Python Crash Course 3rd edition by Eric Matthes ISBN 1593276036 978-1593276034

Part I: Basics

Chapter 1: Getting Started

Setting Up Your Programming Environment

Python Versions

Running Snippets of Python Code

About the VS Code Editor

Python on Different Operating Systems

Python on Windows

Python on macOS

Python on Linux

Running a Hello World Program

Installing the Python Extension for VS Code

Running hello_world.py

Troubleshooting

Running Python Programs from a Terminal

On Windows

On macOS and Linux

Exercise 1-1: python.org

Exercise 1-2: Hello World Typos

Exercise 1-3: Infinite Skills

Summary

Chapter 2: Variables and Simple Data Types

What Really Happens When You Run hello_world.py

Variables

Naming and Using Variables

Avoiding Name Errors When Using Variables

Variables Are Labels

Exercise 2-1: Simple Message

Exercise 2-2: Simple Messages

Strings

Changing Case in a String with Methods

Using Variables in Strings

Adding Whitespace to Strings with Tabs or Newlines

Stripping Whitespace

Removing Prefixes

Avoiding Syntax Errors with Strings

Exercise 2-3: Personal Message

Exercise 2-4: Name Cases

Exercise 2-5: Famous Quote

Exercise 2-6: Famous Quote 2

Exercise 2-7: Stripping Names

Exercise 2-8: File Extensions

Numbers

Integers

Floats

Integers and Floats

Underscores in Numbers

Multiple Assignment

Constants

Exercise 2-9: Number Eight

Exercise 2-10: Favorite Number

Comments

How Do You Write Comments?

What Kinds of Comments Should You Write?

Exercise 2-11: Adding Comments

The Zen of Python

Exercise 2-12: Zen of Python

Summary

Chapter 3: Introducing Lists

What Is a List?

