implement pure abstract data types. In fact, nothing in
-Python makes it possible to enforce data hiding --- it is all based
-upon convention. (On the other hand, the Python implementation,
-written in C, can completely hide implementation details and control
-access to an object if necessary; this can be used by extensions to
-Python written in C.)
-
-
-Clients should use data attributes with care --- clients may mess up
-invariants maintained by the methods by stamping on their data
-attributes. Note that clients may add data attributes of their own to
-an instance object without affecting the validity of the methods, as
-long as name conflicts are avoided --- again, a naming convention can
-save a lot of headaches here.
-
-
-There is no shorthand for referencing data attributes (or other
-methods!) from within methods. I find that this actually increases
-the readability of methods: there is no chance of confusing local
-variables and instance variables when glancing through a method.
-
-
-Often, the first argument of a method is called
-\code{self}. This is nothing more than a convention: the name
-\code{self} has absolutely no special meaning to Python. (Note,
-however, that by not following the convention your code may be less
-readable to other Python programmers, and it is also conceivable that
-a \emph{class browser} program might be written that relies upon such a
-convention.)
-
-
-Any function object that is a class attribute defines a method for
-instances of that class. It is not necessary that the function
-definition is textually enclosed in the class definition: assigning a
-function object to a local variable in the class is also ok. For
-example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-# Function defined outside the class
-def f1(self, x, y):
- return min(x, x+y)
-
-class C:
- f = f1
- def g(self):
- return 'hello world'
- h = g
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Now \code{f}, \code{g} and \code{h} are all attributes of class
-\class{C} that refer to function objects, and consequently they are all
-methods of instances of \class{C} --- \code{h} being exactly equivalent
-to \code{g}. Note that this practice usually only serves to confuse
-the reader of a program.
-
-
-Methods may call other methods by using method attributes of the
-\code{self} argument:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-class Bag:
- def __init__(self):
- self.data = []
- def add(self, x):
- self.data.append(x)
- def addtwice(self, x):
- self.add(x)
- self.add(x)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Methods may reference global names in the same way as ordinary
-functions. The global scope associated with a method is the module
-containing the class definition. (The class itself is never used as a
-global scope!) While one rarely encounters a good reason for using
-global data in a method, there are many legitimate uses of the global
-scope: for one thing, functions and modules imported into the global
-scope can be used by methods, as well as functions and classes defined
-in it. Usually, the class containing the method is itself defined in
-this global scope, and in the next section we'll find some good
-reasons why a method would want to reference its own class!
-
-
-\section{Inheritance \label{inheritance}}
-
-Of course, a language feature would not be worthy of the name ``class''
-without supporting inheritance. The syntax for a derived class
-definition looks like this:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-class DerivedClassName(BaseClassName):
- <statement-1>
- .
- .
- .
- <statement-N>
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The name \class{BaseClassName} must be defined in a scope containing
-the derived class definition. In place of a base class name, other
-arbitrary expressions are also allowed. This can be useful, for
-example, when the base class is defined in another module:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-class DerivedClassName(modname.BaseClassName):
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Execution of a derived class definition proceeds the same as for a
-base class. When the class object is constructed, the base class is
-remembered. This is used for resolving attribute references: if a
-requested attribute is not found in the class, the search proceeds to look in the
-base class. This rule is applied recursively if the base class itself
-is derived from some other class.
-
-There's nothing special about instantiation of derived classes:
-\code{DerivedClassName()} creates a new instance of the class. Method
-references are resolved as follows: the corresponding class attribute
-is searched, descending down the chain of base classes if necessary,
-and the method reference is valid if this yields a function object.
-
-Derived classes may override methods of their base classes. Because
-methods have no special privileges when calling other methods of the
-same object, a method of a base class that calls another method
-defined in the same base class may end up calling a method of
-a derived class that overrides it. (For \Cpp{} programmers: all methods
-in Python are effectively \keyword{virtual}.)
-
-An overriding method in a derived class may in fact want to extend
-rather than simply replace the base class method of the same name.
-There is a simple way to call the base class method directly: just
-call \samp{BaseClassName.methodname(self, arguments)}. This is
-occasionally useful to clients as well. (Note that this only works if
-the base class is defined or imported directly in the global scope.)
-
-
-\subsection{Multiple Inheritance \label{multiple}}
-
-Python supports a limited form of multiple inheritance as well. A
-class definition with multiple base classes looks like this:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-class DerivedClassName(Base1, Base2, Base3):
- <statement-1>
- .
- .
- .
- <statement-N>
-\end{verbatim}
-
-For old-style classes, the only rule is depth-first,
-left-to-right. Thus, if an attribute is not found in
-\class{DerivedClassName}, it is searched in \class{Base1}, then
-(recursively) in the base classes of \class{Base1}, and only if it is
-not found there, it is searched in \class{Base2}, and so on.
-
-(To some people breadth first --- searching \class{Base2} and
-\class{Base3} before the base classes of \class{Base1} --- looks more
-natural. However, this would require you to know whether a particular
-attribute of \class{Base1} is actually defined in \class{Base1} or in
-one of its base classes before you can figure out the consequences of
-a name conflict with an attribute of \class{Base2}. The depth-first
-rule makes no differences between direct and inherited attributes of
-\class{Base1}.)
-
-For new-style classes, the method resolution order changes dynamically
-to support cooperative calls to \function{super()}. This approach
-is known in some other multiple-inheritance languages as call-next-method
-and is more powerful than the super call found in single-inheritance languages.
-
-With new-style classes, dynamic ordering is necessary because all
-cases of multiple inheritance exhibit one or more diamond relationships
-(where one at least one of the parent classes can be accessed through
-multiple paths from the bottommost class). For example, all new-style
-classes inherit from \class{object}, so any case of multiple inheritance
-provides more than one path to reach \class{object}. To keep the
-base classes from being accessed more than once, the dynamic algorithm
-linearizes the search order in a way that preserves the left-to-right
-ordering specified in each class, that calls each parent only once, and
-that is monotonic (meaning that a class can be subclassed without affecting
-the precedence order of its parents). Taken together, these properties
-make it possible to design reliable and extensible classes with
-multiple inheritance. For more detail, see
-\url{http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.3/mro/}.
-
-
-\section{Private Variables \label{private}}
-
-There is limited support for class-private
-identifiers. Any identifier of the form \code{__spam} (at least two
-leading underscores, at most one trailing underscore) is textually
-replaced with \code{_classname__spam}, where \code{classname} is the
-current class name with leading underscore(s) stripped. This mangling
-is done without regard to the syntactic position of the identifier, so
-it can be used to define class-private instance and class variables,
-methods, variables stored in globals, and even variables stored in instances.
-private to this class on instances of \emph{other} classes. Truncation
-may occur when the mangled name would be longer than 255 characters.
-Outside classes, or when the class name consists of only underscores,
-no mangling occurs.
