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Contents

Front matter

Version 2.7 (What's new?)
Check updates at http://rgruet.free.fr/#QuickRef.
Please report errors, inaccuracies and suggestions to Richard Gruet (pqr at rgruet.net).

Creative Commons License Creative Commons License.

Last updated on April 16, 2013.

Apr 16-May 27, 2013
Some corrections, see bottom, by Stefan McKinnon Høj-Edwards.
Oct, 2011
upgraded by Stefan McKinnon Høj-Edwards for Python 2.7
Feb 10, 2009
upgraded by Richard Gruet and Josh Stone for Python 2.6
Dec 14, 2006
upgraded by Richard Gruet for Python 2.5
Feb 17, 2005,
upgraded by Richard Gruet for Python 2.4
Oct 3, 2003
upgraded by Richard Gruet for Python 2.3
May 11, 2003, rev 4
upgraded by Richard Gruet for Python 2.2 (restyled by Andrei)
Aug 7, 2001
upgraded by Simon Brunning for Python 2.1
May 16, 2001
upgraded by Richard Gruet and Simon Brunning for Python 2.0
Jun 18, 2000
upgraded by Richard Gruet for Python 1.5.2
Oct 20, 1995
created by Chris Hoffmann for Python 1.3
Color coding:
Features added in 2.7 since 2.6
Features added in 2.6 since 2.5
Features added in 2.5 since 2.4
A link
Originally based on:
Useful links :
Tip: From within the Python interpreter, type help, help(object) or help("name") to get help.

Invocation Options

python[w] [-BdEhimOQsStuUvVWxX3] [-c command | scriptFile | - ] [args]
    (pythonw does not open a terminal/console; python does)
Invocation Options
Option Effect
-B Prevents module imports from creating .pyc or .pyo files (see also envt variable PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=x and attribute sys.dont_write_bytecode).
-d Output parser debugging information (also PYTHONDEBUG=x)
-E Ignore environment variables (such as PYTHONPATH)
-h Print a help message and exit (formerly -?)
-i Inspect interactively after running script (also PYTHONINSPECT=x) and force prompts, even if stdin appears not to be a terminal.
-m module Search for module on sys.path and runs the module as a script. (Implementation improved in 2.5: module runpy)
-O Optimize generated bytecode (also PYTHONOPTIMIZE=x). Asserts are suppressed.
-OO Remove doc-strings in addition to the -O optimizations.
-Q arg Division options: -Qold (default), -Qwarn, -Qwarnall, -Qnew
-s Disables the user-specific module path (also PYTHONNOUSERSITE=x)
-S Don't perform import site on initialization.
-t Issue warnings about inconsistent tab usage (-tt: issue errors).
-u Unbuffered binary stdout and stderr (also PYTHONUNBUFFERED=x).
-U Force Python to interpret all string literals as Unicode literals.
-v Verbose (trace import statements) (also PYTHONVERBOSE=x).
-V Print the Python version number and exit.
-W arg Warning control (arg is action:message:category:module:lineno)
-x Skip first line of source, allowing use of non-unix Forms of #!cmd
-X Disable class based built-in exceptions (for backward compatibility management of exceptions)
-3 Emit a DeprecationWarning for Python 3.x incompatibilities that 2to3 cannot trivially fix
-c command Specify the command to execute (see next section). This terminates the option list (following options are passed as arguments to the command).
scriptFile The name of a python file (.py) to execute. Read from stdin.
- Program read from stdin (default; interactive mode if a tty).
args Passed to script or command (in sys.argv[1:])
  If no scriptFile or command, Python enters interactive mode.
  • Available IDEs in std distrib: IDLE (tkinter based, portable), Pythonwin (on Windows). Other free IDEs: IPython (enhanced interactive Python shell - 2011), Eric (2011), SPE (2010), BOA constructor (GUI Builder - 2011), PyDev (Eclipse plugin - 2011).
  • Typical python module header :
    #!/usr/bin/env python
    # -*- coding: latin1 -*-
    Since 2.3 the encoding of a Python source file must be declared as one of the two first lines (or defaults to 7 bits Ascii) [PEP-0263], with the format:
    # -*- coding: encoding -*-
    Std encodings are defined here, e.g. ISO-8859-1 (aka latin1), iso-8859-15 (latin9), UTF-8... Not all encodings supported, in particular UTF-16 is not supported.
  • It's now a syntax error if a module contains string literals with 8-bit characters but doesn't have an encoding declaration (was a warning before).
  • Since 2.5, from __future__ import feature statements must be declared at beginning of source file.
  • Site customization: File sitecustomize.py is automatically loaded by Python if it exists in the Python path (ideally located in ${PYTHONHOME}/lib/site-packages/).
  • Tip: when launching a Python script on Windows,
    <pythonHome>\python myScript.py args ... can be reduced to :
    myScript.py args ... if <pythonHome> is in the PATH envt variable, and further reduced to :
    myScript args ... provided that .py;.pyw;.pyc;.pyo is added to the PATHEXT envt variable.

Environment variables

Environment variables
Variable Effect
PYTHONHOME Alternate prefix directory (or prefix:exec_prefix). The default module search path uses prefix/lib
PYTHONPATH Augments the default search path for module files. The format is the same as the shell's $PATH: one or more directory pathnames separated by ':' or ';' without spaces around (semi-) colons !
On Windows Python first searches for Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Python\PythonCore\x.y\PythonPath (default value). You can create a key named after your application with a default string value giving the root directory path of your appl.

Alternatively, you can create a text file with a .pth extension, containing the path(s), one per line, and put the file somewhere in the Python search path (ideally in the site-packages/ directory). It's better to create a .pth for each application, to make easy to uninstall them.
PYTHONSTARTUP If this is the name of a readable file, the Python commands in that file are executed before the first prompt is displayed in interactive mode (no default).
PYTHONDEBUG If non-empty, same as -d option
PYTHONINSPECT If non-empty, same as -i option
PYTHONOPTIMIZE If non-empty, same as -O option
PYTHONUNBUFFERED If non-empty, same as -u option
PYTHONVERBOSE If non-empty, same as -v option
PYTHONCASEOK If non-empty, ignore case in file/module names (imports)
PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE If non-empty, same as -B option
PYTHONIOENCODING Alternate encodingname or encodingname:errorhandler for stdin, stdout, and stderr, with the same choices accepted by str.encode().
PYTHONUSERBASE Provides a private site-packages directory for user-specific modules. [PEP-0370]
- On Unix and Mac OS X, defaults to ~/.local/, and modules are found in a version-specific subdirectory like lib/python2.6/site-packages.
- On Windows, defaults to %APPDATA%/Python and Python26/site-packages.
PYTHONNOUSERSITE If non-empty, same as -s option
PYTHONWARNINGS Allows controlling warnings, same as -W option

Notable lexical entities

Keywords

        and       del       for       is        raise
assert elif from lambda return
break else global not try
class except if or while
continue exec import pass with
def finally in print yield
  • (List of keywords available in std module: keyword)
  • Illegitimate Tokens (only valid in strings): $ ? (plus @ before 2.4)
  • A statement must all be on a single line. To break a statement over multiple lines, use "\", as with the C preprocessor.
    Exception: can always break when inside any (), [], or {} pair, or in triple-quoted strings.
  • More than one statement can appear on a line if they are separated with semicolons (";").
  • Comments start with "#" and continue to end of line.

Identifiers

(letter | "_") (letter | digit | "_")*
  • Python identifiers keywords, attributes, etc. are case-sensitive.
  • Special forms: _ident (not imported by 'from module import *'); __ident__ (system defined name); __ident (class-private name mangling).

String literals

Two flavors: str (standard 8 bits locale-dependent strings, like ascii, iso 8859-1, utf-8, ...) and unicode (16 or 32 bits/char in utf-16 mode or 32 bits/char in utf-32 mode); one common ancestor basestring.

Literal
"a string enclosed by double quotes"
'another string delimited by single quotes and with a " inside'
'''a string containing embedded newlines and quote (') marks, can be delimited with triple quotes.'''
""" may also use 3- double quotes as delimiters """
b"An 8-bit string" - A bytes instance, a forward-compatible form for an 8-bit string'
B"Another 8-bit string"
u'a unicode string'
U"Another unicode string"
r'a raw string where \ are kept (literalized): handy for regular expressions and windows paths!'
R"another raw string"   -- raw strings cannot end with a \
ur'a unicode raw string'
UR"another raw unicode"
  • Use \ at end of line to continue a string on next line.
  • Adjacent strings are concatened, e.g. 'Monty ' 'Python' is the same as 'Monty Python'.
  • u'hello' + ' world'  --> u'hello world'   (coerced to unicode)

String Literal Escapes
Escape Meaning
\newline Ignored (escape newline)
\\ Backslash (\)
\e Escape (ESC)
\v Vertical Tab (VT)
\' Single quote (')
\f Formfeed (FF)
\ooo char with octal value ooo
\" Double quote (")
\n Linefeed (LF)
\a Bell (BEL)
\r Carriage Return (CR)
\xhh char with hex value hh
\b Backspace (BS)
\t Horizontal Tab (TAB)
\uxxxx Character with 16-bit hex value xxxx (unicode only)
\Uxxxxxxxx Character with 32-bit hex value xxxxxxxx (unicode only)
\N{name} Character named in the Unicode database (unicode only), e.g. u'\N{Greek Small Letter Pi}' <=> u'\u03c0'.
(Conversely, in module unicodedata, unicodedata.name(u'\u03c0') == 'GREEK SMALL LETTER PI')
\AnyOtherChar left as-is, including the backslash, e.g. str('\z') == '\\z'
  • NUL byte (\000) is not an end-of-string marker; NULs may be embedded in strings.
  • Strings (and tuples) are immutable: they cannot be modified.