Accessing Elements in a List

Index Positions Start at 0, Not 1

Using Individual Values from a List

Exercise 3-1: Names

Exercise 3-2: Greetings

Exercise 3-3: Your Own List

Modifying, Adding, and Removing Elements

Modifying Elements in a List

Adding Elements to a List

Removing Elements from a List

Exercise 3-4: Guest List

Exercise 3-5: Changing Guest List

Exercise 3-6: More Guests

Exercise 3-7: Shrinking Guest List

Organizing a List

Sorting a List Permanently with the sort() Method

Sorting a List Temporarily with the sorted() Function

Printing a List in Reverse Order

Finding the Length of a List

Exercise 3-8: Seeing the World

Exercise 3-9: Dinner Guests

Exercise 3-10: Every Function

Avoiding Index Errors When Working with Lists

Exercise 3-11: Intentional Error

Summary

Chapter 4: Working with Lists

Looping Through an Entire List

A Closer Look at Looping

Doing More Work Within a for Loop

Doing Something After a for Loop

Avoiding Indentation Errors

Forgetting to Indent

Forgetting to Indent Additional Lines

Indenting Unnecessarily

Indenting Unnecessarily After the Loop

Forgetting the Colon

Exercise 4-1: Pizzas

Exercise 4-2: Animals

Making Numerical Lists

Using the range() Function

Using range() to Make a List of Numbers

Simple Statistics with a List of Numbers

List Comprehensions

Exercise 4-3: Counting to Twenty

Exercise 4-4: One Million

Exercise 4-5: Summing a Million

Exercise 4-6: Odd Numbers

Exercise 4-7: Threes

Exercise 4-8: Cubes

Exercise 4-9: Cube Comprehension

Working with Part of a List

Slicing a List

Looping Through a Slice

Copying a List

Exercise 4-10: Slices

Exercise 4-11: My Pizzas, Your Pizzas

Exercise 4-12: More Loops

Tuples

Defining a Tuple

Looping Through All Values in a Tuple

Writing Over a Tuple

Exercise 4-13: Buffet

Styling Your Code

The Style Guide

Indentation

Line Length

Blank Lines

Other Style Guidelines

Exercise 4-14: PEP 8

Exercise 4-15: Code Review

Summary

Chapter 5: if Statements

A Simple Example

Conditional Tests

Checking for Equality

Ignoring Case When Checking for Equality

Checking for Inequality

Numerical Comparisons

Checking Multiple Conditions

Checking Whether a Value Is in a List

Checking Whether a Value Is Not in a List

Boolean Expressions

Exercise 5-1: Conditional Tests

Exercise 5-2: More Conditional Tests

if Statements

Simple if Statements

if-else Statements

The if-elif-else Chain

Using Multiple elif Blocks

Omitting the else Block

Testing Multiple Conditions

Exercise 5-3: Alien Colors #1

Exercise 5-4: Alien Colors #2

Exercise 5-5: Alien Colors #3

Exercise 5-6: Stages of Life

Exercise 5-7: Favorite Fruit

Using if Statements with Lists

Checking for Special Items

Checking That a List Is Not Empty

Using Multiple Lists

Exercise 5-8: Hello Admin

Exercise 5-9: No Users

Exercise 5-10: Checking Usernames

Exercise 5-11: Ordinal Numbers

Styling Your if Statements

Exercise 5-12: Styling if Statements

Exercise 5-13: Your Ideas

Summary

Chapter 6: Dictionaries

A Simple Dictionary

Working with Dictionaries

Accessing Values in a Dictionary

Adding New Key-Value Pairs

Starting with an Empty Dictionary

Modifying Values in a Dictionary

Removing Key-Value Pairs

A Dictionary of Similar Objects

Using get() to Access Values

Exercise 6-1: Person

Exercise 6-2: Favorite Numbers

Exercise 6-3: Glossary

Looping Through a Dictionary

Looping Through All Key-Value Pairs

Looping Through All the Keys in a Dictionary

Looping Through a Dictionary’s Keys in a Particular Order

Looping Through All Values in a Dictionary

Exercise 6-4: Glossary 2

Exercise 6-5: Rivers

Exercise 6-6: Polling

Nesting

A List of Dictionaries

A List in a Dictionary

A Dictionary in a Dictionary

Exercise 6-7: People

Exercise 6-8: Pets

Exercise 6-9: Favorite Places

Exercise 6-10: Favorite Numbers

Exercise 6-11: Cities

Exercise 6-12: Extensions

Summary

Chapter 7: User Input and while Loops

How the input() Function Works

Writing Clear Prompts

Using int() to Accept Numerical Input

The Modulo Operator

Exercise 7-1: Rental Car

Exercise 7-2: Restaurant Seating

Exercise 7-3: Multiples of Ten

Introducing while Loops

The while Loop in Action

Letting the User Choose When to Quit

Using a Flag

Using break to Exit a Loop

Using continue in a Loop

Avoiding Infinite Loops

Exercise 7-4: Pizza Toppings

Exercise 7-5: Movie Tickets

Exercise 7-6: Three Exits

Exercise 7-7: Infinity

Using a while Loop with Lists and Dictionaries

Moving Items from One List to Another

Removing All Instances of Specific Values from a List

Filling a Dictionary with User Input

Exercise 7-8: Deli

Exercise 7-9: No Pastrami

Exercise 7-10: Dream Vacation

Summary

Chapter 8: Functions

Defining a Function

Passing Information to a Function

Arguments and Parameters

Exercise 8-1: Message

Exercise 8-2: Favorite Book

Passing Arguments

Positional Arguments

Keyword Arguments

Default Values

Equivalent Function Calls