-
-Name mangling is intended to give classes an easy way to define
-``private'' instance variables and methods, without having to worry
-about instance variables defined by derived classes, or mucking with
-instance variables by code outside the class. Note that the mangling
-rules are designed mostly to avoid accidents; it still is possible for
-a determined soul to access or modify a variable that is considered
-private. This can even be useful in special circumstances, such as in
-the debugger, and that's one reason why this loophole is not closed.
-(Buglet: derivation of a class with the same name as the base class
-makes use of private variables of the base class possible.)
-
-Notice that code passed to \code{exec}, \code{eval()} or
-\code{execfile()} does not consider the classname of the invoking
-class to be the current class; this is similar to the effect of the
-\code{global} statement, the effect of which is likewise restricted to
-code that is byte-compiled together. The same restriction applies to
-\code{getattr()}, \code{setattr()} and \code{delattr()}, as well as
-when referencing \code{__dict__} directly.
-
-
-\section{Odds and Ends \label{odds}}
-
-Sometimes it is useful to have a data type similar to the Pascal
-``record'' or C ``struct'', bundling together a few named data
-items. An empty class definition will do nicely:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-class Employee:
- pass
-
-john = Employee() # Create an empty employee record
-
-# Fill the fields of the record
-john.name = 'John Doe'
-john.dept = 'computer lab'
-john.salary = 1000
-\end{verbatim}
-
-A piece of Python code that expects a particular abstract data type
-can often be passed a class that emulates the methods of that data
-type instead. For instance, if you have a function that formats some
-data from a file object, you can define a class with methods
-\method{read()} and \method{readline()} that get the data from a string
-buffer instead, and pass it as an argument.% (Unfortunately, this
-%technique has its limitations: a class can't define operations that
-%are accessed by special syntax such as sequence subscripting or
-%arithmetic operators, and assigning such a ``pseudo-file'' to
-%\code{sys.stdin} will not cause the interpreter to read further input
-%from it.)
-
-
-Instance method objects have attributes, too: \code{m.im_self} is the
-instance object with the method \method{m}, and \code{m.im_func} is the
-function object corresponding to the method.
-
-
-\section{Exceptions Are Classes Too\label{exceptionClasses}}
-
-User-defined exceptions are identified by classes as well. Using this
-mechanism it is possible to create extensible hierarchies of exceptions.
-
-There are two new valid (semantic) forms for the raise statement:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-raise Class, instance
-
-raise instance
-\end{verbatim}
-
-In the first form, \code{instance} must be an instance of
-\class{Class} or of a class derived from it. The second form is a
-shorthand for:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-raise instance.__class__, instance
-\end{verbatim}
-
-A class in an except clause is compatible with an exception if it is the same
-class or a base class thereof (but not the other way around --- an
-except clause listing a derived class is not compatible with a base
-class). For example, the following code will print B, C, D in that
-order:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-class B:
- pass
-class C(B):
- pass
-class D(C):
- pass
-
-for c in [B, C, D]:
- try:
- raise c()
- except D:
- print "D"
- except C:
- print "C"
- except B:
- print "B"
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that if the except clauses were reversed (with
-\samp{except B} first), it would have printed B, B, B --- the first
-matching except clause is triggered.
-
-When an error message is printed for an unhandled exception, the
-exception's class name is printed, then a colon and a space, and
-finally the instance converted to a string using the built-in function
-\function{str()}.
-
-
-\section{Iterators\label{iterators}}
-
-By now you have probably noticed that most container objects can be looped
-over using a \keyword{for} statement:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-for element in [1, 2, 3]:
- print element
-for element in (1, 2, 3):
- print element
-for key in {'one':1, 'two':2}:
- print key
-for char in "123":
- print char
-for line in open("myfile.txt"):
- print line
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This style of access is clear, concise, and convenient. The use of iterators
-pervades and unifies Python. Behind the scenes, the \keyword{for}
-statement calls \function{iter()} on the container object. The
-function returns an iterator object that defines the method
-\method{next()} which accesses elements in the container one at a
-time. When there are no more elements, \method{next()} raises a
-\exception{StopIteration} exception which tells the \keyword{for} loop
-to terminate. This example shows how it all works:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> s = 'abc'
->>> it = iter(s)
->>> it
-<iterator object at 0x00A1DB50>
->>> it.next()
-'a'
->>> it.next()
-'b'
->>> it.next()
-'c'
->>> it.next()
-
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
- it.next()
-StopIteration
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Having seen the mechanics behind the iterator protocol, it is easy to add
-iterator behavior to your classes. Define a \method{__iter__()} method
-which returns an object with a \method{next()} method. If the class defines
-\method{next()}, then \method{__iter__()} can just return \code{self}:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-class Reverse:
- "Iterator for looping over a sequence backwards"
- def __init__(self, data):
- self.data = data
- self.index = len(data)
- def __iter__(self):
- return self
- def next(self):
- if self.index == 0:
- raise StopIteration
- self.index = self.index - 1
- return self.data[self.index]
-
->>> for char in Reverse('spam'):
-... print char
-...
-m
-a
-p
-s
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Generators\label{generators}}
-
-Generators are a simple and powerful tool for creating iterators. They are
-written like regular functions but use the \keyword{yield} statement whenever
-they want to return data. Each time \method{next()} is called, the
-generator resumes where it left-off (it remembers all the data values and
-which statement was last executed). An example shows that generators can
-be trivially easy to create:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-def reverse(data):
- for index in range(len(data)-1, -1, -1):
- yield data[index]
-
->>> for char in reverse('golf'):
-... print char
-...
-f
-l
-o
-g
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Anything that can be done with generators can also be done with class based
-iterators as described in the previous section. What makes generators so
-compact is that the \method{__iter__()} and \method{next()} methods are
-created automatically.
-
-Another key feature is that the local variables and execution state
-are automatically saved between calls. This made the function easier to write
-and much more clear than an approach using instance variables like
-\code{self.index} and \code{self.data}.
-
-In addition to automatic method creation and saving program state, when
-generators terminate, they automatically raise \exception{StopIteration}.
-In combination, these features make it easy to create iterators with no
-more effort than writing a regular function.
-
-\section{Generator Expressions\label{genexps}}
-
-Some simple generators can be coded succinctly as expressions using a syntax
-similar to list comprehensions but with parentheses instead of brackets. These
-expressions are designed for situations where the generator is used right
-away by an enclosing function. Generator expressions are more compact but
-less versatile than full generator definitions and tend to be more memory
-friendly than equivalent list comprehensions.