Boolean constants

  • True
  • False

Since 2.3, they are of new type bool.

Numbers

  • Decimal integer: 1234, 1234567890546378940L (or l)
  • Binary integer: 0b10, 0B10, 0b10101010101010101010101010101010L (begins with a 0b or 0B)
  • Octal integer: 0177, 0o177, 0O177, 0177777777777777777L (begins with a 0 , 0o, or 0O)
  • Hex integer: 0xFF, 0XFFFFffffFFFFFFFFFFL (begins with 0x or 0X)
  • Long integer (unlimited precision): 1234567890123456L (ends with L or l) or long(1234)
  • Float (double precision): 3.14e-10, .001, 10., 1E3
  • Complex: 1J, 2+3J, 4+5j (ends with J or j, + separates (float) real and imaginary parts)

Integers and long integers are unified starting from release 2.2 (the L suffix is no longer required)

Sequences

Strings and tuples are immutable, lists are mutable.
  • Strings (types str and unicode) of length 0, 1, 2 (see above)
      '', '1', "12", 'hello\n'
  • Tuples (type tuple) of length 0, 1, 2, etc:
      () (1,) (1,2) # parentheses are optional if len > 0
  • Lists (type list) of length 0, 1, 2, etc:
      [] [1] [1,2]
  • Indexing is 0-based. Negative indices (usually) mean count backwards from end of sequence.
  • Sequence slicing [starting-at-index : but-less-than-index [ : step]]. Start defaults to 0, end to len(sequence), step to 1.
      a = (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
    a[3] == 3
    a[-1] == 7
    a[2:4] == (2, 3)
    a[1:] == (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
    a[:3] == (0, 1, 2)
    a[:] == (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7) # makes a copy of the sequence.
    a[::2] == (0, 2, 4, 6) # Only even numbers.
    a[::-1] = (7, 6, 5, 4, 3 , 2, 1, 0) # Reverse order.

Dictionaries (Mappings)

Dictionaries (type dict) of length 0, 1, 2, etc: {key: value} {1 : 'first'} {1 : 'first', 'two': 2, key:value}
Keys must be of a hashable type; Values can be any type.
Dictionaries are unordered, ie. iterating over a dictionary provides key/value pairs in arbitrary order. OrderedDict in the collections module works as regular dictionaries but iterates over keys and values in a guaranteed order depending on when a key was first inserted.

Sets

A set kan either be mutable or immutable. Curly brackets ({}) are used to surround the contents of the resulting mutable set; set literals are distinguished from dictionaries by not containing colons and values. An empty {} continues to represent an empty dictionary; use set() for an empty set.

Operators and their evaluation order

Operators and their evaluation order
Highest Operator Comment
  , [...] {...} `...` Tuple, list & dict. creation; string conv.
s[i] s[i:j] s.attr f(...) indexing & slicing; attributes, function calls
+x, -x, ~x Unary operators
x**y Power
x*y x/y x%y mult, division, modulo
x+y x-y addition, substraction
x<<y   x>>y Bit shifting
x&y Bitwise "and"; also intersection of sets
x^y Bitwise exclusive or
x|y Bitwise "or"; also union of sets
x<y  x<=y  x>y  x>=y  x==y x!=y  x<>y
x is y   x is not y
x in s   x not in s
Comparison, 
identity, 
membership
not x boolean negation
x and y boolean and
x or y boolean or
Lowest lambda args: expr anonymous function
  • Alternate names are defined in module operator (e.g. __add__ and add for +)
  • Most operators are overridable

Basic types and their operations

Comparisons (defined between any types)

Comparisons
Comparison Meaning
Notes
< strictly less than
(1)
<= less than or equal to  
> strictly greater than  
>= greater than or equal to  
== equal to  
!= or <> not equal to  
is object identity
(2)
is not negated object identity
(2)
Notes:
  • Comparison behavior can be overridden for a given class by defining special method __cmp__.
  • (1) X < Y < Z < W has expected meaning, unlike C
  • (2) Compare object identities (i.e. id(object)), not object values.

None

  • None is used as default return value on functions. Built-in single object with type NoneType. Might become a keyword in the future.
  • Input that evaluates to None does not print when running Python interactively.
  • None is now a constant; trying to bind a value to the name "None" is now a syntax error.

Boolean operators

Boolean values and operators
Value or Operator Evaluates to
Notes
built-in bool(expr) True if expr is true, False otherwise.
None, numeric zeros, empty sequences and mappings considered False  
all other values considered True  
not x True if x is False, else False  
x or y if x is False then y, else x
(1)
x and y if x is False then x, else y
(1)
Notes:
  • Truth testing behavior can be overridden for a given class by defining special method __nonzero__.
  • (1) Evaluate second arg only if necessary to determine outcome.

Numeric types

Floats, integers, long integers, Decimals.

  • Floats (type float) are implemented with C doubles.
  • Integers (type int) are implemented with C longs (signed 32 bits, maximum value is sys.maxint)
  • Long integers (type long) have unlimited size (only limit is system resources).
  • Integers and long integers are unified starting from release 2.2 (the L suffix is no longer required). int() returns a long integer instead of raising OverflowError. Overflowing operations such as 2<<32 no longer trigger FutureWarning and return a long integer.
  • Since 2.4, new type Decimal introduced (see module: decimal) to compensate for some limitations of the floating point type, in particular with fractions. Unlike floats, decimal numbers can be represented exactly; exactness is preserved in calculations; precision is user settable via the Context type [PEP 327].

Operators on all numeric types

Operators on all numeric types
Operation Result Notes
abs(x) the absolute value of x  
int(x) x converted to integer
(2)
long(x) x converted to long integer
(2)
float(x) x converted to floating point  
-x x negated  
+x x unchanged  
x + y the sum of x and y  
x - y difference of x and y  
x * y product of x and y  
x / y true division of x by y: 1/2 -> 0.5
(1)
x // y floor division operator: 1//2 -> 0
(1)
x % y x modulo y  
divmod(x, y) the tuple (x//y, x%y)  
x ** y x to the power y (the same as pow(x,y))  
Notes:
  • (1) / is still a floor division (1/2 == 0) unless validated by a from __future__ import division.
  • (2) int and long has bit_length() method that returns the number of bits necessary to represent its argument in binary.
  • classes may override methods __truediv__ and __floordiv__ to redefine these operators.

Bit operators on integers and long integers

Bit operators
Operation Result
~x the bits of x inverted
x ^ y bitwise exclusive or of x and y
x & y bitwise and of x and y
x | y bitwise or of x and y
x << n x shifted left by n bits
x >> n x shifted right by n bits

Complex Numbers

  • Type complex, represented as a pair of machine-level double precision floating point numbers.
  • The real and imaginary value of a complex number z can be retrieved through the attributes z.real and z.imag.

Numeric exceptions

TypeError
raised on application of arithmetic operation to non-number
OverflowError
numeric bounds exceeded
ZeroDivisionError
raised when zero second argument of div or modulo op

Operations on all sequence types (lists, tuples, strings)

Operations on all sequence types
Operation Result
Notes
x in s True if an item of s is equal to x, else False
(3)
x not in s False if an item of s is equal to x, else True
(3)
s1 + s2 the concatenation of s1 and s2  
s * n, n*s n copies of s concatenated
 
s[i] i'th item of s, origin 0
(1)
s[i: j]
s[i: j:step]
Slice of s from i (included) to j(excluded). Optional step value, possibly negative (default: 1).
(1), (2)
s.count(x) returns number of i's for which s[i] == x  
s.index(x[, start[, stop]]) returns smallest i such that s[i]==x. start and stop limit search to only part of the sequence.
(4)
len(s) Length of s  
min(s) Smallest item of s
 
max(s) Largest item of s
 
reversed(s) [2.4] Returns an iterator on s in reverse order. s must be a sequence, not an iterator (use reversed(list(s)) in this case. [PEP 322]
 
sorted(iterable [, cmp]
  [, cmp=cmpFunc]
  [, key=keyGetter]
  [, reverse=bool])
[2.4] works like the new in-place list.sort(), but sorts a new list created from the iterable.
 
Notes:
  • (1) if i or j is negative, the index is relative to the end of the string, ie len(s)+i or len(s)+j is substituted. But note that -0 is still 0.
  • (2) The slice of s from i to j is defined as the sequence of items with index k such that i<= k < j.
    If i or j is greater than len(s), use len(s). If j is omitted, use len(s). If i is greater than or equal to j, the slice is empty.
  • (3) For strings: x in s is True if x is a substring of s.
  • (4) Raises a ValueError exception when x is not found in s (i.e. out of range).