Avoiding Argument Errors

Exercise 8-3: T-Shirt

Exercise 8-4: Large Shirts

Exercise 8-5: Cities

Return Values

Returning a Simple Value

Making an Argument Optional

Returning a Dictionary

Using a Function with a while Loop

Exercise 8-6: City Names

Exercise 8-7: Album

Exercise 8-8: User Albums

Passing a List

Modifying a List in a Function

Preventing a Function from Modifying a List

Exercise 8-9: Messages

Exercise 8-10: Sending Messages

Exercise 8-11: Archived Messages

Passing an Arbitrary Number of Arguments

Mixing Positional and Arbitrary Arguments

Using Arbitrary Keyword Arguments

Exercise 8-12: Sandwiches

Exercise 8-13: User Profile

Exercise 8-14: Cars

Storing Your Functions in Modules

Importing an Entire Module

Importing Specific Functions

Using as to Give a Function an Alias

Using as to Give a Module an Alias

Importing All Functions in a Module

Styling Functions

Exercise 8-15: Printing Models

Exercise 8-16: Imports

Exercise 8-17: Styling Functions

Summary

Chapter 9: Classes

Creating and Using a Class

Creating the Dog Class

The __init__() Method

Making an Instance from a Class

Exercise 9-1: Restaurant

Exercise 9-2: Three Restaurants

Exercise 9-3: Users

Working with Classes and Instances

The Car Class

Setting a Default Value for an Attribute

Modifying Attribute Values

Exercise 9-4: Number Served

Exercise 9-5: Login Attempts

Inheritance

The __init__() Method for a Child Class

Defining Attributes and Methods for the Child Class

Overriding Methods from the Parent Class

Instances as Attributes

Modeling Real-World Objects

Exercise 9-6: Ice Cream Stand

Exercise 9-7: Admin

Exercise 9-8: Privileges

Exercise 9-9: Battery Upgrade

Importing Classes

Importing a Single Class

Storing Multiple Classes in a Module

Importing Multiple Classes from a Module

Importing an Entire Module

Importing All Classes from a Module

Importing a Module into a Module

Using Aliases

Finding Your Own Workflow

Exercise 9-10: Imported Restaurant

Exercise 9-11: Imported Admin

Exercise 9-12: Multiple Modules

The Python Standard Library

Exercise 9-13: Dice

Exercise 9-14: Lottery

Exercise 9-15: Lottery Analysis

Exercise 9-16: Python Module of the Week

Styling Classes

Summary

Chapter 10: Files and Exceptions

Reading from a File

Reading the Contents of a File

Relative and Absolute File Paths

Accessing a File’s Lines

Working with a File’s Contents

Large Files: One Million Digits

Is Your Birthday Contained in Pi?

Exercise 10-1: Learning Python

Exercise 10-2: Learning C

Exercise 10-3: Simpler Code

Writing to a File

Writing a Single Line

Writing Multiple Lines

Exercise 10-4: Guest

Exercise 10-5: Guest Book

Exceptions

Handling the ZeroDivisionError Exception

Using try-except Blocks

Using Exceptions to Prevent Crashes

The else Block

Handling the FileNotFoundError Exception

Analyzing Text

Working with Multiple Files

Failing Silently

Deciding Which Errors to Report

Exercise 10-6: Addition

Exercise 10-7: Addition Calculator

Exercise 10-8: Cats and Dogs

Exercise 10-9: Silent Cats and Dogs

Exercise 10-10: Common Words

Storing Data

Using json.dumps() and json.loads()

Saving and Reading User-Generated Data

Refactoring

Exercise 10-11: Favorite Number

Exercise 10-12: Favorite Number Remembered

Exercise 10-13: User Dictionary

Exercise 10-14: Verify User

Summary

Chapter 11: Testing Your Code

Installing pytest with pip

Updating pip

Installing pytest

Testing a Function

Unit Tests and Test Cases

A Passing Test

Running a Test

A Failing Test

Responding to a Failed Test

Adding New Tests

Exercise 11-1: City, Country

Exercise 11-2: Population

Testing a Class

A Variety of Assertions

A Class to Test

Testing the AnonymousSurvey Class

Using Fixtures

Exercise 11-3: Employee

Summary

Part II: Projects

Chapter 12: A Ship That Fires Bullets

Planning Your Project

Installing Pygame

Starting the Game Project

Creating a Pygame Window and Responding to User Input

Controlling the Frame Rate

Setting the Background Color

Creating a Settings Class

Adding the Ship Image

Creating the Ship Class

Drawing the Ship to the Screen

Refactoring: The _check_events() and _update_screen() Methods

The _check_events() Method

The _update_screen() Method

Exercise 12-1: Blue Sky

Exercise 12-2: Game Character

Piloting the Ship

Responding to a Keypress

Allowing Continuous Movement

Moving Both Left and Right

Adjusting the Ship’s Speed

Limiting the Ship’s Range

Refactoring _check_events()

Pressing Q to Quit

Running the Game in Fullscreen Mode

A Quick Recap

alien_invasion.py

settings.py

ship.py

Exercise 12-3: Pygame Documentation

Exercise 12-4: Rocket

Exercise 12-5: Keys

Shooting Bullets

Adding the Bullet Settings

Creating the Bullet Class

Storing Bullets in a Group

Firing Bullets

Deleting Old Bullets

Limiting the Number of Bullets

Creating the _update_bullets() Method

Exercise 12-6: Sideways Shooter

Summary

Chapter 13: Aliens!