-
-Examples:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> sum(i*i for i in range(10)) # sum of squares
-285
-
->>> xvec = [10, 20, 30]
->>> yvec = [7, 5, 3]
->>> sum(x*y for x,y in zip(xvec, yvec)) # dot product
-260
-
->>> from math import pi, sin
->>> sine_table = dict((x, sin(x*pi/180)) for x in range(0, 91))
-
->>> unique_words = set(word for line in page for word in line.split())
-
->>> valedictorian = max((student.gpa, student.name) for student in graduates)
-
->>> data = 'golf'
->>> list(data[i] for i in range(len(data)-1,-1,-1))
-['f', 'l', 'o', 'g']
-
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-
-\chapter{Brief Tour of the Standard Library \label{briefTour}}
-
-
-\section{Operating System Interface\label{os-interface}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{os}}{../lib/module-os.html}
-module provides dozens of functions for interacting with the
-operating system:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import os
->>> os.system('time 0:02')
-0
->>> os.getcwd() # Return the current working directory
-'C:\\Python26'
->>> os.chdir('/server/accesslogs')
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Be sure to use the \samp{import os} style instead of
-\samp{from os import *}. This will keep \function{os.open()} from
-shadowing the builtin \function{open()} function which operates much
-differently.
-
-\bifuncindex{help}
-The builtin \function{dir()} and \function{help()} functions are useful
-as interactive aids for working with large modules like \module{os}:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import os
->>> dir(os)
-<returns a list of all module functions>
->>> help(os)
-<returns an extensive manual page created from the module's docstrings>
-\end{verbatim}
-
-For daily file and directory management tasks, the
-\ulink{\module{shutil}}{../lib/module-shutil.html}
-module provides a higher level interface that is easier to use:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import shutil
->>> shutil.copyfile('data.db', 'archive.db')
->>> shutil.move('/build/executables', 'installdir')
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{File Wildcards\label{file-wildcards}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{glob}}{../lib/module-glob.html}
-module provides a function for making file lists from directory
-wildcard searches:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import glob
->>> glob.glob('*.py')
-['primes.py', 'random.py', 'quote.py']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Command Line Arguments\label{command-line-arguments}}
-
-Common utility scripts often need to process command line arguments.
-These arguments are stored in the
-\ulink{\module{sys}}{../lib/module-sys.html}\ module's \var{argv}
-attribute as a list. For instance the following output results from
-running \samp{python demo.py one two three} at the command line:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import sys
->>> print sys.argv
-['demo.py', 'one', 'two', 'three']
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \ulink{\module{getopt}}{../lib/module-getopt.html}
-module processes \var{sys.argv} using the conventions of the \UNIX{}
-\function{getopt()} function. More powerful and flexible command line
-processing is provided by the
-\ulink{\module{optparse}}{../lib/module-optparse.html} module.
-
-
-\section{Error Output Redirection and Program Termination\label{stderr}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{sys}}{../lib/module-sys.html}
-module also has attributes for \var{stdin}, \var{stdout}, and
-\var{stderr}. The latter is useful for emitting warnings and error
-messages to make them visible even when \var{stdout} has been redirected:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> sys.stderr.write('Warning, log file not found starting a new one\n')
-Warning, log file not found starting a new one
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The most direct way to terminate a script is to use \samp{sys.exit()}.
-
-
-\section{String Pattern Matching\label{string-pattern-matching}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{re}}{../lib/module-re.html}
-module provides regular expression tools for advanced string processing.
-For complex matching and manipulation, regular expressions offer succinct,
-optimized solutions:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import re
->>> re.findall(r'\bf[a-z]*', 'which foot or hand fell fastest')
-['foot', 'fell', 'fastest']
->>> re.sub(r'(\b[a-z]+) \1', r'\1', 'cat in the the hat')
-'cat in the hat'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-When only simple capabilities are needed, string methods are preferred
-because they are easier to read and debug:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 'tea for too'.replace('too', 'two')
-'tea for two'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\section{Mathematics\label{mathematics}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{math}}{../lib/module-math.html} module gives
-access to the underlying C library functions for floating point math:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import math
->>> math.cos(math.pi / 4.0)
-0.70710678118654757
->>> math.log(1024, 2)
-10.0
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \ulink{\module{random}}{../lib/module-random.html}
-module provides tools for making random selections:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import random
->>> random.choice(['apple', 'pear', 'banana'])
-'apple'
->>> random.sample(xrange(100), 10) # sampling without replacement
-[30, 83, 16, 4, 8, 81, 41, 50, 18, 33]
->>> random.random() # random float
-0.17970987693706186
->>> random.randrange(6) # random integer chosen from range(6)
-4
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Internet Access\label{internet-access}}
-
-There are a number of modules for accessing the internet and processing
-internet protocols. Two of the simplest are
-\ulink{\module{urllib2}}{../lib/module-urllib2.html}
-for retrieving data from urls and
-\ulink{\module{smtplib}}{../lib/module-smtplib.html}
-for sending mail:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import urllib2
->>> for line in urllib2.urlopen('http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/timer.pl'):
-... if 'EST' in line or 'EDT' in line: # look for Eastern Time
-... print line
-
-<BR>Nov. 25, 09:43:32 PM EST
-
->>> import smtplib
->>> server = smtplib.SMTP('localhost')
->>> server.sendmail('soothsayer@example.org', 'jcaesar@example.org',
-"""To: jcaesar@example.org
-From: soothsayer@example.org
-
-Beware the Ides of March.
-""")
->>> server.quit()
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Dates and Times\label{dates-and-times}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{datetime}}{../lib/module-datetime.html} module
-supplies classes for manipulating dates and times in both simple
-and complex ways. While date and time arithmetic is supported, the
-focus of the implementation is on efficient member extraction for
-output formatting and manipulation. The module also supports objects
-that are timezone aware.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-# dates are easily constructed and formatted
->>> from datetime import date
->>> now = date.today()
->>> now
-datetime.date(2003, 12, 2)
->>> now.strftime("%m-%d-%y. %d %b %Y is a %A on the %d day of %B.")
-'12-02-03. 02 Dec 2003 is a Tuesday on the 02 day of December.'
-
-# dates support calendar arithmetic
->>> birthday = date(1964, 7, 31)
->>> age = now - birthday
->>> age.days
-14368
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Data Compression\label{data-compression}}
-
-Common data archiving and compression formats are directly supported
-by modules including:
-\ulink{\module{zlib}}{../lib/module-zlib.html},
-\ulink{\module{gzip}}{../lib/module-gzip.html},
-\ulink{\module{bz2}}{../lib/module-bz2.html},
-\ulink{\module{zipfile}}{../lib/module-zipfile.html}, and
-\ulink{\module{tarfile}}{../lib/module-tarfile.html}.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import zlib
->>> s = 'witch which has which witches wrist watch'
->>> len(s)
-41
->>> t = zlib.compress(s)
->>> len(t)
-37
->>> zlib.decompress(t)
-'witch which has which witches wrist watch'
->>> zlib.crc32(s)
-226805979
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Performance Measurement\label{performance-measurement}}
-
-Some Python users develop a deep interest in knowing the relative
-performance of different approaches to the same problem.
-Python provides a measurement tool that answers those questions
-immediately.
-
-For example, it may be tempting to use the tuple packing and unpacking
-feature instead of the traditional approach to swapping arguments.