Operations on mutable sequences (type list)

Operations on mutable sequences
Operation Result
Notes
s[i] =x item i of s is replaced by x  
s[i:j [:step]] = t slice of s from i to j is replaced by t  
del s[i:j[:step]] same as s[i:j] = []  
s.append(x) same as s[len(s) : len(s)] = [x]
(6)
s.extend(x) same as s[len(s):len(s)]= x
(5) (6)
s.count(x) returns number of i's for which s[i] == x  
s.index(x[, start[, stop]]) returns smallest i such that s[i]==x. start and stop limit search to only part of the list.
(1)
s.insert(i, x) same as s[i:i] = [x] if i>= 0. i == -1 inserts before the last element.  
s.remove(x) same as del s[s.index(x)]
(1)
s.pop([i]) same as x = s[i]; del s[i]; return x
(4)
s.reverse() reverses the items of s in place
(3)
s.sort([cmp ])
s.sort([cmp=cmpFunc]
  [, key=keyGetter]
  [, reverse=bool])
sorts the items of s in place
(2), (3)
Notes:
  • (1) Raises a ValueError exception when x is not found in s (i.e. out of range).
  • (2) The sort() method takes an optional argument cmp specifying a comparison function taking 2 list items and returning -1, 0, or 1 depending on whether the 1st argument is considered smaller than, equal to, or larger than the 2nd argument. Note that this slows the sorting process down considerably. Since 2.4, 2 optional keywords args are added: key is a function of one argument that used to extract a comparison key from each list element (faster than cmp). Also, see attrgetter and itemgetter in the operator module. reverse: If True, reverse the sense of the comparison used.
    Since Python 2.3, the sort is guaranteed "stable". This means that two entries with equal keys will be returned in the same order as they were input. For example, you can sort a list of people by name, and then sort the list by age, resulting in a list sorted by age where people with the same age are in name-sorted order.
  • (3) The sort() and reverse() methods modify the list in place for economy of space when sorting or reversing a large list. They don't return the sorted or reversed list to remind you of this side effect.
  • (4) The pop() method is not supported by mutable sequence types other than lists. The optional argument i defaults to -1, so that by default the last item is removed and returned.
  • (5) Raises a TypeError when x is not a list object.
  • (6) append vs. extend: append takes any object and places as last element in list, while extend only takes a iterable object and extends the list with each element in x.

Operations on mappings / dictionaries (type dict)

Operations on mappings
Operation Result
Notes
len(d) The number of items in d  
dict()
dict(**kwargs)
dict(iterable)
dict(d)
Creates an empty dictionary.
Creates a dictionary init with the keyword args kwargs.
Creates a dictionary init with (key, value) pairs provided by iterable.
Creates a dictionary which is a copy of dictionary d.
 
d.fromkeys(iterable, value=None) Class method to create a dictionary with keys provided by iterator, and all values set to value.  
d[k] The item of d with key k
(1)
d[k] = x Set d[k] to x  
del d[k] Removes d[k] from d
(1)
d.clear() Removes all items from d  
d.copy() A shallow copy of d  
d.has_key(k)
k in d
True if d has key k, else False  
d.items() A copy of d's list of (key, item) pairs
(2)
d.keys() A copy of d's list of keys
(2)
d1.update(d2) for k, v in d2.items(): d1[k] = v
Since 2.4, update(**kwargs) and update(iterable) may also be used.
d.values() A copy of d's list of values
(2)
d.get(k [, defaultval]) The item of d with key k
(3)
d.setdefault(k[,defaultval]) d[k] if k in d, else defaultval (and inserts it)
(4)
d.iteritems() Returns an iterator over (key, value) pairs.  
d.iterkeys() Returns an iterator over the mapping's keys.  
d.itervalues() Returns an iterator over the mapping's values.  
d.pop(k[, default]) Removes key k and returns the corresponding value. If key is not found, default is returned if given, otherwise KeyError is raised.  
d.popitem() Removes and returns an arbitrary (key, value) pair from d
 
d.viewitems() Returns a view object of the (key, value) pairs
(5)
d.viewkeys() Returns a view object of the mappings keys
(5)
d.viewvalues() Returns a view object of the mappings values
(5)
Notes:
  • TypeError is raised if key is not acceptable.
  • (1) KeyError is raised if key k is not in the map.
  • (2) Keys and values are listed in random order.
  • (3) Never raises an exception if k is not in the map, instead it returns defaultval. defaultval is optional, when not provided and k is not in the map, None is returned.
  • (4) Never raises an exception if k is not in the map, instead returns defaultVal, and adds k to map with value defaultVal. defaultVal is optional. When not provided and k is not in the map, None is returned and added to map.
  • (5) A view object provides a dynamic view on the dictionary's entries, which means that when the dictionary changes, the view reflects these changes. A view object is also iterable.

Operations on strings (types str & unicode)

These string methods largely (but not completely) supersede the functions available in the string module.
The str and unicode types share a common base class basestring.
Operations on strings
Operation Result
Notes
s.capitalize() Returns a copy of s with its first character capitalized, and the rest of the characters lowercased.  
s.center(width[, fillChar=' ']) Returns a copy of s centered in a string of length width, surrounded by the appropriate number of fillChar characters.
(1)
s.count(sub[, start[, end]]) Returns the number of occurrences of substring sub in string s.
(2)
s.decode([encoding[, errors]]) Returns a unicode string representing the decoded version of str s, using the given codec (encoding). Useful when reading from a file or a I/O function that handles only str. Inverse of encode.
(3)
s.encode([encoding[, errors]]) Returns a str representing an encoded version of s. Mostly used to encode a unicode string to a str in order to print it or write it to a file (since these I/O functions only accept str), e.g. u'légère'.encode('utf8'). Also used to encode a str to a str, e.g. to zip (codec 'zip') or uuencode (codec 'uu') it. Inverse of decode.
(3)
s.endswith(suffix [, start[, end]]) Returns True if s ends with the specified suffix, otherwise return false. Since 2.5 suffix can also be a tuple of strings to try.
(2)
s.expandtabs([tabsize]) Returns a copy of s where all tab characters are expanded using spaces.
(4)
s.find(sub [,start[,end]]) Returns the lowest index in s where substring sub is found. Returns -1 if sub is not found.
(2)
s.format(*args, *kwargs) Returns s after replacing numeric and named formatting references found in braces {}. (details)
 
s.index(sub[, start[, end]]) like find(), but raises ValueError when the substring is not found.
(2)
s.isalnum() Returns True if all characters in s are alphanumeric, False otherwise.
(5)
s.isalpha() Returns True if all characters in s are alphabetic, False otherwise.
(5)
s.isdigit() Returns True if all characters in s are digit characters, False otherwise.
(5)
s.islower() Returns True if all characters in s are lowercase, False otherwise.
(6)
s.isspace() Returns True if all characters in s are whitespace characters, False otherwise.
(5)
s.istitle() Returns True if string s is a titlecased string, False otherwise.
(7)
s.isupper() Returns True if all characters in s are uppercase, False otherwise.
(6)
separator.join(seq) Returns a concatenation of the strings in the sequence seq, separated by string separator, e.g.: ",".join(['A', 'B', 'C']) -> "A,B,C"
 
s.ljust/rjust/center(width[, fillChar=' ']) Returns s left/right justified/centered in a string of length width.
(1), (8)
s.lower() Returns a copy of s converted to lowercase.
 
s.lstrip([chars] ) Returns a copy of s with leading chars (default: blank chars) removed.
 
s.partition(separ) Searches for the separator separ in s, and returns a tuple (head, sep, tail) containing the part before it, the separator itself, and the part after it. If the separator is not found, returns (s, '', '').
 
s.replace(old, new[, maxCount =-1]) Returns a copy of s with the first maxCount (-1: unlimited) occurrences of substring old replaced by new.
(9)
s.rfind(sub[ , start[, end]]) Returns the highest index in s where substring sub is found. Returns -1 if sub is not found.
(2)
s.rindex(sub[ , start[, end]]) like rfind(), but raises ValueError when the substring is not found.
(2)
s.rpartition(separ) Searches for the separator separ in s, starting at the end of s, and returns a tuple (head, sep, tail) containing the (left) part before it, the separator itself, and the (right) part after it. If the separator is not found, returns ('', '', s).
 
s.rstrip([chars]) Returns a copy of s with trailing chars(default: blank chars) removed, e.g. aPath.rstrip('/') will remove the trailing '/'from aPath if it exists
 
s.split([ separator[, maxsplit]]) Returns a list of the words in s, using separator as the delimiter string.
(10)
s.rsplit([ separator[, maxsplit]]) Same as split, but splits from the end of the string.
(10)
s.splitlines([ keepends]) Returns a list of the lines in s, breaking at line boundaries.
(11)
s.startswith(prefix [, start[, end]]) Returns True if s starts with the specified prefix, otherwise returns False. Negative numbers may be used for start and end. Since 2.5 prefix can also be a tuple of strings to try.
(2)
s.strip([chars]) Returns a copy of s with leading and trailing chars(default: blank chars) removed.
 
s.swapcase() Returns a copy of s with uppercase characters converted to lowercase and vice versa.
 
s.title() Returns a titlecased copy of s, i.e. words start with uppercase characters, all remaining cased characters are lowercase.
 
s.translate(table[, deletechars='']) Returns a copy of s mapped through translation table table. Characters from deletechars are removed from the copy prior to the mapping. Since 2.6 table may also be None (identity transformation) - useful for using translate to delete chars only.
(12)
s.upper() Returns a copy of s converted to uppercase.
 
s.zfill(width) Returns the numeric string left filled with zeros in a string of length width.  
Notes:
  • (1) Padding is done using spaces or the given character.
  • (2) If optional argument start is supplied, substring s[start:] is processed. If optional arguments start and end are supplied, substring s[start:end] is processed.
  • (3) Default encoding is sys.getdefaultencoding(), can be changed via sys.setdefaultencoding(). Optional argument errors may be given to set a different error handling scheme. The default for errors is 'strict', meaning that encoding errors raise a ValueError. Other possible values are 'ignore' and 'replace'. See also module codecs.
  • (4) If optional argument tabsize is not given, a tab size of 8 characters is assumed.
  • (5) Returns False if string s does not contain at least one character.
  • (6) Returns False if string s does not contain at least one cased character.
  • (7) A titlecased string is a string in which uppercase characters may only follow uncased characters and lowercase characters only cased ones.
  • (8) s is returned if width is less than len(s).
  • (9) If the optional argument maxCount is given, only the first maxCount occurrences are replaced.
  • (10) If separator is not specified or None, any whitespace string is a separator. If maxsplit is given, at most maxsplit splits are done.
  • (11) Line breaks are not included in the resulting list unless keepends is given and true.
  • (12) table must be a string of length 256.

