Automate The Boring Stuff With Python

514 Pages·2014·2.47 MB·English

by  Al Sweigart

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AUTOMATE THE BORING STUFF WITH PYTHON
PRACTICAL PROGRAMMING FOR TOTA L BEGINNERS
AUTOMATE THE BORING STUFF WITH PYTHON
AUTOMATE THE BORING STUFF WITH PYTHON Practical
Programming for Total Beginners by Al Sweigart San Francisco
AUTOMATE THE BORING STUFF WITH PYTHON.
Copyright © 2015 by Al Sweigart. All rights reserved. No part of this work
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the
copyright owner and the publisher. Printed in USA Second printing
1918171615 23456789 is BN, ® SUSTAINABLE Certified Sourcing
ISBN-10: 1-59327-599-4 | INITIATIVE www.sfiprogram.org | ISBN-13:
978-1-59327-599-0 Naa SEE E Publisher: William Pollock Production
Editor: Laurel Chun Cover Illustration: Josh Ellingson Interior Design:
Octopod Studios Developmental Editors: Jennifer Griffith-Delgado, Greg
Poulos, and Leslie Shen Technical Reviewer: Ari Lacenski Jopyeditor: Kim
Wimpsett Compositor: Susan Glinert Stevens Proofreader: Lisa Devoto
Farrell Indexer: BIM Indexing and Proofreading Services For information
on distribution, translations, or bulk sales, please contact No Starch Press,
Inc. directly: No Starch Press, Inc. 245 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: [phone]; [email protected] www.nostarch.com Library of
Congress Control Number: 2014953114 No Starch Press and the No Starch
Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press, Inc. Other product
and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their
respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every
occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in an
editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no
intention of infringement of the trademark. The information in this book is
distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every precaution
has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No
Starch Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity with
respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or
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For my nephew Jack
About the Author Al Sweigart is a software developer and tech
book author living in San Francisco. Python is his favorite programming
language, and he is the developer of several open source modules for it. His
other books are freely available under a Creative Commons license on his
website http://www inventwithpython.com/. His cat weighs 14 pounds.
About the Tech Reviewer Ari Lacenski is a developer of Android
applications and Python software. She lives in San Francisco, where she
writes about Android programming at hitp://gradlewhy.ghost.io/ and
mentors with Women Who Code. She’s also a folk guitarist.
The text on this page is estimated to be only 45.24% accurate
BRIEF CONTENTS Acknowledgments: 6:0 se4!souekgeatey
cukdleeile cea dulehe dine deeded ay gay) xxiii IntroduchOn zeta 0U Ss
hath innt ok S Raha eae ol atik Me ake Ge ote Col ee Ae 1 PART I:
PYTHON PROGRAMMING BASICS. .......... ccc cece cece eee eeeee 11
Chapter: t: PythoniBasi¢s 24-3 o oian a cae ke teh a y ae Ca athens 13
Chapter.2: Flow Control seit sh Se haha a a r aa a a Sch ae 31 Chapter 3s
Functions 34) eae oud e ee aretae eee tea ae ee aas 61 ChapterA:
listss..20724 abe oho ead e sanded hee toe ed eee ihe sea) 79 Chapter 5:
Dictionaries and Structuring Data... 2... te eee 105 Chapter 6: Manipulating
Strings .. 0.0.0... 0. eect eee eee 123 PART Il: AUTOMATING TASKS»
o.)05 0:.0)0 oa Se See See ele wide dele is eee als 145 Chapter 7: Pattern
Matching with Regular Expressions... 2.0.0.0... cece eee eee 147 Chapter 8:
Reading and Writing Files... 0.0.0... eee eee 173 Chapter 9: Organizing
Files |... naana aaae 197 Chapter 10: Debugging reris s inniinn ese el tea ae
epee ae 215 Chaptér 4-14 Web Scraping e ereet e a e a a iaa e ega 233
Chapter 12: Working with Excel Spreadsheets .......... 0.0.0 cece eee eee eee
265 Chapter 13: Working with PDF and Word Documents... ......0.0 000 c
eee ee eee 295 Chapter 14: Working with CSV Files and JSON Data... 0.0...
ee eee 319 Chapter 15: Keeping Time, Scheduling Tasks, and Launching
Programs.............. 335 Chapter 16: Sending Email and Text Messages...
0.2.00... eee eee eee eee eee 361 Chapter 17: Manipulating Images .........
00.0 cece eee eee eee 387 Chapter 18: Controlling the Keyboard and Mouse
with GUI Automation ............. 413
The text on this page is estimated to be only 52.54% accurate
Appendix A: Installing Third-Party Modules UAL thd eR te A a
A ek he at 441 Appendix B: Running Programs... 1.0... ec eee eens 443
Appendix C: Answers to the Practice Questions. . 0.0... cece eee 447