-The \ulink{\module{timeit}}{../lib/module-timeit.html} module
-quickly demonstrates a modest performance advantage:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> from timeit import Timer
->>> Timer('t=a; a=b; b=t', 'a=1; b=2').timeit()
-0.57535828626024577
->>> Timer('a,b = b,a', 'a=1; b=2').timeit()
-0.54962537085770791
-\end{verbatim}
-
-In contrast to \module{timeit}'s fine level of granularity, the
-\ulink{\module{profile}}{../lib/module-profile.html} and \module{pstats}
-modules provide tools for identifying time critical sections in larger blocks
-of code.
-
-
-\section{Quality Control\label{quality-control}}
-
-One approach for developing high quality software is to write tests for
-each function as it is developed and to run those tests frequently during
-the development process.
-
-The \ulink{\module{doctest}}{../lib/module-doctest.html} module provides
-a tool for scanning a module and validating tests embedded in a program's
-docstrings. Test construction is as simple as cutting-and-pasting a
-typical call along with its results into the docstring. This improves
-the documentation by providing the user with an example and it allows the
-doctest module to make sure the code remains true to the documentation:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-def average(values):
- """Computes the arithmetic mean of a list of numbers.
-
- >>> print average([20, 30, 70])
- 40.0
- """
- return sum(values, 0.0) / len(values)
-
-import doctest
-doctest.testmod() # automatically validate the embedded tests
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \ulink{\module{unittest}}{../lib/module-unittest.html} module is not
-as effortless as the \module{doctest} module, but it allows a more
-comprehensive set of tests to be maintained in a separate file:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-import unittest
-
-class TestStatisticalFunctions(unittest.TestCase):
-
- def test_average(self):
- self.assertEqual(average([20, 30, 70]), 40.0)
- self.assertEqual(round(average([1, 5, 7]), 1), 4.3)
- self.assertRaises(ZeroDivisionError, average, [])
- self.assertRaises(TypeError, average, 20, 30, 70)
-
-unittest.main() # Calling from the command line invokes all tests
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\section{Batteries Included\label{batteries-included}}
-
-Python has a ``batteries included'' philosophy. This is best seen
-through the sophisticated and robust capabilities of its larger
-packages. For example:
-
-\begin{itemize}
-\item The \ulink{\module{xmlrpclib}}{../lib/module-xmlrpclib.html} and
- \ulink{\module{SimpleXMLRPCServer}}{../lib/module-SimpleXMLRPCServer.html}
- modules make implementing remote procedure calls into an almost trivial task.
- Despite the modules names, no direct knowledge or handling of XML is needed.
-\item The \ulink{\module{email}}{../lib/module-email.html} package is a library
- for managing email messages, including MIME and other RFC 2822-based message
- documents. Unlike \module{smtplib} and \module{poplib} which actually send
- and receive messages, the email package has a complete toolset for building
- or decoding complex message structures (including attachments) and for
- implementing internet encoding and header protocols.
-\item The \ulink{\module{xml.dom}}{../lib/module-xml.dom.html} and
- \ulink{\module{xml.sax}}{../lib/module-xml.sax.html} packages provide robust
- support for parsing this popular data interchange format. Likewise, the
- \ulink{\module{csv}}{../lib/module-csv.html} module supports direct reads and
- writes in a common database format. Together, these modules and packages
- greatly simplify data interchange between python applications and other
- tools.
-\item Internationalization is supported by a number of modules including
- \ulink{\module{gettext}}{../lib/module-gettext.html},
- \ulink{\module{locale}}{../lib/module-locale.html}, and the
- \ulink{\module{codecs}}{../lib/module-codecs.html} package.
-\end{itemize}
-
-\chapter{Brief Tour of the Standard Library -- Part II\label{briefTourTwo}}
-
-This second tour covers more advanced modules that support professional
-programming needs. These modules rarely occur in small scripts.
-
-
-\section{Output Formatting\label{output-formatting}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{repr}}{../lib/module-repr.html} module provides a
-version of \function{repr()} customized for abbreviated displays of large
-or deeply nested containers:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- >>> import repr
- >>> repr.repr(set('supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'))
- "set(['a', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', ...])"
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \ulink{\module{pprint}}{../lib/module-pprint.html} module offers
-more sophisticated control over printing both built-in and user defined
-objects in a way that is readable by the interpreter. When the result
-is longer than one line, the ``pretty printer'' adds line breaks and
-indentation to more clearly reveal data structure:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- >>> import pprint
- >>> t = [[[['black', 'cyan'], 'white', ['green', 'red']], [['magenta',
- ... 'yellow'], 'blue']]]
- ...
- >>> pprint.pprint(t, width=30)
- [[[['black', 'cyan'],
- 'white',
- ['green', 'red']],
- [['magenta', 'yellow'],
- 'blue']]]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \ulink{\module{textwrap}}{../lib/module-textwrap.html} module
-formats paragraphs of text to fit a given screen width:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- >>> import textwrap
- >>> doc = """The wrap() method is just like fill() except that it returns
- ... a list of strings instead of one big string with newlines to separate
- ... the wrapped lines."""
- ...
- >>> print textwrap.fill(doc, width=40)
- The wrap() method is just like fill()
- except that it returns a list of strings
- instead of one big string with newlines
- to separate the wrapped lines.
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \ulink{\module{locale}}{../lib/module-locale.html} module accesses
-a database of culture specific data formats. The grouping attribute
-of locale's format function provides a direct way of formatting numbers
-with group separators:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- >>> import locale
- >>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'English_United States.1252')
- 'English_United States.1252'
- >>> conv = locale.localeconv() # get a mapping of conventions
- >>> x = 1234567.8
- >>> locale.format("%d", x, grouping=True)
- '1,234,567'
- >>> locale.format("%s%.*f", (conv['currency_symbol'],
- ... conv['frac_digits'], x), grouping=True)
- '$1,234,567.80'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Templating\label{templating}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{string}}{../lib/module-string.html} module includes a
-versatile \class{Template} class with a simplified syntax suitable for
-editing by end-users. This allows users to customize their applications
-without having to alter the application.
-
-The format uses placeholder names formed by \samp{\$} with valid Python
-identifiers (alphanumeric characters and underscores). Surrounding the
-placeholder with braces allows it to be followed by more alphanumeric letters
-with no intervening spaces. Writing \samp{\$\$} creates a single escaped
-\samp{\$}:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> from string import Template
->>> t = Template('${village}folk send $$10 to $cause.')
->>> t.substitute(village='Nottingham', cause='the ditch fund')
-'Nottinghamfolk send $10 to the ditch fund.'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \method{substitute} method raises a \exception{KeyError} when a
-placeholder is not supplied in a dictionary or a keyword argument. For
-mail-merge style applications, user supplied data may be incomplete and the
-\method{safe_substitute} method may be more appropriate --- it will leave
-placeholders unchanged if data is missing:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> t = Template('Return the $item to $owner.')
