Automate The Boring Stuff With Python, 2Nd Edition: Practical Programming For Total Beginners

594 Pages·2019·12.09 MB·English

by  Al Sweigart

2ND EDITION
AAUUTTOOMMAATTEE
LLEEAARRNN PPYYTTHHOONN.. OOOOVVVVEEEERRRR 222200000000,,,,000000000000
GGEETT SSTTUUFFFF DDOONNEE.. CCCCOOOOPPPPIIIIEEEESSSS SSSSOOOOLLLLDDDD
2ND EDITION
TTHHEE BBOORRIINNGG SSTTUUFFFF
AA
WWIITTHH PPYYTTHHOONN
SSUU
TTTT
If you’ve ever spent hours renaming files or updating • Search the web and download online content
P R A C T I C A L P R O G R A M M I N G
hundreds of spreadsheet cells, you know how tedious UUOO
• Split, merge, watermark, and encrypt PDFs
tasks like these can be. But what if you could have your F O R T O T A L B E G I N N E R S
computer do them for you? • Send email responses and text notifications FFMM
In this fully revised second edition of Automate the • Fill out online forms FF
AA A L S W E I G A R T
Boring Stuff with Python, you’ll learn how to use Python
Step-by-step instructions walk you through each program,
to write programs that do in minutes what would take WWTT
and updated practice projects at the end of each chapter
you hours to do by hand—no prior programming experi-
challenge you to improve those programs and use your EE
ence required. You’ll learn the basics of Python and
newfound skills to automate similar tasks. II
explore Python’s rich library of modules for performing TT
specific tasks, like scraping data off websites, reading Don’t spend your time doing work a well-trained monkey TT
PDF and Word documents, and automating clicking and could do. Even if you’ve never written a line of code, HH
HH
typing tasks. you can make your computer do the grunt work. Learn
how in Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.
The second edition of this international best-seller PPEE
includes a brand-new chapter on input validation, ABOUT THE AUTHOR

as well as tutorials on automating Gmail and Google YYBB
Al Sweigart is a professional software developer who
Sheets, and tips on automatically updating CSV files.
You’ll learn how to create programs that effortlessly teaches programming to kids and adults. Sweigart TTOO
has written several bestselling programming books
perform useful feats of automation to: HH
for beginners, including Invent Your Own Computer
RR
• Search for text in a file or across multiple files Games with Python, Cracking Codes with Python, and
OO
• Create, update, move, and rename files and folders Coding with Minecraft (all from No Starch Press). II
NNNN
GG
COVERS PYTHON 3.X
THE FINEST IN GEEK ENTERTAINMENT™ S
W
www.nostarch.com E
I
$39.95 ($53.95 CDN) G
A
R
PYTHONPROGRAMMSHELVE IN: T
IN
G LAN
G
UAG
ES/

AUTOMATE THE BORING STUFF
WITH PYTHON

A U T O M A T E T H E
B O R I N G S T U F F
W I T H P Y T H O N
2 N D E D I T I O N
Practical Programming
for Total Beginners
by Al Sweigart
San Francisco
AUTOMATE THE BORING STUFF WITH PYTHON, 2ND EDITION. Copyright © 2020 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.
ISBN-10: 1-59327-992-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-992-9
Publisher: William Pollock
Production Editor: Laurel Chun
Cover Illustration: Josh Ellingson
Interior Design: Octopod Studios
Developmental Editors: Frances Saux and Jan Cash
Technical Reviewers: Ari Lacenski and Philip James
Copyeditors: Kim Wimpsett, Britt Bogan, and Paula L. Fleming
Compositors: Susan Glinert Stevens and Danielle Foster
Proofreaders: Lisa Devoto Farrell and Emelie Burnette
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
The Library of Congress Control Number for the first edition is: 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
indirectly by the information contained in it.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United
States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or
send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
For my nephew Jack
About the Author
Al Sweigart is a software developer and tech book author. 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 https://inventwithpython.com/. His cat now
weighs 11 pounds.
About the Tech Reviewer
Philip James has been working in Python for over a decade and is a frequent
speaker in the Python community. He speaks on topics ranging from Unix
fundamentals to open source social networks. Philip is a Core Contributor to
the BeeWare project and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his partner
Nic and her cat River.
BRIEF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxv
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxvii
PART I: PYTHON PROGRAMMING BASICS
Chapter 1: Python Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Chapter 2: Flow Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Chapter 3: Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
Chapter 4: Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
Chapter 5: Dictionaries and Structuring Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111
Chapter 6: Manipulating Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129
PART II: AUTOMATING TASKS
Chapter 7: Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161
Chapter 8: Input Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
Chapter 9: Reading and Writing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201
Chapter 10: Organizing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231
Chapter 11: Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .249
Chapter 12: Web Scraping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267
Chapter 13: Working with Excel Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .301
Chapter 14: Working with Google Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .329
Chapter 15: Working with PDF and Word Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .347
Chapter 16: Working with CSV Files and JSON Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .371
Chapter 17: Keeping Time, Scheduling Tasks, and Launching Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389
Chapter 18: Sending Email and Text Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .415
Chapter 19: Manipulating Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .447
Chapter 20: Controlling the Keyboard and Mouse with GUI Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Appendix A: Installing Third-Party Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .507
Appendix B: Running Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .511
Appendix C: Answers to the Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .517
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
viii Brief Contents