\documentclass{manual} \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} % 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 can 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 ever wrote a large shell script, you probably know this feeling: you'd love to add yet another feature, but it's already so slow, and so big, and so complicated; or the feature involves a system call or other function that is only accessible from C \ldots Usually the problem at hand isn't serious enough to warrant rewriting the script in C; perhaps the problem requires variable-length strings or other data types (like sorted lists of file names) that are easy in the shell but lots of work to implement in C, or perhaps you're not sufficiently familiar with C. Another situation: perhaps you have to work with several C libraries, and the usual C write/compile/test/re-compile cycle is too slow. You need to develop software more quickly. Possibly perhaps you've written a program that could use an extension language, and you don't want to design a language, write and debug an interpreter for it, then tie it into your application. In such cases, Python may be just the language for you. Python is simple to use, but it is a real programming language, offering much more structure and support for large programs than the shell has. On the other hand, it 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 that would cost you days to implement efficiently in C. Because of its more general data types Python is applicable to a much larger problem domain than \emph{Awk} or even \emph{Perl}, yet many things are at least as easy in Python as in those languages. Python allows you to split up your program in 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. There are also built-in modules that 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 allows writing very compact and readable programs. Programs written in Python are typically much shorter than equivalent C or \Cpp{} 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 using it, you are invited here to do so. 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.) 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. Note that there is a difference between \samp{python file} and \samp{python \code{>}>~}); 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 the 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 a 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{verbatim} # -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*- \end{verbatim} With that declaration, all characters in the source file will be treated as {}\code{iso-8859-1}, 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}. 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 \code{\#!} files. 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{>\code{>}>~} 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{>\code{>}>~}. (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} Like in C, the equal sign (\character{=}) is used to assign a value to a variable. The value of an assignment is not written: \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 "", 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 would 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 + '>' '' \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 "", 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 "", line 1, in ? TypeError: object doesn't support item assignment >>> word[:1] = 'Splat' Traceback (most recent call last): File "", 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 "", line 1, in ? IndexError: string index out of range \end{verbatim} The best 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 and 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 an 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 "", 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] + ['Boe!'] ['spam', 'eggs', 100, 'spam', 'eggs', 100, 'spam', 'eggs', 100, 'Boe!'] \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: \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] >>> a[:0] = a # Insert (a copy of) itself at the beginning >>> a [123, 'bletch', 'xyzzy', 1234, 123, 'bletch', 'xyzzy', 1234] \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, exactly 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 >>> 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 "", 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 whose keyword doesn't correspond 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} \subsection{Lambda Forms \label{lambda}} By popular demand, a few features commonly found in functional programming languages and 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()} returns the last item in the list. The item is also removed from 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 = [66.6, 333, 333, 1, 1234.5] >>> print a.count(333), a.count(66.6), a.count('x') 2 1 0 >>> a.insert(2, -1) >>> a.append(333) >>> a [66.6, 333, -1, 333, 1, 1234.5, 333] >>> a.index(333) 1 >>> a.remove(333) >>> a [66.6, -1, 333, 1, 1234.5, 333] >>> a.reverse() >>> a [333, 1234.5, 1, 333, -1, 66.6] >>> a.sort() >>> a [-1, 1, 66.6, 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 (of the same type, if possible) consisting of those items from the sequence for which \code{\var{function}(\var{item})} is true. 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{func}, \var{sequence})} returns a single value constructed by calling the binary function \var{func} 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 "", 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 functions with more than one argument and to 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 can also be used to remove slices from a list (which we did earlier by assignment of an empty list to the slice). For example: \begin{verbatim} >>> a = [-1, 1, 66.6, 333, 333, 1234.5] >>> del a[0] >>> a [1, 66.6, 333, 333, 1234.5] >>> del a[2:4] >>> a [1, 66.6, 1234.5] \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 alway 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 that the list of variables on the left 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'] >>> fruits = set(basket) # create a set without duplicates >>> fruits set(['orange', 'pear', 'apple', 'banana']) >>> 'orange' in fruits # fast membership testing True >>> 'crabgrass' in fruits 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 their \method{append()} and \method{extend()} methods, as well as slice and indexed assignments. 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 random 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, use the \method{has_key()} method of the dictionary. 