->>> d = dict(item='unladen swallow')
->>> t.substitute(d)
-Traceback (most recent call last):
- . . .
-KeyError: 'owner'
->>> t.safe_substitute(d)
-'Return the unladen swallow to $owner.'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Template subclasses can specify a custom delimiter. For example, a batch
-renaming utility for a photo browser may elect to use percent signs for
-placeholders such as the current date, image sequence number, or file format:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> import time, os.path
->>> photofiles = ['img_1074.jpg', 'img_1076.jpg', 'img_1077.jpg']
->>> class BatchRename(Template):
-... delimiter = '%'
->>> fmt = raw_input('Enter rename style (%d-date %n-seqnum %f-format): ')
-Enter rename style (%d-date %n-seqnum %f-format): Ashley_%n%f
-
->>> t = BatchRename(fmt)
->>> date = time.strftime('%d%b%y')
->>> for i, filename in enumerate(photofiles):
-... base, ext = os.path.splitext(filename)
-... newname = t.substitute(d=date, n=i, f=ext)
-... print '%s --> %s' % (filename, newname)
-
-img_1074.jpg --> Ashley_0.jpg
-img_1076.jpg --> Ashley_1.jpg
-img_1077.jpg --> Ashley_2.jpg
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Another application for templating is separating program logic from the
-details of multiple output formats. This makes it possible to substitute
-custom templates for XML files, plain text reports, and HTML web reports.
-
-
-\section{Working with Binary Data Record Layouts\label{binary-formats}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{struct}}{../lib/module-struct.html} module provides
-\function{pack()} and \function{unpack()} functions for working with
-variable length binary record formats. The following example shows how
-to loop through header information in a ZIP file (with pack codes
-\code{"H"} and \code{"L"} representing two and four byte unsigned
-numbers respectively):
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- import struct
-
- data = open('myfile.zip', 'rb').read()
- start = 0
- for i in range(3): # show the first 3 file headers
- start += 14
- fields = struct.unpack('LLLHH', data[start:start+16])
- crc32, comp_size, uncomp_size, filenamesize, extra_size = fields
-
- start += 16
- filename = data[start:start+filenamesize]
- start += filenamesize
- extra = data[start:start+extra_size]
- print filename, hex(crc32), comp_size, uncomp_size
-
- start += extra_size + comp_size # skip to the next header
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Multi-threading\label{multi-threading}}
-
-Threading is a technique for decoupling tasks which are not sequentially
-dependent. Threads can be used to improve the responsiveness of
-applications that accept user input while other tasks run in the
-background. A related use case is running I/O in parallel with
-computations in another thread.
-
-The following code shows how the high level
-\ulink{\module{threading}}{../lib/module-threading.html} module can run
-tasks in background while the main program continues to run:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- import threading, zipfile
-
- class AsyncZip(threading.Thread):
- def __init__(self, infile, outfile):
- threading.Thread.__init__(self)
- self.infile = infile
- self.outfile = outfile
- def run(self):
- f = zipfile.ZipFile(self.outfile, 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
- f.write(self.infile)
- f.close()
- print 'Finished background zip of: ', self.infile
-
- background = AsyncZip('mydata.txt', 'myarchive.zip')
- background.start()
- print 'The main program continues to run in foreground.'
-
- background.join() # Wait for the background task to finish
- print 'Main program waited until background was done.'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The principal challenge of multi-threaded applications is coordinating
-threads that share data or other resources. To that end, the threading
-module provides a number of synchronization primitives including locks,
-events, condition variables, and semaphores.
-
-While those tools are powerful, minor design errors can result in
-problems that are difficult to reproduce. So, the preferred approach
-to task coordination is to concentrate all access to a resource
-in a single thread and then use the
-\ulink{\module{Queue}}{../lib/module-Queue.html} module to feed that
-thread with requests from other threads. Applications using
-\class{Queue} objects for inter-thread communication and coordination
-are easier to design, more readable, and more reliable.
-
-
-\section{Logging\label{logging}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{logging}}{../lib/module-logging.html} module offers
-a full featured and flexible logging system. At its simplest, log
-messages are sent to a file or to \code{sys.stderr}:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- import logging
- logging.debug('Debugging information')
- logging.info('Informational message')
- logging.warning('Warning:config file %s not found', 'server.conf')
- logging.error('Error occurred')
- logging.critical('Critical error -- shutting down')
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This produces the following output:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- WARNING:root:Warning:config file server.conf not found
- ERROR:root:Error occurred
- CRITICAL:root:Critical error -- shutting down
-\end{verbatim}
-
-By default, informational and debugging messages are suppressed and the
-output is sent to standard error. Other output options include routing
-messages through email, datagrams, sockets, or to an HTTP Server. New
-filters can select different routing based on message priority:
-\constant{DEBUG}, \constant{INFO}, \constant{WARNING}, \constant{ERROR},
-and \constant{CRITICAL}.
-
-The logging system can be configured directly from Python or can be
-loaded from a user editable configuration file for customized logging
-without altering the application.
-
-
-\section{Weak References\label{weak-references}}
-
-Python does automatic memory management (reference counting for most
-objects and garbage collection to eliminate cycles). The memory is
-freed shortly after the last reference to it has been eliminated.
-
-This approach works fine for most applications but occasionally there
-is a need to track objects only as long as they are being used by
-something else. Unfortunately, just tracking them creates a reference
-that makes them permanent. The
-\ulink{\module{weakref}}{../lib/module-weakref.html} module provides
-tools for tracking objects without creating a reference. When the
-object is no longer needed, it is automatically removed from a weakref
-table and a callback is triggered for weakref objects. Typical
-applications include caching objects that are expensive to create:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- >>> import weakref, gc
- >>> class A:
- ... def __init__(self, value):
- ... self.value = value
- ... def __repr__(self):
- ... return str(self.value)
- ...
- >>> a = A(10) # create a reference
- >>> d = weakref.WeakValueDictionary()
- >>> d['primary'] = a # does not create a reference
- >>> d['primary'] # fetch the object if it is still alive
- 10
- >>> del a # remove the one reference
- >>> gc.collect() # run garbage collection right away
- 0
- >>> d['primary'] # entry was automatically removed
- Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "<pyshell#108>", line 1, in -toplevel-
- d['primary'] # entry was automatically removed
- File "C:/python26/lib/weakref.py", line 46, in __getitem__
- o = self.data[key]()
- KeyError: 'primary'
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\section{Tools for Working with Lists\label{list-tools}}
-
-Many data structure needs can be met with the built-in list type.
-However, sometimes there is a need for alternative implementations
-with different performance trade-offs.
-
-The \ulink{\module{array}}{../lib/module-array.html} module provides an
-\class{array()} object that is like a list that stores only homogenous
-data and stores it more compactly. The following example shows an array
-of numbers stored as two byte unsigned binary numbers (typecode
-\code{"H"}) rather than the usual 16 bytes per entry for regular lists
-of python int objects:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- >>> from array import array
- >>> a = array('H', [4000, 10, 700, 22222])
- >>> sum(a)
- 26932
- >>> a[1:3]
- array('H', [10, 700])
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \ulink{\module{collections}}{../lib/module-collections.html} module
-provides a \class{deque()} object that is like a list with faster
-appends and pops from the left side but slower lookups in the middle.
