The Python Environment
Starting
Python
If the interpreter is not in your PATHs
Using the interpreter
Trying a few commands
The help() function
Running a Python script
Python scripts on UNIX
Python editors and IDEs

Getting Started
Using variables
Keywors
Built-in functions
Strings
Single-quoted string literals
Triple-quoted string literals
Raw string literals
Unicode literals
String operators and expressions
Converting among types
Writing to the screen
String formatting
Legacy string formatting
Command line parameters
Reading from the keyboard

Flow Control
About flow control
What’s with the white space?
if andelif
Conditional expressions
Relational and Boolean operators
while loops
Alternateways to exit as loop

Lists and Tuples
About Sequences
Lists
Tuples
Indexing and slicing
Iterating through a sequence
Functions for all sequences
Using enumerate()
Operators and keywords for sequences
The xrange()function
Nested sequences
List comprehensions
Generator expressions

Working with Files
Text file I/O
Opening a text file
The with block
Reading a text file
Writing a text file
Python for Scientists
“Binary” (raw, or non-delimited) data

Dictionaries and Sets
About dictionaries
When to use dictionaries
Creating dictionaries
Getting dictionary values
Iterating through a dictionary
Reading file data into a dictionary
Counting with dictionaries
About sets
Creating sets
Working with sets

Functions
Defining a function
Function parameters
Global variables
Variable scope
Returning values

Exception Handling
Syntax errors
Exceptions
Handling exceptions with try
Handling multiple exceptions
Handling generic exceptions
Ignoring exceptions
Using else
Cleaning up with finally
Re-raising exceptions
Raising a new exception
The standard exception hierarchy

OS Services
The os module
Environment variables
Launching external processes
Paths, directories, and filenames
Walking directory trees
Dates and times
Sending email

Pythonic Idioms
The Zen of Python
Common Python idioms
Packing and unpacking
Lambda functions
List comprehensions
Generators vs. iterators
Generator expressions
String tricks

Modules and Packages
What is a module?
The import statement
Where did the.pyc file come from?
Module search path
Zipped libraries
Creating Modules
Packages
Module aliases
When the batteries aren’t included

Objectives
Defining classes
Instance objects
Instance attributes
Methods
__init__
Properties
Class data
Inheritance
Multiple Inheritance
Base classes
Special methods
Pseudo-private variables
Static methods

Developer Tools
Program development
Comments
pylint
Customizing pylint
Unit testing
The unittest module
Creating a test class
Establishing success or failure
Startup and Cleanup
Running the tests
The Python debugger
Starting debug mode
Stepping through a program
Setting breakpoints
Debugging command reference
Benchmarking

XML and JSON
About XML
Normal approaches to XML
Which module to use?
Getting started with ElementTree
How ElementTree works
Creating a new XML Document
Parsing an XML Document
Navigating the XML Document
Using XPath
Advanced XPath

iPython
About iPython
Features of iPython
Starting iPython
Tab completion
Magic commands
Benchmarking
External commands
Enhanced help
Notebooks

numpy
Python’s scientific stack
numpy overview
Creating arrays
Creating ranges
Working with arrays
Shapes
Slicing and indexing
Indexing with Booleans
Stacking
Iterating
Tricks with arrays
Matrices
Data types
numpy functions

scipy
About scipy
Polynomials
Vectorizing functions
Subpackages
Getting help
Weave

A Tour of scipy subpackages
cluster
constants
fftpack
integrate
interpolate
io
linalg
ndimage
odr
optimize
signal
sparse
spatial
special
stats

pandas
About
pandas
Pandas architecture
Series
DataFrames
Data Alignment
Index Objects
Basic Indexing
Broadcasting
Removing entries
Time series
Reading Data

matplotlib
About matplotlib
matplotlib architecture
matplotlib Terminology
matplotlib keeps state
What else can you do?

Python Imaging Library
The PIL
Supported image file types
The Image class
Reading and writing
Creating thumbnails
Coordinate system
Cropping an
d pasting
Rotating, resizing, and flipping
Enhancing