String formatting with the % operator

formatString % args --> evaluates to a string
  • formatString mixes normal text with C printf format fields :
    %[flag][width][.precision] formatCode
    where formatCode is one of c, s, i, d, u, o, x, X, e, E, f, g, G, r, % (see table below).
  • The flag characters -, +, blank, # and 0 are understood (see table below).
  • Width and precision may be a * to specify that an integer argument gives the actual width or precision. Examples of width and precision :
    Examples
    Format string Result
    '%3d' % 2 ' 2'
    '%*d' % (3, 2) ' 2'
    '%-3d' % 2 '2 '
    '%03d' % 2 '002'
    '% d' % 2 ' 2'
    '%+d' % 2 '+2'
    '%+3d' % -2 ' -2'
    '%- 5d' % 2 ' 2 '
    '%.4f' % 2 '2.0000'
    '%.*f' % (4, 2) '2.0000'
    '%0*.*f' % (10, 4, 2) '00002.0000'
    '%10.4f' % 2 ' 2.0000'
    '%010.4f' % 2 '00002.0000'
  • %s will convert any type argument to string (uses str() function)
  • args may be a single arg or a tuple of args
    '%s has %03d quote types.' % ('Python', 2)  == 'Python has 002 quote types.'
  • Right-hand-side can also be a mapping:
    a = '%(lang)s has %(c)03d quote types.' % {'c':2, 'lang':'Python'}
    (vars() function very handy to use on right-hand-side)

Format codes
Code Meaning
d Signed integer decimal.
i Signed integer decimal.
o Unsigned octal.
u Unsigned decimal.
x Unsigned hexadecimal (lowercase).
X Unsigned hexadecimal (uppercase).
e Floating point exponential format (lowercase).
E Floating point exponential format (uppercase).
f Floating point decimal format.
F Floating point decimal format.
g Same as "e" if exponent is greater than -4 or less than precision, "f" otherwise.
G Same as "E" if exponent is greater than -4 or less than precision, "F" otherwise.
c Single character (accepts integer or single character string).
r String (converts any python object using repr()).
s String (converts any python object using str()).
% No argument is converted, results in a "%" character in the result. (The complete specification is %%.)
Conversion flag characters
Flag Meaning
# The value conversion will use the "alternate form".
0 The conversion will be zero padded.
- The converted value is left adjusted (overrides "-").
  (a space) A blank should be left before a positive number (or empty string) produced by a signed conversion.
+ A sign character ("+" or "-") will precede the conversion (overrides a "space" flag).

String templating

Since 2.4 [PEP 292] the string module provides a new mechanism to substitute variables into template strings.
Variables to be substituted begin with a $. Actual values are provided in a dictionary via the substitute or safe_substitute methods (substitute throws KeyError if a key is missing while safe_substitute ignores it) :

  t = string.Template('Hello $name, you won $$$amount') # (note $$ to literalize $)
  t.substitute({'name': 'Eric', 'amount': 100000}) # -> u'Hello Eric, you won $100000'

String formatting with format()

Since 2.6 [PEP 3101] string formatting can also be done with the format() method:
"string-to-format".format(args)
Format fields are specified in string-to-format, surrounded by {}, while actual values are args to format():
{[field][!conversion][:format_spec]}
  • Each field refers to an arg either by its position (>=0), or by its name if it's a keyword argument. If left out, automatic numbering is used, so the first {...} specifier will use the first argument, the next specifier will use the next argument, and so on. Autonumbering cannot be mixed with explicit numbering, but it can be mixed with named fields. The same arg can be referenced more than once.
  • The conversion can be !s or !r to call str() or repr() on the field before formatting.
  • The format_spec takes the following form:
    [[fill]align][sign][#][0][width][,][.precision][type]
    • The align flag controls the alignment when padding values (see table below), and can be preceded by a fill character. A fill cannot be used on its own.
    • The sign flag controls the display of signs on numbers (see table below).
    • The # flag adds a leading 0b, 0o, or 0x for binary, octal, and hex conversions.
    • The 0 flag zero-pads numbers, equivalent to having a fill-align of 0=.
    • The width is a number giving the minimum field width. Padding will be added according to align until this width is achieved.
    • The , option indicates that commas should be included in the output as a thousands separator.
    • For floating-point conversions, precision gives the number of places to display after the decimal point. For non-numeric conversion, precision gives the maximum field width.
    • The type specifies how to present numeric types (see tables below).
  • Braces can be doubled ({{ or }}) to insert a literal brace character.
Alignment flag characters
Flag Meaning
< Left-aligns the field and pads to the right (default for non-numbers)
> Right-aligns the field and pads to the left (default for numbers)
= Inserts padding between the sign and the field (numbers only)
^ Aligns the field to the center and pads both sides
Sign flag characters
Flag Meaning
+ Displays a sign for all numbers
- Displays a sign for negative numbers only (default)
  (a space) Displays a sign for negative numbers and a space for positive numbers
Integer type flags
Flag Meaning
b Binary format (base 2)
c Character (interprets integer as a Unicode code point)
d Decimal format (base 10) (default)
o Octal format (base 8)
x Hexadecimal format (base 16) (lowercase)
X Hexadecimal format (base 16) (uppercase)
Floating-point type flags
Flag Meaning
e Exponential format (lowercase)
E Exponential format (uppercase)
f Fixed-point format
F Fixed-point format (same as "f")
g General format - same as "e" if exponent is greater than -4 or less than precision, "f" otherwise. (default)
G General format - Same as "E" if exponent is greater than -4 or less than precision, "F" otherwise.
n Number format - Same as "g", except it uses locale settings for separators.
% Percentage - Multiplies by 100 and displays as "f", followed by a percent sign.
For examples, see Format examples in the Python documentation.

Operations on files (type file)

(Type file). Created with built-in functions open() [preferred] or its alias file(). May be created by other modules' functions as well.
Unicode file names are now supported for all functions accepting or returning file names (open, os.listdir, etc...).

Operators on file objects

File operations
Operation Result
f.close() Close file f.
f.fileno() Get fileno (fd) for file f.
f.flush() Flush file f's internal buffer.
f.isatty() 1 if file f is connected to a tty-like dev, else 0.
f.next() Returns the next input line of file f, or raises StopIteration when EOF is hit. Files are their own iterators. next is implicitly called by constructs like for line in f: print line.
f.read([size]) Read at most size bytes from file f and return as a string object. If size omitted, read to EOF.
f.readline() Read one entire line from file f. The returned line has a trailing \n, except possibly at EOF. Return '' on EOF.
f.readlines() Read until EOF with readline() and return a list of lines read.
f.xreadlines() Return a sequence-like object for reading a file line-by-line without reading the entire file into memory. From 2.2, use rather: for line in f (see below).
for line in f: do something... Iterate over the lines of a file (using readline)
f.seek(offset[, whence=0]) Set file f's position, like "stdio's fseek()".
whence == 0 then use absolute indexing.
whence == 1 then offset relative to current pos.
whence == 2 then offset relative to file end.
f.tell() Return file f's current position (byte offset).
f.truncate([size]) Truncate f's size. If size is present, f is truncated to (at most) that size, otherwise f is truncated at current position (which remains unchanged).
f.write(str) Write string to file f.
f.writelines(list) Write list of strings to file f. No EOL are added.

File Exceptions

EOFError
End-of-file hit when reading (may be raised many times, e.g. if f is a tty).
IOError
Other I/O-related I/O operation failure

Operation on sets (types set & frozenset)

set and frozenset (immutable set). Sets are unordered collections of unique (non duplicate) elements. Elements must be hashable. frozensets are hashable (thus can be elements of other sets) while sets are not. All sets are iterable.
A set may be created with set(iterable) or curly brackets ({}), which also allows for list comprehensions, using curly brackets instead of square brackets.
Classes Sets and ImmutableSet in the module sets is now deprecated.
Main Set operations
Operation Result
set/frozenset([iterable=None]) [using built-in types] Builds a set or frozenset from the given iterable (default: empty), e.g. set([1,2,3]), set("hello").
len(s) Cardinality of set s.
elt in s / not in s True if element elt belongs / does not belong to set s.
for elt in s: process elt... Iterates on elements of set s.
s1.issubset(s2) True if every element in s1 is in iterable s2.
s1.issuperset(s2) True if every element in s2 is in iterable s1.
s.add(elt) Adds element elt to set s (if it doesn't already exist).
s.remove(elt) Removes element elt from set s. KeyError if element not found.
s.discard(elt) Removes element elt from set s if present.
s.pop() Removes and returns an arbitrary element from set s; raises KeyError if empty.
s.clear() Removes all elements from this set (not on immutable sets!).
s1.intersection(s2[, s3...]) or s1&s2 Returns a new Set with elements common to all sets (in the method s2, s3,... can be any iterable).
s1.union(s2[, s3...]) or s1|s2 Returns a new Set with elements from either set (in the method s2, s3,... can be any iterable).
s1.difference(s2[, s3...]) or s1-s2 Returns a new Set with elements in s1 but not in any of s2, s3 ... (in the method s2, s3,... can be any iterable)
s1.symmetric_difference(s2) or s1^s2 Returns a new Set with elements in either s1 or s2 but not both.
s.copy() Returns a shallow copy of set s.
s.update(iterable1[, iterable2...]) Adds all values from all given iterables to set s.