-These objects are well suited for implementing queues and breadth first
-tree searches:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- >>> from collections import deque
- >>> d = deque(["task1", "task2", "task3"])
- >>> d.append("task4")
- >>> print "Handling", d.popleft()
- Handling task1
-
- unsearched = deque([starting_node])
- def breadth_first_search(unsearched):
- node = unsearched.popleft()
- for m in gen_moves(node):
- if is_goal(m):
- return m
- unsearched.append(m)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-In addition to alternative list implementations, the library also offers
-other tools such as the \ulink{\module{bisect}}{../lib/module-bisect.html}
-module with functions for manipulating sorted lists:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- >>> import bisect
- >>> scores = [(100, 'perl'), (200, 'tcl'), (400, 'lua'), (500, 'python')]
- >>> bisect.insort(scores, (300, 'ruby'))
- >>> scores
- [(100, 'perl'), (200, 'tcl'), (300, 'ruby'), (400, 'lua'), (500, 'python')]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \ulink{\module{heapq}}{../lib/module-heapq.html} module provides
-functions for implementing heaps based on regular lists. The lowest
-valued entry is always kept at position zero. This is useful for
-applications which repeatedly access the smallest element but do not
-want to run a full list sort:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- >>> from heapq import heapify, heappop, heappush
- >>> data = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 2, 4, 6, 8, 0]
- >>> heapify(data) # rearrange the list into heap order
- >>> heappush(data, -5) # add a new entry
- >>> [heappop(data) for i in range(3)] # fetch the three smallest entries
- [-5, 0, 1]
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Decimal Floating Point Arithmetic\label{decimal-fp}}
-
-The \ulink{\module{decimal}}{../lib/module-decimal.html} module offers a
-\class{Decimal} datatype for decimal floating point arithmetic. Compared to
-the built-in \class{float} implementation of binary floating point, the new
-class is especially helpful for financial applications and other uses which
-require exact decimal representation, control over precision, control over
-rounding to meet legal or regulatory requirements, tracking of significant
-decimal places, or for applications where the user expects the results to
-match calculations done by hand.
-
-For example, calculating a 5\%{} tax on a 70 cent phone charge gives
-different results in decimal floating point and binary floating point.
-The difference becomes significant if the results are rounded to the
-nearest cent:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> from decimal import *
->>> Decimal('0.70') * Decimal('1.05')
-Decimal("0.7350")
->>> .70 * 1.05
-0.73499999999999999
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \class{Decimal} result keeps a trailing zero, automatically inferring four
-place significance from multiplicands with two place significance. Decimal reproduces
-mathematics as done by hand and avoids issues that can arise when binary
-floating point cannot exactly represent decimal quantities.
-
-Exact representation enables the \class{Decimal} class to perform
-modulo calculations and equality tests that are unsuitable for binary
-floating point:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> Decimal('1.00') % Decimal('.10')
-Decimal("0.00")
->>> 1.00 % 0.10
-0.09999999999999995
-
->>> sum([Decimal('0.1')]*10) == Decimal('1.0')
-True
->>> sum([0.1]*10) == 1.0
-False
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The \module{decimal} module provides arithmetic with as much precision as
-needed:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> getcontext().prec = 36
->>> Decimal(1) / Decimal(7)
-Decimal("0.142857142857142857142857142857142857")
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-
-\chapter{What Now? \label{whatNow}}
-
-Reading this tutorial has probably reinforced your interest in using
-Python --- you should be eager to apply Python to solving your
-real-world problems. Where should you go to learn more?
-
-This tutorial is part of Python's documentation set.
-Some other documents in the set are:
-
-\begin{itemize}
-
-\item \citetitle[../lib/lib.html]{Python Library Reference}:
-
-You should browse through this manual, which gives complete (though
-terse) reference material about types, functions, and the modules in
-the standard library. The standard Python distribution includes a
-\emph{lot} of additional code. There are modules to read \UNIX{}
-mailboxes, retrieve documents via HTTP, generate random numbers, parse
-command-line options, write CGI programs, compress data, and many other tasks.
-Skimming through the Library Reference will give you an idea of
-what's available.
-
-\item \citetitle[../inst/inst.html]{Installing Python Modules}
-explains how to install external modules written by other Python
-users.
-
-\item \citetitle[../ref/ref.html]{Language Reference}: A detailed
-explanation of Python's syntax and semantics. It's heavy reading,
-but is useful as a complete guide to the language itself.
-
-\end{itemize}
-
-More Python resources:
-
-\begin{itemize}
-
-\item \url{http://www.python.org}: The major Python Web site. It contains
-code, documentation, and pointers to Python-related pages around the
-Web. This Web site is mirrored in various places around the
-world, such as Europe, Japan, and Australia; a mirror may be faster
-than the main site, depending on your geographical location.
-
-\item \url{http://docs.python.org}: Fast access to Python's
-documentation.
-
-\item \url{http://cheeseshop.python.org}:
-The Python Package Index, nicknamed the Cheese Shop,
-is an index of user-created Python modules that are available for
-download. Once you begin releasing code, you can register it
-here so that others can find it.
-
-\item \url{http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Python/Cookbook/}: The
-Python Cookbook is a sizable collection of code examples, larger
-modules, and useful scripts. Particularly notable contributions are
-collected in a book also titled \citetitle{Python Cookbook} (O'Reilly
-\& Associates, ISBN 0-596-00797-3.)
-
-\end{itemize}
-
-
-For Python-related questions and problem reports, you can post to the
-newsgroup \newsgroup{comp.lang.python}, or send them to the mailing
-list at \email{python-list@python.org}. The newsgroup and mailing list
-are gatewayed, so messages posted to one will automatically be
-forwarded to the other. There are around 120 postings a day (with peaks
-up to several hundred),
-% Postings figure based on average of last six months activity as
-% reported by www.egroups.com; Jan. 2000 - June 2000: 21272 msgs / 182
-% days = 116.9 msgs / day and steadily increasing.
-asking (and answering) questions, suggesting new features, and
-announcing new modules. Before posting, be sure to check the list of
-\ulink{Frequently Asked Questions}{http://www.python.org/doc/faq/} (also called the FAQ), or look for it in the
-\file{Misc/} directory of the Python source distribution. Mailing
-list archives are available at \url{http://mail.python.org/pipermail/}.
-The FAQ answers many of the questions that come up again and again,
-and may already contain the solution for your problem.