Reviewing the Project

Creating the First Alien

Creating the Alien Class

Creating an Instance of the Alien

Building the Alien Fleet

Creating a Row of Aliens

Refactoring _create_fleet()

Adding Rows

Exercise 13-1: Stars

Exercise 13-2: Better Stars

Making the Fleet Move

Moving the Aliens Right

Creating Settings for Fleet Direction

Checking Whether an Alien Has Hit the Edge

Dropping the Fleet and Changing Direction

Exercise 13-3: Raindrops

Exercise 13-4: Steady Rain

Shooting Aliens

Detecting Bullet Collisions

Making Larger Bullets for Testing

Repopulating the Fleet

Speeding Up the Bullets

Refactoring _update_bullets()

Exercise 13-5: Sideways Shooter Part 2

Ending the Game

Detecting Alien-Ship Collisions

Responding to Alien-Ship Collisions

Aliens That Reach the Bottom of the Screen

Game Over!

Identifying When Parts of the Game Should Run

Exercise 13-6: Game Over

Summary

Chapter 14: Scoring

Adding the Play Button

Creating a Button Class

Drawing the Button to the Screen

Starting the Game

Resetting the Game

Deactivating the Play Button

Hiding the Mouse Cursor

Exercise 14-1: Press P to Play

Exercise 14-2: Target Practice

Leveling Up

Modifying the Speed Settings

Resetting the Speed

Exercise 14-3: Challenging Target Practice

Exercise 14-4: Difficulty Levels

Scoring

Displaying the Score

Making a Scoreboard

Updating the Score as Aliens Are Shot Down

Resetting the Score

Making Sure to Score All Hits

Increasing Point Values

Rounding the Score

High Scores

Displaying the Level

Displaying the Number of Ships

Exercise 14-5: All-Time High Score

Exercise 14-6: Refactoring

Exercise 14-7: Expanding the Game

Exercise 14-8: Sideways Shooter, Final Version

Summary

Chapter 15: Generating Data

Installing Matplotlib

Plotting a Simple Line Graph

Changing the Label Type and Line Thickness

Correcting the Plot

Using Built-in Styles

Plotting and Styling Individual Points with scatter()

Plotting a Series of Points with scatter()