Named Tuples

Python 2.6 module collections introduces the namedtuple datatype. The factory function namedtuple(typename, fieldnames) creates subclasses of tuple whose fields are accessible by name as well as index:
# Create a named tuple class 'person':
person = collections.namedtuple('person', 'name firstName age') # field names separated by space or comma
assert issubclass(person, tuple)
assert person._fields == ('name', 'firstName', 'age')

# Create an instance of person:
jdoe = person('Doe', 'John', 30)
assert  str(jdoe) == "person(name='Doe', firstName='John', age=30)"
assert jdoe[0] == jdoe.name == 'Doe' # access by index or name is equivalent
assert jdoe[2] == jdoe.age == 30

# Convert instance to dict:
assert jdoe._asdict() == {'age': 30, 'name': 'Doe', 'firstName': 'John'}

# Although tuples are normally immutable, one can change field values via _replace():
jdoe._replace(age=25, firstName='Jane')
assert str(jdoe) == "person(name='Doe', firstName='Jane', age=25)" 

Date/Time

Python has no intrinsic Date and Time types, but provides 2 built-in modules:
  • time: time access and conversions
  • datetime: classes date, time, datetime, timedelta, tzinfo.
  • calendar: with functions such as isleap(year), leapdays(y1, y2) and weekday(year, month, day).

See also the third-party module: mxDateTime.

Advanced Types

- See manuals for more details -
  • Module objects
  • Class objects
  • Class instance objects
  • Type objects (see module: types)
  • File objects (see above)
  • Slice objects
  • Ellipsis object, used by extended slice notation (unique, named Ellipsis)
  • Null object (unique, named None)
  • XRange objects
  • Callable types:
    • User-defined (written in Python):
      • User-defined Function objects
      • User-defined Method objects
    • Built-in (written in C):
      • Built-in Function objects
      • Built-in Method object
  • Internal Types:
    • Code objects (byte-compile executable Python code: bytecode)
    • Frame objects (execution frames)
    • Traceback objects (stack trace of an exception)

Statements


Statement Result
pass Null statement
del name[, name]* Unbind name(s) from object. Object will be indirectly (and automatically) deleted only if no longer referenced.
print[>> fileobject,] [s1 [, s2 ]* [,] Writes to sys.stdout, or to fileobject if supplied. Puts spaces between arguments. Puts newline at end unless statement ends with comma [if nothing is printed when using a comma, try calling sys.stdout.flush()]. Print is not required when running interactively, simply typing an expression will print its value, unless the value is None.
exec x [in globals [, locals]] Executes x in namespaces provided. Defaults to current namespaces. x can be a string, open file-like object or a function object. locals can be any mapping type, not only a regular Python dict. See also built-in function execfile.
callable(value,... [id=value] , [*args], [**kw]) Call function callable with parameters. Parameters can be passed by name or be omitted if function defines default values. E.g. if callable is defined as "def callable(p1=1, p2=2)"
"callable()" <=> "callable(1, 2)"
"callable(10)" <=> "callable(10, 2)"
"callable(p2=99)" <=> "callable(1, 99)"
*args is a tuple of positional arguments.
**kw is a dictionary of keyword arguments.

See function definition.

Assignment operators

Assignment operators
Operator Result
Notes
a = b Basic assignment - assign object b to label a
(1)(2)
a += b Roughly equivalent to a = a + b
(3)
a -= b Roughly equivalent to a = a - b
(3)
a *= b Roughly equivalent to a = a * b
(3)
a /= b Roughly equivalent to a = a / b
(3)
a //= b Roughly equivalent to a = a // b
(3)
a %= b Roughly equivalent to a = a % b
(3)
a **= b Roughly equivalent to a = a ** b
(3)
a &= b Roughly equivalent to a = a & b
(3)
a |= b Roughly equivalent to a = a | b
(3)
a ^= b Roughly equivalent to a = a ^ b
(3)
a >>= b Roughly equivalent to a = a >> b
(3)
a <<= b Roughly equivalent to a = a << b
(3)
Notes:
  • (1) Can unpack tuples, lists, and strings:
    first, second = l[0:2]    # equivalent to: first=l[0]; second=l[1]
    [f, s] = range(2)    # equivalent to: f=0; s=1
    c1,c2,c3 = 'abc'    # equivalent to: c1='a'; c2='b'; c3='c'
    (a, b), c, (d, e, f) = ['ab', 'c', 'def']    # equivalent to: a='a'; b='b'; c='c'; d='d'; e='e'; f='f'
    Tip: x,y = y,x swaps x and y.
  • (2) Multiple assignment possible:
    a = b = c = 0
    list1 = list2 = [1, 2, 3]    # list1 and list2 points to the same list (l1 is l2)
  • (3) Not exactly equivalent - a is evaluated only once. Also, where possible, operation performed in-place - a is modified rather than replaced.

Conditional Expressions

Conditional Expressions (not statements) have been added since 2.5 [PEP 308]:
result = (whenTrue if condition else whenFalse)
is equivalent to:
if condition:
    result = whenTrue
else:
    result = whenFalse
() are not mandatory but recommended.

Control Flow statements

Control flow statements
Statement Result
if condition:
  suite
[elif condition:   suite]*
[else:
  suite]
Usual if/else if/else statement. See also Conditional Expressions for one-line if-statements.
while condition:
  suite
[else:
  suite]
Usual while statement. The else suite is executed after loop exits, unless the loop is exited with break.
for element in sequence:
  suite
[else:
  suite]
Iterates over sequence, assigning each element to element. Use built-in range or xrange function to iterate a number of times. The else suite is executed at end unless loop exited with break.
Also see List comprehensions.
break Immediately exits for or while loop.
continue Immediately does next iteration of for or while loop.
return [result] Exits from function (or method) and returns result (use a tuple to return more than one value). If no result given, then returns None.
yield expression (Only used within the body of a generator function, outside a try of a try..finally). "Returns" the evaluated expression.

Exception statements

Exception statements
Statement Result
assert expr[, message] expr is evaluated. if false, raises exception AssertionError with message. Before 2.3, inhibited if __debug__ is 0.
try:
  block1
[except [exception [, value]]:
  handler]+
[except [exception [as value]]:
  handler]+
[else:
  else-block]
Statements in block1 are executed. If an exception occurs, look in except clause(s) for matching exception(s). If matches or bare except, execute handler of that clause. If no exception happens, else-block in else clause is executed after block1. If exception has a value, it is put in variable value. exception can also be a tuple of exceptions, e.g. except(KeyError, NameError), e: print e.

2.6 also supports the keyword as instead of a comma between the exception and the value, which will become a mandatory change in Python 3.0 [PEP3110].
try:
  block1
finally:
  final-block
Statements in block1 are executed. If no exception, execute final-block (even if block1 is exited with a return, break or continue statement). If exception did occur, execute final-block and then immediately re-raise exception. Typically used to ensure that a resource (file, lock...) allocated before the try is freed (in the final-block) whatever the outcome of block1 execution. See also the with statement below.
try:
  block1
[except [exception [, value]]:
  handler1]+
[except [exception [as value]]:
  handler]+
[else:
  else-block]
finally:
  final-block
Unified try/except/finally. Equivalent to a try...except nested inside a try..finally [PEP341]. See also the with statement below.
with allocate-expression [as variable]:
  with-block
with allocate-expression as variable [, allocate-expression2 as variable2:
  with-block
Alternative to the try...finally structure [PEP343].
allocate-expression should evaluate to an object that supports the context management protocol, representing a resource. This object may return a value that can optionally be bound to variable (variable is not assigned the result of expression).
The object can then run set-up code before with-block is executed and some clean-up code is executed after the block is done, even if the block raised an exception.
Standard Python objects such as files and locks support the context management protocol:
with open('/etc/passwd', 'r') as f: # file automatically closed on block exit
  for line in f:
    print line

with threading.Lock(): # lock automatically released on block exit
  do something...
- You can write your own context managers.
- Helper functions are available in module contextlib.
In 2.5 the statement must be enabled by: from __future__ import with_statement. The statement is always enabled starting in Python 2.6.
raise exceptionInstance Raises an instance of a class derived from BaseException (preferred form of raise).
raise exceptionClass [, value [, traceback]] Raises exception of given class exceptionClass with optional value value. Arg traceback specifies a traceback object to use when printing the exception's backtrace.
raise A raise statement without arguments re-raises the last exception raised in the current function.
  • An exception is an instance of an exception class.
  • Exception classes must be derived from the predefined class: Exception, e.g.:
    class TextException(Exception): pass
    try:
    if bad:
    raise TextException()
    except Exception:
    print 'Oops' # This will be printed because TextException is a subclass of Exception
  • When an error message is printed for an unhandled exception, the class name is printed, then a colon and a space, and finally the instance converted to a string using the built-in function str().
  • All built-in exception classes derives from StandardError, itself derived from Exception.
  • [PEP 352]: Exceptions can now be new-style classes, and all built-in ones are. Built-in exception hierarchy slightly reorganized with the introduction of base class BaseException. Raising strings as exceptions is now deprecated (warning).