-
-
-\appendix
-
-\chapter{Interactive Input Editing and History Substitution\label{interacting}}
-
-Some versions of the Python interpreter support editing of the current
-input line and history substitution, similar to facilities found in
-the Korn shell and the GNU Bash shell. This is implemented using the
-\emph{GNU Readline} library, which supports Emacs-style and vi-style
-editing. This library has its own documentation which I won't
-duplicate here; however, the basics are easily explained. The
-interactive editing and history described here are optionally
-available in the \UNIX{} and Cygwin versions of the interpreter.
-
-This chapter does \emph{not} document the editing facilities of Mark
-Hammond's PythonWin package or the Tk-based environment, IDLE,
-distributed with Python. The command line history recall which
-operates within DOS boxes on NT and some other DOS and Windows flavors
-is yet another beast.
-
-\section{Line Editing \label{lineEditing}}
-
-If supported, input line editing is active whenever the interpreter
-prints a primary or secondary prompt. The current line can be edited
-using the conventional Emacs control characters. The most important
-of these are: \kbd{C-A} (Control-A) moves the cursor to the beginning
-of the line, \kbd{C-E} to the end, \kbd{C-B} moves it one position to
-the left, \kbd{C-F} to the right. Backspace erases the character to
-the left of the cursor, \kbd{C-D} the character to its right.
-\kbd{C-K} kills (erases) the rest of the line to the right of the
-cursor, \kbd{C-Y} yanks back the last killed string.
-\kbd{C-underscore} undoes the last change you made; it can be repeated
-for cumulative effect.
-
-\section{History Substitution \label{history}}
-
-History substitution works as follows. All non-empty input lines
-issued are saved in a history buffer, and when a new prompt is given
-you are positioned on a new line at the bottom of this buffer.
-\kbd{C-P} moves one line up (back) in the history buffer,
-\kbd{C-N} moves one down. Any line in the history buffer can be
-edited; an asterisk appears in front of the prompt to mark a line as
-modified. Pressing the \kbd{Return} key passes the current line to
-the interpreter. \kbd{C-R} starts an incremental reverse search;
-\kbd{C-S} starts a forward search.
-
-\section{Key Bindings \label{keyBindings}}
-
-The key bindings and some other parameters of the Readline library can
-be customized by placing commands in an initialization file called
-\file{\~{}/.inputrc}. Key bindings have the form
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-key-name: function-name
-\end{verbatim}
-
-or
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-"string": function-name
-\end{verbatim}
-
-and options can be set with
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-set option-name value
-\end{verbatim}
-
-For example:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-# I prefer vi-style editing:
-set editing-mode vi
-
-# Edit using a single line:
-set horizontal-scroll-mode On
-
-# Rebind some keys:
-Meta-h: backward-kill-word
-"\C-u": universal-argument
-"\C-x\C-r": re-read-init-file
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that the default binding for \kbd{Tab} in Python is to insert a
-\kbd{Tab} character instead of Readline's default filename completion
-function. If you insist, you can override this by putting
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-Tab: complete
-\end{verbatim}
-
-in your \file{\~{}/.inputrc}. (Of course, this makes it harder to
-type indented continuation lines if you're accustomed to using
-\kbd{Tab} for that purpose.)
-
-Automatic completion of variable and module names is optionally
-available. To enable it in the interpreter's interactive mode, add
-the following to your startup file:\footnote{
- Python will execute the contents of a file identified by the
- \envvar{PYTHONSTARTUP} environment variable when you start an
- interactive interpreter.}
-\refstmodindex{rlcompleter}\refbimodindex{readline}
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-import rlcompleter, readline
-readline.parse_and_bind('tab: complete')
-\end{verbatim}
-
-This binds the \kbd{Tab} key to the completion function, so hitting
-the \kbd{Tab} key twice suggests completions; it looks at Python
-statement names, the current local variables, and the available module
-names. For dotted expressions such as \code{string.a}, it will
-evaluate the expression up to the final \character{.} and then
-suggest completions from the attributes of the resulting object. Note
-that this may execute application-defined code if an object with a
-\method{__getattr__()} method is part of the expression.
-
-A more capable startup file might look like this example. Note that
-this deletes the names it creates once they are no longer needed; this
-is done since the startup file is executed in the same namespace as
-the interactive commands, and removing the names avoids creating side
-effects in the interactive environment. You may find it convenient
-to keep some of the imported modules, such as
-\ulink{\module{os}}{../lib/module-os.html}, which turn
-out to be needed in most sessions with the interpreter.
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-# Add auto-completion and a stored history file of commands to your Python
-# interactive interpreter. Requires Python 2.0+, readline. Autocomplete is
-# bound to the Esc key by default (you can change it - see readline docs).
-#
-# Store the file in ~/.pystartup, and set an environment variable to point
-# to it: "export PYTHONSTARTUP=/max/home/itamar/.pystartup" in bash.
-#
-# Note that PYTHONSTARTUP does *not* expand "~", so you have to put in the
-# full path to your home directory.
-
-import atexit
-import os
-import readline
-import rlcompleter
-
-historyPath = os.path.expanduser("~/.pyhistory")
-
-def save_history(historyPath=historyPath):
- import readline
- readline.write_history_file(historyPath)
-
-if os.path.exists(historyPath):
- readline.read_history_file(historyPath)
-
-atexit.register(save_history)
-del os, atexit, readline, rlcompleter, save_history, historyPath
-\end{verbatim}
-
-
-\section{Commentary \label{commentary}}
-
-This facility is an enormous step forward compared to earlier versions
-of the interpreter; however, some wishes are left: It would be nice if
-the proper indentation were suggested on continuation lines (the
-parser knows if an indent token is required next). The completion
-mechanism might use the interpreter's symbol table. A command to
-check (or even suggest) matching parentheses, quotes, etc., would also
-be useful.
-
-
-\chapter{Floating Point Arithmetic: Issues and Limitations\label{fp-issues}}
-\sectionauthor{Tim Peters}{tim_one@users.sourceforge.net}
-
-Floating-point numbers are represented in computer hardware as
-base 2 (binary) fractions. For example, the decimal fraction
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-0.125
-\end{verbatim}
-
-has value 1/10 + 2/100 + 5/1000, and in the same way the binary fraction
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-0.001
-\end{verbatim}
-
-has value 0/2 + 0/4 + 1/8. These two fractions have identical values,
-the only real difference being that the first is written in base 10
-fractional notation, and the second in base 2.
-
-Unfortunately, most decimal fractions cannot be represented exactly as
-binary fractions. A consequence is that, in general, the decimal
-floating-point numbers you enter are only approximated by the binary
-floating-point numbers actually stored in the machine.
-
-The problem is easier to understand at first in base 10. Consider the
-fraction 1/3. You can approximate that as a base 10 fraction:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-0.3
-\end{verbatim}
-
-or, better,
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-0.33
-\end{verbatim}
-
-or, better,
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-0.333
-\end{verbatim}
-
-and so on. No matter how many digits you're willing to write down, the
-result will never be exactly 1/3, but will be an increasingly better
-approximation of 1/3.