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 \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 vec]) # use a list comprehension {2: 4, 4: 16, 6: 36} \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 above can contain other operators besides 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 by 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 all have lower priorities than comparison operators again; 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}. Of course, 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}. In general, the return value of a short-circuit operator, when used as a general value and not as a Boolean, 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 with the same types: \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. Mixed numeric types are compared according to their numeric value, so 0 equals 0.0, 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. } \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{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{amoeba} module is only provided on systems that somehow support Amoeba primitives. 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 determine 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, sys >>> fib = fibo.fib >>> dir() ['__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', 'IOError', 'ImportError', 'IndentationError', 'IndexError', 'KeyError', 'KeyboardInterrupt', 'LookupError', 'MemoryError', 'NameError', 'None', 'NotImplemented', 'NotImplementedError', 'OSError', 'OverflowError', 'OverflowWarning', 'PendingDeprecationWarning', 'ReferenceError', 'RuntimeError', 'RuntimeWarning', 'StandardError', 'StopIteration', 'SyntaxError', 'SyntaxWarning', 'SystemError', 'SystemExit', 'TabError', 'True', 'TypeError', 'UnboundLocalError', 'UnicodeError', 'UserWarning', 'ValueError', 'Warning', 'ZeroDivisionError', '__debug__', '__doc__', '__import__', '__name__', 'abs', 'apply', 'bool', 'buffer', 'callable', 'chr', 'classmethod', 'cmp', 'coerce', 'compile', 'complex', 'copyright', 'credits', 'delattr', 'dict', 'dir', 'divmod', 'enumerate', 'eval', 'execfile', 'exit', 'file', 'filter', 'float', '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', 'round', 'setattr', 'slice', 'staticmethod', 'str', 'string', '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 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 Mac and 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 its initialization code, \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 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), there's no shortcut to refer to submodules of sibling packages - the full name of the subpackage must be used. 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}. \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 lay-out 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 their use is discouraged. 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 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 \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 JPEGs or \file{.EXE} files. Be very careful to use binary mode when reading and writing such files. (Note that the precise semantics of text mode on the Macintosh depends on the underlying C library being used.) \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} \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} \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 "", 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 "", 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 "", line 1, in ? ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero >>> 4 + spam*3 Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in ? NameError: name 'spam' is not defined >>> '2' + 2 Traceback (most recent call last): File "", 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 is a detail whose interpretation depends on the exception type; its meaning is dependent on the exception type. The preceding part of the error message shows the context where the exception happened, in the form of a stack backtrace. In general it contains a stack backtrace 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 rest of the try clause is skipped, 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 list, 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 list). 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}. \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 ... ('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 \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 "", 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. 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 "", 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 "", line 1, in ? __main__.MyError: 'oops!' \end{verbatim} 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 which 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 "", line 2, in ? KeyboardInterrupt \end{verbatim} A \emph{finally clause} is executed whether or not an exception has occurred in the try clause. When an exception has occurred, it is re-raised after the finally clause is executed. The finally clause is also executed ``on the way out'' when the \keyword{try} statement is left via a \keyword{break} or \keyword{return} statement. The code in the finally clause is useful for releasing external resources (such as files or network connections), regardless of whether or not the use of the resource was successful. A \keyword{try} statement must either have one or more except clauses or one finally clause, but not both. \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, 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.) I also have to warn you that there's a terminological pitfall for object-oriented readers: the word ``object'' in Python does not necessarily mean a class instance. Like \Cpp{} and Modula-3, and unlike Smalltalk, not all types in Python are classes: the basic built-in types like integers and lists are not, and even somewhat more exotic types like files aren't. However, \emph{all} Python types share a little bit of common semantics that is best described by using the word object. 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. Usually, the local scope references the local names of the (textually) current function. Outside of 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: . . . \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 definitions 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 method 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 in a known 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. The first I'll call \emph{data attributes}. These 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 second kind of attribute references understood by instance objects are \emph{methods}. 