Calculating Data Automatically

Customizing Tick Labels

Defining Custom Colors

Using a Colormap

Saving Your Plots Automatically

Exercise 15-1: Cubes

Exercise 15-2: Colored Cubes

Random Walks

Creating the RandomWalk Class

Choosing Directions

Plotting the Random Walk

Generating Multiple Random Walks

Styling the Walk

Exercise 15-3: Molecular Motion

Exercise 15-4: Modified Random Walks

Exercise 15-5: Refactoring

Rolling Dice with Plotly

Installing Plotly

Creating the Die Class

Rolling the Die

Analyzing the Results

Making a Histogram

Customizing the Plot

Rolling Two Dice

Further Customizations

Rolling Dice of Different Sizes

Saving Figures

Exercise 15-6: Two D8s

Exercise 15-7: Three Dice

Exercise 15-8: Multiplication

Exercise 15-9: Die Comprehensions

Exercise 15-10: Practicing with Both Libraries

Summary

Chapter 16: Downloading Data

The CSV File Format

Parsing the CSV File Headers

Printing the Headers and Their Positions

Extracting and Reading Data

Plotting Data in a Temperature Chart

The datetime Module

Plotting Dates

Plotting a Longer Timeframe

Plotting a Second Data Series

Shading an Area in the Chart

Error Checking

Downloading Your Own Data

Exercise 16-1: Sitka Rainfall

Exercise 16-2: Sitka–Death Valley Comparison

Exercise 16-3: San Francisco

Exercise 16-4: Automatic Indexes

Exercise 16-5: Explore

Mapping Global Datasets: GeoJSON Format

Downloading Earthquake Data

Examining GeoJSON Data

Making a List of All Earthquakes

Extracting Magnitudes

Extracting Location Data

Building a World Map

Representing Magnitudes

Customizing Marker Colors

Other Color Scales

Adding Hover Text

Exercise 16-6: Refactoring

Exercise 16-7: Automated Title

Exercise 16-8: Recent Earthquakes

Exercise 16-9: World Fires

Summary

Chapter 17: Working with APIs

Using an API

Git and GitHub

Requesting Data Using an API Call

Installing Requests

Processing an API Response

Working with the Response Dictionary

Summarizing the Top Repositories

Monitoring API Rate Limits

Visualizing Repositories Using Plotly

Styling the Chart

Adding Custom Tooltips

Adding Clickable Links

Customizing Marker Colors

More About Plotly and the GitHub API

The Hacker News API

Exercise 17-1: Other Languages

Exercise 17-2: Active Discussions

Exercise 17-3: Testing python_repos.py

Exercise 17-4: Further Exploration

Summary

Chapter 18: Getting Started with Django

Setting Up a Project

Writing a Spec

Creating a Virtual Environment

Activating the Virtual Environment

Installing Django

Creating a Project in Django

Creating the Database

Viewing the Project

Exercise 18-1: New Projects

Starting an App

Defining Models

Activating Models

The Django Admin Site

Defining the Entry Model

Migrating the Entry Model

Registering Entry with the Admin Site

The Django Shell

Exercise 18-2: Short Entries

Exercise 18-3: The Django API

Exercise 18-4: Pizzeria

Making Pages: The Learning Log Home Page

Mapping a URL

Writing a View

Writing a Template

Exercise 18-5: Meal Planner

Exercise 18-6: Pizzeria Home Page

Building Additional Pages

Template Inheritance

The Topics Page

Individual Topic Pages

Exercise 18-7: Template Documentation

Exercise 18-8: Pizzeria Pages

Summary

Chapter 19: User Accounts

Allowing Users to Enter Data

Adding New Topics

Adding New Entries

Editing Entries

Exercise 19-1: Blog

Setting Up User Accounts

The accounts App

The Login Page

Logging Out

The Registration Page

Exercise 19-2: Blog Accounts

Allowing Users to Own Their Data

Restricting Access with @login_required

Connecting Data to Certain Users

Restricting Topics Access to Appropriate Users

Protecting a User’s Topics

Protecting the edit_entry Page

Associating New Topics with the Current User

Exercise 19-3: Refactoring

Exercise 19-4: Protecting new_entry

Exercise 19-5: Protected Blog

Summary

Chapter 20: Styling and Deploying an App

Styling Learning Log

The django-bootstrap5 App

Using Bootstrap to Style Learning Log

Modifying base.html

Styling the Home Page Using a Jumbotron

Styling the Login Page

Styling the Topics Page

Styling the Entries on the Topic Page

Exercise 20-1: Other Forms

Exercise 20-2: Stylish Blog

Deploying Learning Log

Making a Platform.sh Account

Installing the Platform.sh CLI

Installing platformshconfig

Creating a requirements.txt File

Additional Deployment Requirements

Adding Configuration Files

Modifying settings.py for Platform.sh

Using Git to Track the Project’s Files

Creating a Project on Platform.sh

Pushing to Platform.sh

Viewing the Live Project

Refining the Platform.sh Deployment

Creating Custom Error Pages

Ongoing Development

Deleting a Project on Platform.sh

Exercise 20-3: Live Blog

Exercise 20-4: Extended Learning Log

Summary

Appendix A: Installation and Troubleshooting

Python on Windows

Using py Instead of python

Rerunning the Installer

Python on macOS

Accidentally Installing Apple’s Version of Python

Python 2 on Older Versions of macOS

Python on Linux

Using the Default Python Installation

Installing the Latest Version of Python

Checking Which Version of Python You’re Using

Python Keywords and Built-in Functions

Python Keywords

Python Built-in Functions

Appendix B: Text Editors and IDEs

Working Efficiently with VS Code

Configuring VS Code

VS Code Shortcuts

Other Text Editors and IDEs

IDLE

Geany

Sublime Text

Emacs and Vim

PyCharm

Jupyter Notebooks

Appendix C: Getting Help

First Steps

Try It Again

Take a Break

Refer to This Book’s Resources

Searching Online

Stack Overflow

The Official Python Documentation

Official Library Documentation

r/learnpython

Blog Posts

Discord

Slack

Appendix D: Using Git for Version Control

Installing Git

Configuring Git

Making a Project

Ignoring Files

Initializing a Repository

Checking the Status

Adding Files to the Repository

Making a Commit

Checking the Log

The Second Commit

Abandoning Changes

Checking Out Previous Commits

Deleting the Repository

Appendix E: Troubleshooting Deployments

Understanding Deployments

Basic Troubleshooting

Follow Onscreen Suggestions

Read the Log Output

OS-Specific Troubleshooting

Deploying from Windows

Deploying from macOS

Deploying from Linux

Other Deployment Approaches

Index