Name Space Statements

Imported module files must be located in a directory listed in the Python path (sys.path). Since 2.3, they may reside in a zip file [e.g. sys.path.insert(0, "aZipFile.zip")].

Absolute/relative imports (since 2.5 [PEP328]):
  • Feature must be enabled by: from __future__ import absolute_import: will probably be adopted in 2.7.
  • Imports are normally relative: modules are searched first in the current directory/package, and then in the builtin modules, resulting in possible ambiguities (e.g. masking a builtin symbol).
  • When the new feature is enabled:
    • import X will look up for module X in sys.path first (absolute import).
    • import .X (with a dot) will still search for X in the current package first, then in builtins (relative import).
    • import ..X will search for X in the package containing the current one, etc...

Packages (>1.5): a package is a name space which maps to a directory including module(s) and the special initialization module __init__.py (possibly empty).
Packages/directories can be nested. You address a module's symbol via [package.[package...].module.symbol.
[1.51: On Mac & Windows, the case of module file names must now match the case as used in the import statement]

Name space statements
Statement Result
import module1 [as name1] [, module2]* Imports modules. Members of module must be referred to by qualifying with [package.]module name, e.g.:
import sys; print sys.argv
import package1.subpackage.module
package1.subpackage.module.foo()
module1 renamed as name1, if supplied.
from module import name1 [as othername1][, name2]* Imports names from module module in current namespace.
from sys import argv; print argv
from package1 import module; module.foo()
from package1.module import foo; foo()
name1 renamed as othername1, if supplied.
[2.4] You can now put parentheses around the list of names in a from module import names statement (PEP 328).
from module import * Imports all names in module, except those starting with "_". Use sparsely, beware of name clashes!
from sys import *; print argv
from package.module import *; print x
Only legal at the top level of a module.
If module defines an __all__ attribute, only names listed in __all__ will be imported.

NB: "from package import *" only imports the symbols defined in the package's __init__.py file, not those in the package's modules !
global name1 [, name2] Names are from global scope (usually meaning from module) rather than local (usually meaning only in function).
E.g. in function without global statements, assuming "x" is name that hasn't been used in function or module so far:
- Try to read from "x" -> NameError
- Try to write to "x" -> creates "x" local to function
If "x" not defined in function, but is in module, then: - Try to read from "x", gets value from module
- Try to write to "x", creates "x" local to function
But note "x[0]=3" starts with search for "x", will use to global "x" if no local "x".

Function Definition

def funcName ([paramList]):
suite
Creates a function object and binds it to name funcName.
paramList ::= [param [, param]*]
param ::= value | id=value | *id | **id
  • Args are passed by "call-by-object-reference". This means, that mutable objects can be modified (ie. inout parameters), while immutable are passed by value (ie. in parameters).
  • Use return to return (None) from the function, or return value to return value. Use a tuple to return more than one value, e.g. return 1,2,3
  • Keyword arguments arg=value specify a default value (evaluated at function def. time). They can only appear last in the param list, e.g. foo(x, y=1, s='').
  • Pseudo-arg *args captures a tuple of all remaining non-keyword args passed to the function, e.g. if def foo(x, *args): ... is called foo(1, 2, 3), then args will contain (2,3).
  • Pseudo-arg **kwargs captures a dictionary of all extra keyword arguments, e.g. if def foo(x, **kwargs): ... is called foo(1, y=2, z=3), then kwargs will contain {'y':2, 'z':3}. if def foo(x, *args, **kwargs): ... is called foo(1, 2, 3, y=4, z=5), then args will contain (2, 3), and kwargs will contain {'y':4, 'z':5}
  • args and kwargs are conventional names, but other names may be used as well.
  • *args and **kwargs can be "forwarded" (individually or together) to another function, e.g.
    def f1(x, *args, **kwargs):
      f2(*args, **kwargs)

    Since 2.6, **kwargs can be any mapping, not only a dict.
  • See also Anonymous functions (lambdas).

Class Definition

class className [(super_class1[, super_class2]*)]:
  suite

Creates a class object and assigns it name className.
suite may contain local "defs" of class methods and assignments to class attributes.

Examples:

class MyClass (class1, class2): ...
  Creates a class object inheriting from both class1 and class2. Assigns new class object to name MyClass.

class MyClass: ...
  Creates a base class object (inheriting from nothing). Assigns new class object to name MyClass. Since 2.5 the equivalent syntax class MyClass(): ... is allowed.

class MyClass (object): ...
  Creates a new-style class (inheriting from object makes a class a new-style class -available since Python 2.2-). Assigns new class object to name MyClass.

  • First arg to class instance methods (operations) is always the target instance object, called 'self' by convention.
  • Special static method __new__(cls[,...]) called when instance is created. 1st arg is a class, others are args to __init__(), more details here
  • Special method __init__() is called when instance is created.
  • Special method __del__() called when no more reference to object.
  • Create instance by "calling" class object, possibly with arg (thus instance=apply(aClassObject, args...) creates an instance!)

Example:
class c (c_parent):
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
def print_name(self):
print "I'm", self.name
def call_parent(self):
c_parent.print_name(self)

instance = c('tom')
print instance.name
'tom'
instance.print_name()
"I'm tom"

Call parent's super class by accessing parent's method directly and passing self explicitly (see call_parent in example above).
Many other special methods available for implementing arithmetic operators, sequence, mapping indexing, etc...

Types / classes unification

Base types int, float, str, list, tuple, dict and file now (2.2) behave like classes derived from base class object, and may be subclassed:
x = int(2) # built-in cast function now a constructor for base type
y = 3 # <=> int(3) (litterals are instances of new base types)
print type(x), type(y) # int, int

assert isinstance(x, int) # replaces isinstance(x, types.IntType)

assert issubclass(int, object) # base types derive from base class 'object'.
s = "hello" # <=> str("hello")
assert isinstance(s, str)

f = 2.3 # <=> float(2.3)
class MyInt(int): pass # may subclass base types
x,y = MyInt(1), MyInt("2")

print x, y, x+y # => 1,2,3

class MyList(list): pass

l = MyList("hello")

print l # ['h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o']
New-style classes extends object. Old-style classes don't.

Documentation Strings

Modules, classes and functions may be documented by placing a string literal by itself as the first statement in the suite. The documentation can be retrieved by getting the '__doc__' attribute from the module, class or function.

Example:
class C:
"A description of C"
def __init__(self):
"A description of the constructor"
# etc.

c.__doc__ == "A description of C".
c.__init__.__doc__ == "A description of the constructor"

Iterators

  • An iterator enumerates elements of a collection. It is an object with a single method next() returning the next element or raising StopIteration.
  • You get an iterator on obj via the new built-in function iter(obj), which calls obj.__class__.__iter__().
  • A collection may be its own iterator by implementing both __iter__() and next().
  • Built-in collections (lists, tuples, strings, dict) implement __iter__(); dictionaries (maps) enumerate their keys; files enumerates their lines.
  • You can build a list or a tuple from an iterator, e.g. list(anIterator)
  • Python implicitly uses iterators wherever it has to loop :
    • for elt in collection:
    • if elt in collection:
    • when assigning tuples: x,y,z= collection

Generators

  • A generator is a function that retains its state between 2 calls and produces a new value at each invocation. The values are returned (one at a time) using the keyword yield, while return or raise StopIteration() are used to notify the end of values.
  • A typical use is the production of IDs, names, or serial numbers. Fancier applications like nanothreads are also possible.
  • To use a generator: call the generator function to get a generator object, then call generator.next() to get the next value until StopIteration is raised.
  • 2.4 introduces generator expressions [PEP 289] similar to list comprehensions, except that they create a generator that will return elements one by one, which is suitable for long sequences :
      linkGenerator = (link for link in get_all_links() if not link.followed)
      for link in linkGenerator:
        ...process link...

    Generator expressions must appear between parentheses.
  • [PEP342] Generators before 2.5 could only produce output. Now values can be passed to generators via their method send(value). yield is now an expression returning a value, so val = (yield i) will yield i to the caller, and will reciprocally evaluate to the value "sent" back by the caller, or None.
    Two other new generator methods allow for additional control:
    • throw(type, value=None, traceback=None) is used to raise an exception inside the generator (appears as raised by the yield expression).
    • close() raises a new GeneratorExit exception inside the generator to terminate the iteration.
  • Since 2.6 Generator objects have a gi_code attribute that refers to the original code object backing the generator.

Example:
def genID(initialValue=0):
v = initialValue
while v < initialValue + 1000:
yield "ID_%05d" % v
v += 1
return # or: raise StopIteration()

generator = genID() # Create a generator
for i in range(10): # Generates 10 values
print generator.next()

Descriptors / Attribute access

  • Descriptors are objects implementing at least the first of these 3 methods representing the descriptor protocol:
    • __get__(self, obj, type=None) --> value
    • __set__(self, obj, value)
    • __delete__(self, obj)
    Python now transparently uses descriptors to describe and access the attributes and methods of new-style classes (i.e. derived from object). [more info])
  • Built-in descriptors now allow to define:
    • Static methods : Use staticmethod(f) to make method f(x) static (unbound), or (recommended) use decorator @staticmethod.
    • Class methods: like a static but takes the Class as 1st argument => Use f = classmethod(f) to make method f(theClass, x) a class method, or (recommended) use decorator @classmethod.
    • Properties : A property is an instance of the new built-in type property, which implements the descriptor protocol for attributes => Use propertyName = property(fget=None, fset=None, fdel=None, doc=None) to define a property inside or outside a class. Then access it as propertyName or obj.propertyName.
      Since 2.6, the new decorators @prop.getter, @prop.setter, and @prop.deleter add functions to an existing property:
      class C(object):
          @property # (since Python 2.4)
          def x(self):
              return self._x
      
          @x.setter
          def x(self, value):
              self._x = value
      
          @x.deleter
          def x(self):
              del self._x
    • Slots. New style classes can define a class attribute __slots__ to constrain the list of assignable attribute names, to avoid typos (which is normally not detected by Python and leads to the creation of new attributes), e.g. __slots__ = ('x', 'y')
      Note: According to recent discussions, the real purpose of slots seems still unclear (optimization?), and their use should probably be discouraged.