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, below, 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 (user-defined) 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 immediately: \begin{verbatim} x.f() \end{verbatim} In our 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. Conventionally, the first argument of methods is often 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 by other Python programmers, and it is also conceivable that a \emph{class browser} program be written which 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 as follows: \begin{verbatim} class DerivedClassName(BaseClassName): . . . \end{verbatim} The name \class{BaseClassName} must be defined in a scope containing the derived class definition. Instead of a base class name, an expression is also allowed. This is useful 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, it is searched 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 in fact 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 as follows: \begin{verbatim} class DerivedClassName(Base1, Base2, Base3): . . . \end{verbatim} The only rule necessary to explain the semantics is the resolution rule used for class attribute references. This 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}.) It is clear that indiscriminate use of multiple inheritance is a maintenance nightmare, given the reliance in Python on conventions to avoid accidental name conflicts. A well-known problem with multiple inheritance is a class derived from two classes that happen to have a common base class. While it is easy enough to figure out what happens in this case (the instance will have a single copy of ``instance variables'' or data attributes used by the common base class), it is not clear that these semantics are in any way useful. \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 of the syntactic position of the identifier, so it can be used to define class-private instance and class variables, methods, as well as globals, and even to store instance variables 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{evalfile()} 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 couple of 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 gets 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 object of which the method is an instance, 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 which is a class, the 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've 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 >>> it.next() 'a' >>> it.next() 'b' >>> it.next() 'c' >>> it.next() Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in -toplevel- 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 class 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:\\Python24' >>> 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. 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) >>> help(os) \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 invoke processing 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') 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: # look for Eastern Standard Time ... print line
Nov. 25, 09:43:32 PM EST >>> import smtplib >>> server = smtplib.SMTP('localhost') >>> server.sendmail('soothsayer@example.org', 'jceasar@example.org', """To: jceasar@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 time zone 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 or %d%b %Y is a %A on the %d day of %B") '12-02-03 or 02Dec 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(t) -1438085031 \end{verbatim} \section{Performance Measurement\label{performance-measurement}} Some Python users develop a deep interest in knowing the relative performance between 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: * 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 names, no direct knowledge or handling of XML is needed. * 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. * 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 \module{csv} 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. * 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. \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 an version of \function{repr()} 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['int_frac_digits'], x), grouping=True) '$1,234,567.80' \end{verbatim} \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. Python threads are driven by the operating system and run in a single process and share memory space in a single interpreter. Threads can be used to improve the responsiveness of applications that accept user input while other tasks run in the background. 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 AsyncZip('mydata.txt', 'myarchive.zip').start() print 'The main program continues to run' \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. A simpler and more robust approach to task coordination is concentrating all access to a resource in a single thread and then using the \ulink{\module{Queue}}{../lib/module-Queue.html} module to feed that thread with requests from other threads. Applications that use \class{Queue} objects for inter-thread communication and coordination tend to be 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 "", line 1, in -toplevel- d['primary'] # entry was automatically removed File "C:/PY24/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 but 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 the two digit multiplicands. 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 solve your real-world problems. Now what should you do? You should read, or at least page through, the \citetitle[../lib/lib.html]{Python Library Reference}, which gives complete (though terse) reference material about types, functions, and modules that can save you a lot of time when writing Python programs. The standard Python distribution includes a \emph{lot} of code in both C and Python; there are modules to read \UNIX{} mailboxes, retrieve documents via HTTP, generate random numbers, parse command-line options, write CGI programs, compress data, and a lot more; skimming through the Library Reference will give you an idea of what's available. The major Python Web site is \url{http://www.python.org/}; 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. A more informal site is \url{http://starship.python.net/}, which contains a bunch of Python-related personal home pages; many people have downloadable software there. Many more user-created Python modules can be found in the \ulink{Python Package Index}{http://www.python.org/pypi} (PyPI). 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://www.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 environments. 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 to 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 (implicitly) 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, it is not a bug in your code either, and 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, adding 0.1 to itself 10 times 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 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} >>> 2L**52 4503599627370496L >>> 2L**53 9007199254740992L >>> 2L**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(2L**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 * 2L**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} >>> 7205759403792794L * 10L**30 / 2L**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}