-
-In the same way, no matter how many base 2 digits you're willing to
-use, the decimal value 0.1 cannot be represented exactly as a base 2
-fraction. In base 2, 1/10 is the infinitely repeating fraction
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-0.0001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011...
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Stop at any finite number of bits, and you get an approximation. This
-is why you see things like:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 0.1
-0.10000000000000001
-\end{verbatim}
-
-On most machines today, that is what you'll see if you enter 0.1 at
-a Python prompt. You may not, though, because the number of bits
-used by the hardware to store floating-point values can vary across
-machines, and Python only prints a decimal approximation to the true
-decimal value of the binary approximation stored by the machine. On
-most machines, if Python were to print the true decimal value of
-the binary approximation stored for 0.1, it would have to display
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 0.1
-0.1000000000000000055511151231257827021181583404541015625
-\end{verbatim}
-
-instead! The Python prompt uses the builtin
-\function{repr()} function to obtain a string version of everything it
-displays. For floats, \code{repr(\var{float})} rounds the true
-decimal value to 17 significant digits, giving
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-0.10000000000000001
-\end{verbatim}
-
-\code{repr(\var{float})} produces 17 significant digits because it
-turns out that's enough (on most machines) so that
-\code{eval(repr(\var{x})) == \var{x}} exactly for all finite floats
-\var{x}, but rounding to 16 digits is not enough to make that true.
-
-Note that this is in the very nature of binary floating-point: this is
-not a bug in Python, and it is not a bug in your code either. You'll
-see the same kind of thing in all languages that support your
-hardware's floating-point arithmetic (although some languages may
-not \emph{display} the difference by default, or in all output modes).
-
-Python's builtin \function{str()} function produces only 12
-significant digits, and you may wish to use that instead. It's
-unusual for \code{eval(str(\var{x}))} to reproduce \var{x}, but the
-output may be more pleasant to look at:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> print str(0.1)
-0.1
-\end{verbatim}
-
-It's important to realize that this is, in a real sense, an illusion:
-the value in the machine is not exactly 1/10, you're simply rounding
-the \emph{display} of the true machine value.
-
-Other surprises follow from this one. For example, after seeing
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 0.1
-0.10000000000000001
-\end{verbatim}
-
-you may be tempted to use the \function{round()} function to chop it
-back to the single digit you expect. But that makes no difference:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> round(0.1, 1)
-0.10000000000000001
-\end{verbatim}
-
-The problem is that the binary floating-point value stored for "0.1"
-was already the best possible binary approximation to 1/10, so trying
-to round it again can't make it better: it was already as good as it
-gets.
-
-Another consequence is that since 0.1 is not exactly 1/10,
-summing ten values of 0.1 may not yield exactly 1.0, either:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> sum = 0.0
->>> for i in range(10):
-... sum += 0.1
-...
->>> sum
-0.99999999999999989
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Binary floating-point arithmetic holds many surprises like this. The
-problem with "0.1" is explained in precise detail below, in the
-"Representation Error" section. See
-\citetitle[http://www.lahey.com/float.htm]{The Perils of Floating
-Point} for a more complete account of other common surprises.
-
-As that says near the end, ``there are no easy answers.'' Still,
-don't be unduly wary of floating-point! The errors in Python float
-operations are inherited from the floating-point hardware, and on most
-machines are on the order of no more than 1 part in 2**53 per
-operation. That's more than adequate for most tasks, but you do need
-to keep in mind that it's not decimal arithmetic, and that every float
-operation can suffer a new rounding error.
-
-While pathological cases do exist, for most casual use of
-floating-point arithmetic you'll see the result you expect in the end
-if you simply round the display of your final results to the number of
-decimal digits you expect. \function{str()} usually suffices, and for
-finer control see the discussion of Python's \code{\%} format
-operator: the \code{\%g}, \code{\%f} and \code{\%e} format codes
-supply flexible and easy ways to round float results for display.
-
-
-\section{Representation Error
- \label{fp-error}}
-
-This section explains the ``0.1'' example in detail, and shows how
-you can perform an exact analysis of cases like this yourself. Basic
-familiarity with binary floating-point representation is assumed.
-
-\dfn{Representation error} refers to the fact that some (most, actually)
-decimal fractions cannot be represented exactly as binary (base 2)
-fractions. This is the chief reason why Python (or Perl, C, \Cpp,
-Java, Fortran, and many others) often won't display the exact decimal
-number you expect:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 0.1
-0.10000000000000001
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Why is that? 1/10 is not exactly representable as a binary fraction.
-Almost all machines today (November 2000) use IEEE-754 floating point
-arithmetic, and almost all platforms map Python floats to IEEE-754
-"double precision". 754 doubles contain 53 bits of precision, so on
-input the computer strives to convert 0.1 to the closest fraction it can
-of the form \var{J}/2**\var{N} where \var{J} is an integer containing
-exactly 53 bits. Rewriting
-
-\begin{verbatim}
- 1 / 10 ~= J / (2**N)
-\end{verbatim}
-
-as
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-J ~= 2**N / 10
-\end{verbatim}
-
-and recalling that \var{J} has exactly 53 bits (is \code{>= 2**52} but
-\code{< 2**53}), the best value for \var{N} is 56:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 2**52
-4503599627370496L
->>> 2**53
-9007199254740992L
->>> 2**56/10
-7205759403792793L
-\end{verbatim}
-
-That is, 56 is the only value for \var{N} that leaves \var{J} with
-exactly 53 bits. The best possible value for \var{J} is then that
-quotient rounded:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> q, r = divmod(2**56, 10)
->>> r
-6L
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Since the remainder is more than half of 10, the best approximation is
-obtained by rounding up:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> q+1
-7205759403792794L
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Therefore the best possible approximation to 1/10 in 754 double
-precision is that over 2**56, or
-
-\begin{verbatim}
-7205759403792794 / 72057594037927936
-\end{verbatim}
-
-Note that since we rounded up, this is actually a little bit larger than
-1/10; if we had not rounded up, the quotient would have been a little
-bit smaller than 1/10. But in no case can it be \emph{exactly} 1/10!
-
-So the computer never ``sees'' 1/10: what it sees is the exact
-fraction given above, the best 754 double approximation it can get:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> .1 * 2**56
-7205759403792794.0
-\end{verbatim}
-
-If we multiply that fraction by 10**30, we can see the (truncated)
-value of its 30 most significant decimal digits:
-
-\begin{verbatim}
->>> 7205759403792794 * 10**30 / 2**56
-100000000000000005551115123125L
-\end{verbatim}
-
-meaning that the exact number stored in the computer is approximately
-equal to the decimal value 0.100000000000000005551115123125. Rounding
-that to 17 significant digits gives the 0.10000000000000001 that Python
-displays (well, will display on any 754-conforming platform that does
-best-possible input and output conversions in its C library --- yours may
-not!).
-
-\chapter{History and License}
-\input{license}
-
-\input{glossary}
-
-\input{tut.ind}
-
-\end{document}