Decorators for functions, methods & classes

  • [PEP 318] A decorator D is noted @D on the line preceding the function/method it decorates :
        @D
        def f(): ...
    and is equivalent to:
        def f(): ...
        f = D(f)

    thus, a decorator can be any function returning another function usually applied as a function transformation.
  • Several decorators can be applied in cascade :
        @A
        @B
        @C
        def f(): ...
    is equivalent to:
        f = A(B(C(f)))
  • A decorator is just a function taking the function to be decorated and returns the same function or some new callable thing.
  • Decorator functions can take arguments:
        @A
        @B
        @C(args)

    becomes :
        def f(): ...
        _deco = C(args)
        f = A(B(_deco(f)))

  • The decorators @staticmethod and @classmethod replace more elegantly the equivalent declarations f = staticmethod(f) and f = classmethod(f).
  • [PEP 3129] Decorators may also be applied to classes:
        @D
        class C(): ...
    is equivalent to:
        class C(): ...
        C = D(C)

Some selected decorators

Misc

lambda [param_list]: returnedExpr
Creates an anonymous function.
returnedExpr must be an expression, not a statement (e.g., not "if xx:...", "print xxx", etc.) and thus can't contain newlines. Used mostly for filter(), map(), reduce() functions, and GUI callbacks.

List comprehensions
result = [expression for item1 in sequence1  [if condition1]
  [for item2 in sequence2 [if condition2] ... for itemN in sequenceN [if conditionN]]
  ]
is equivalent to:
result = []
for item1 in sequence1:
  if (condition1):
    for item2 in sequence2:
      if (condition2):
        ...
        for itemN in sequenceN:
          if (conditionN):
            result.append(expression)

NB! Note that in the list comprehension example, the outer (non-italic) square brackets are mandatory (for lists, round brackets for sets or curly brackets for dictionaries, see below), whereas the middle, italic brackets indicate optional blocks in the list comprehension.

List comprehensions for dictionaries and sets
>>> {x: x*x for x in range(6)}
		{0: 0, 1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16, 5: 25} # Dictionary
Equivalent to:
>>> dict([(x, x*x) for x in range(6)])
Sets:
>>> {('a'*x) for x in range(6)}
		 set(['', 'a', 'aa', 'aaa', 'aaaa', 'aaaaa'])

Built-In Functions

Built-in functions are defined in a module _builtin__ automatically imported.
Built-In Functions
Function Result
__import__(name[, globals[,locals[,from list]]]) Imports module within the given context (see library reference for more details)
abs(x) Returns the absolute value of the number x.
all(iterable) Returns True if bool(x) is True for all values x in the iterable.
any(iterable) Returns True if bool(x) is True for any value x in the iterable.
apply(f, args[, keywords]) Calls func/method f with arguments args and optional keywords. Deprecated since 2.3, replace apply(func, args, keywords) with func(*args, **keywords) [details]
basestring() Abstract superclass of str and unicode; can't be called or instantiated directly, but useful in: isinstance(obj, basestring).
bin(x) Converts a number to a binary string.
bool([x]) Converts a value to a Boolean, using the standard truth testing procedure. If x is false or omitted, returns False; otherwise returns True. bool is also a class/type, subclass of int. Class bool cannot be subclassed further. Its only instances are False and True. See also boolean operators
buffer(object[, offset[, size]]) Returns a Buffer from a slice of object, which must support the buffer call interface (string, array, buffer). Non essential function, see [details]
bytearray(iterable)
bytearray(length)
Constructs a mutable sequence of bytes. This type supports many of the same operations available in strs and lists. The latter form sets the size and initializes to all zero bytes.
bytes(object) Constructs an 8-bit string representation of an object. Equivalent to str for now, but this can be used to explicitly indicate strings which should not be unicode when converting to Python 3.0 [PEP3112]
callable(x) Returns True if x callable, else False.
chr(i) Returns one-character string whose ASCII code is integer i.
classmethod(function) Returns a class method for function. A class method receives the class as implicit first argument, just like an instance method receives the instance. To declare a class method, use this idiom:

  class C:
    def f(cls, arg1, arg2, ...): ...
    f = classmethod(f)


Then call it on the class C.f() or on an instance C().f(). The instance is ignored except for its class. If a class method is called for a derived class, the derived class object is passed as the implied first argument.
Since 2.4 you can alternatively use the decorator notation:
  class C:
    @classmethod
    def f(cls, arg1, arg2, ...): ...

cmp(x,y) Returns negative, 0, positive if x <, ==, > to y respectively.
coerce(x,y) Returns a tuple of the two numeric arguments converted to a common type. Non essential function, see [details]
compile(string, filename, kind[, flags[, dont_inherit]]) Compiles string into a code object. filename is used in error message, can be any string. It is usually the file from which the code was read, or e.g. '<string>' if not read from file. kind can be 'eval' if string is a single stmt, or 'single' which prints the output of expression statements that evaluate to something else than None, or be 'exec'. New args flags and dont_inherit concern future statements. Since 2.6 the function accepts keyword arguments as well as positional parameters.
complex(real[, image]) Creates a complex object (can also be done using J or j suffix, e.g. 1+3J). Since 2.6, also accepts strings, with or without parenthesis, e.g. complex('1+3J') or complex('(1+3J)').
delattr(obj, name) Deletes the attribute named name of object obj <=> del obj.name
dict([mapping-or-sequence]) Returns a new dictionary initialized from the optional argument (or an empty dictionary if no argument). Argument may be a sequence (or anything iterable) of pairs (key,value).
dir([object]) Without args, returns the list of names in the current local symbol table. With a module, class or class instance object as arg, returns the list of names in its attr. dictionary. Since 2.6 object can override the std implementation via special method __dir__().
divmod(a,b) Returns tuple (a//b, a%b)
enumerate(iterable[, start=0]) Iterator returning pairs (index, item) from iterable, e.g. List(enumerate('Py')) -> [(0, 'P'), (1, 'y')]. 2.6: Arg start specifies initial index value (default: 0).
eval(s[, globals[, locals]]) Evaluates string s, representing a single python expression, in (optional) globals, locals contexts. s must have no NUL's or newlines. s can also be a code object. locals can be any mapping type, not only a regular Python dict.
Example:
x = 1; assert eval('x + 1') == 2
(To execute statements rather than a single expression, use Python statement exec or built-in function execfile)
execfile(file[, globals[,locals]]) Executes a file without creating a new module, unlike import. locals can be any mapping type, not only a regular Python dict.
file(filename[,mode[,bufsize]]) Opens a file and returns a new file object. Alias for open.
filter(function,sequence) Constructs a list from those elements of sequence for which function returns true. function takes one parameter.
float(x) Converts a number or a string to floating point. Since 2.6, x can be one of the strings 'nan', '+inf', or '-inf' to represent respectively IEEE 754 Not A Number, positive and negative infinity. Use module math functions isnan() and isinf() to check for NAN or infinity.
format(value[, format_spec]) Formats an object with the given specification (default '') by calling its __format__ method.
frozenset([iterable]) Returns a frozenset (immutable set) object whose (immutable) elements are taken from iterable, or empty by default. See also Sets.
getattr(object,name[,default])) Gets attribute called name from object, e.g. getattr(x, 'f') <=> x.f). If not found, raises AttributeError or returns default if specified.
globals() Returns a dictionary containing the current global variables.
hasattr(object, name) Returns true if object has an attribute called name.
hash(object) Returns the hash value of the object (if it has one).
help([object]) Invokes the built-in help system. No argument -> interactive help; if object is a string (name of a module, function, class, method, keyword, or documentation topic), a help page is printed on the console; otherwise a help page on object is generated.
hex(x) Converts a number x to a hexadecimal string.
id(object) Returns a unique integer identifier for object. Since 2.5 always returns non-negative numbers.
input([prompt]) Prints prompt if given. Reads input and evaluates it. Uses line editing / history if module readline available.
For un-evaluated input, see raw_input.
int(x[, base]) Converts a number or a string to a plain integer. Optional base parameter specifies base from which to convert string values.
intern(aString) Enters aString in the table of interned strings and returns the string. Since 2.3, interned strings are no longer 'immortal' (never garbage collected), see [details]
isinstance(obj, classInfo) Returns true if obj is an instance of class classInfo or an object of type classInfo (classInfo may also be a tuple of classes or types). If issubclass(A,B) then isinstance(x,A) => isinstance(x,B)
issubclass(class1, class2) Returns true if class1 is derived from class2 (or if class1 is class2).
iter(obj[,sentinel]) Returns an iterator on obj. If sentinel is absent, obj must be a collection implementing either __iter__() or __getitem__(). If sentinel is given, obj will be called with no arg; if the value returned is equal to sentinel, StopIteration will be raised, otherwise the value will be returned. See Iterators.
len(obj) Returns the length (the number of items) of an object (sequence, dictionary, or instance of class implementing __len__).
list([seq]) Creates an empty list or a list with same elements as seq. seq may be a sequence, a container that supports iteration, or an iterator object. If seq is already a list, returns a shallow copy of it.
locals() Returns a dictionary containing current local variables.
long(x[, base]) Converts a number or a string to a long integer. Optional base parameter specifies the base from which to convert string values.
map(function, sequence[, sequence, ...]) Returns a list of the results of applying function to each item from sequence(s). If more than one sequence is given, the function is called with an argument list consisting of the corresponding item of each sequence, substituting None for missing values when not all sequences have the same length. If function is None, returns a list of the items of the sequence (or a list of tuples if more than one sequence). => You might also consider using list comprehensions instead of map().
max(iterable[, key=func])
max(v1, v2, ...[, key=func])
With a single argument iterable, returns the largest item of a non-empty iterable (such as a string, tuple or list). With more than one argument, returns the largest of the arguments. The optional key arg is a function that takes a single argument and is called for every value in the list.
min(iterable[, key=func])
min(v1, v2, ...[, key=func])
With a single argument iterable, returns the smallest item of a non-empty iterable (such as a string, tuple or list). With more than one argument, returns the smallest of the arguments. The optional key arg is a function that takes a single argument and is called for every value in the list.
next(iterator[, default]) Returns the next item from iterator. If iterator exhausted, returns default if specified, or raises StopIteration otherwise.
object() Returns a new featureless object. object is the base class for all new style classes, its methods are common to all instances of new style classes.
oct(x) Converts a number to an octal string.
open(filename [, mode='r', [bufsize]]) Returns a new file object. See also alias file(). Use codecs.open() instead to open an encoded file and provide transparent encoding / decoding.
  • filename is the file name to be opened
  • mode indicates how the file is to be opened:
    • 'r' for reading
    • 'w' for writing (truncating an existing file)
    • 'a' opens it for appending
    • '+' (appended to any of the previous modes) open the file for updating (note that 'w+'truncates the file)
    • 'b' (appended to any of the previous modes) open the file in binary mode
    • 'U' (or 'rU') open the file for reading in Universal Newline mode: all variants of EOL (CR, LF, CR+LF) will be translated to a single LF ('\n').
  • bufsize is 0 for unbuffered, 1 for line buffered, negative or omitted for system default, >1 for a buffer of (about) the given size.
ord(c) Returns integer ASCII value of c (a string of len 1). Works with Unicode char.
pow(x, y [, z]) Returns x to power y [modulo z]. See also ** operator.
property([fget[, fset[, fdel[, doc]]]]) Returns a property attribute for new-style classes (classes deriving from object). fget, fset, and fdel are functions to get the property value, set the property value, and delete the property, respectively. Typical use:
class C(object):
  def __init__(self): self.__x = None
  def getx(self): return self.__x
  def setx(self, value): self.__x = value
  def delx(self): del self.__x
  x = property(getx, setx, delx, "I'm the 'x' property.")
print(*args [, sep=' '] [, end='\n'] [, file=sys.stdout]) When __future__.print_function is active, the print statement is replaced by this function [PEP3105]. Each item in args is printed to file with sep as the delimiter, and finally followed by end.

Each of these statements:
  print 'foo', 42
  print 'foo', 42,
  print >> sys.stderr 'warning'
can now be written in this functional form:
  print('foo', 42)
  print('foo', 42, end='')
  print('warning', file=sys.stderr)
range([start,] end [, step]) Returns list of ints from >= start and < end.
With 1 arg, list from 0..arg-1
With 2 args, list from start..end-1
With 3 args, list from start up to end by step
raw_input([prompt]) Prints prompt if given, then reads string from std input (no trailing \n). See also input().
reduce(f, list [, init]) Applies the binary function f to the items of list so as to reduce the list to a single value. If init is given, it is "prepended" to list.
reload(module) Re-parses and re-initializes an already imported module. Useful in interactive mode, if you want to reload a module after fixing it. If module was syntactically correct but had an error in initialization, must import it one more time before calling reload().
repr(object) Returns a string containing a printable and if possible evaluable representation of an object. <=> `object` (using backquotes). Class redefinable (__repr__). See also str()
round(x, n=0) Returns the floating point value x rounded to n digits after the decimal point.
set([iterable]) Returns a set object whose elements are taken from iterable, or empty by default. See also Sets.
setattr(object, name, value) This is the counterpart of getattr().setattr(o, 'foobar', 3) <=> o.foobar = 3. Creates attribute if it doesn't exist!
slice([start,] stop[, step]) Returns a slice object representing a range, with R/O attributes: start, stop, step.
sorted(iterable[, cmp[, key[, reverse]]]) Returns a new sorted list from the items in iterable. This contrasts with list.sort() that sorts lists in place and doesn't apply to immutable sequences like strings or tuples. See sequences.sort method.
staticmethod(function) Returns a static method for function. A static method does not receive an implicit first argument. To declare a static method, use this idiom:

  class C:
    def f(arg1, arg2, ...): ...
    f = staticmethod(f)


Then call it on the class C.f() or on an instance C().f(). The instance is ignored except for its class.
Since 2.4 you can alternatively use the decorator notation:
  class C:
    @staticmethod
    def f(arg1, arg2, ...): ...

str(object) Returns a string containing a nicely printable representation of an object. Class overridable (__str__). See also repr().
sum(iterable[, start=0]) Returns the sum of a sequence of numbers (not strings), plus the value of parameter. Returns start when the sequence is empty.
super( type[, object-or-type]) Returns the superclass of type. If the second argument is omitted the super object returned is unbound. If the second argument is an object, isinstance(obj, type) must be true. If the second argument is a type, issubclass(type2, type) must be true. Typical use:
class C(B):
  def meth(self, arg):
    super(C, self).meth(arg)
tuple([seq]) Creates an empty tuple or a tuple with same elements as seq. seq may be a sequence, a container that supports iteration, or an iterator object. If seq is already a tuple, returns itself (not a copy).
type(obj) Returns a type object [see module types] representing the type of obj. Example: import types if type(x) == types.StringType: print 'It is a string'. NB: it is better to use instead: if isinstance(x, types.StringType)...
unichr(code) Returns a unicode string 1 char long with given code.
unicode(string[, encoding[,error]]]) Creates a Unicode string from a 8-bit string, using the given encoding name and error treatment ('strict', 'ignore',or 'replace'}. For objects which provide a __unicode__() method, it will call this method without arguments to create a Unicode string.
vars([object]) Without arguments, returns a dictionary corresponding to the current local symbol table. With a module, class or class instance object as argument, returns a dictionary corresponding to the object's symbol table. Useful with the "%" string formatting operator.
xrange(start [, end [, step]]) Like range(), but doesn't actually store entire list all at once. Good to use in "for" loops when there is a big range and little memory.
zip(seq1[, seq2,...]) [No, that's not a compression tool! For that, see module zipfile] Returns a list of tuples where each tuple contains the nth element of each of the argument sequences. Since 2.4 returns an empty list if called with no arguments (was raising TypeError before).

Built-In Exception classes

BaseException
Mother of all exceptions (was Exception before 2.5). New-style class. exception.args is a tuple of the arguments passed to the constructor.Since 2.6 the exception.message attribute is deprecated.
KeyboardInterrupt & SystemExit were moved out of Exception because they don't really represent errors, so now a try:...except Exception: will only catch errors, while a try:...except BaseException: (or simply try:..except:) will still catch everything.

  • GeneratorExit
    Raised by the close() method of generators to terminate the iteration. Before 2.6 was derived from Exception.
  • KeyboardInterrupt
    On user entry of the interrupt key (often `CTRL-C'). Before 2.5 was derived from Exception.
  • SystemExit
    On sys.exit(). Before 2.5 was derived from Exception.
  • Exception
    Base of all errors. Before 2.5 was the base of all exceptions.
    • GeneratorExit
      Moved under BaseException.
    • StandardError
      Base class for all built-in exceptions; derived from Exception root class.
      • ArithmeticError
        Base class for arithmetic errors.
        • FloatingPointError
          When a floating point operation fails.
        • OverflowError
          On excessively large arithmetic operation.
        • ZeroDivisionError
          On division or modulo operation with 0 as 2nd argument.
      • AssertionError
        When an assert statement fails.
      • AttributeError
        On attribute reference or assignment failure
      • EnvironmentError
        On error outside Python; error arg. tuple is (errno, errMsg...)
        • IOError
          I/O-related operation failure.
        • OSError
          Used by the os module's os.error exception.
          • WindowsError
            When a Windows-specific error occurs or when the error number does not correspond to an errno value.
      • EOFError
        Immediate end-of-file hit by input() or raw_input()
      • ImportError
        On failure of import to find module or name.
      • KeyboardInterrupt
        Moved under BaseException.
      • LookupError
        base class for IndexError, KeyError
        • IndexError
          On out-of-range sequence subscript
        • KeyError
          On reference to a non-existent mapping (dict) key
      • MemoryError
        On recoverable memory exhaustion
      • NameError
        On failure to find a local or global (unqualified) name.
        • UnboundLocalError
          On reference to an unassigned local variable.
      • ReferenceError
        On attempt to access to a garbage-collected object via a weak reference proxy.
      • RuntimeError
        Obsolete catch-all; define a suitable error instead.
        • NotImplementedError
          On method not implemented.
      • SyntaxError
        On parser encountering a syntax error
        • IndentationError
          On parser encountering an indentation syntax error
          • TabError
            On improper mixture of spaces and tabs
      • SystemError
        On non-fatal interpreter error - bug - report it !
      • TypeError
        On passing inappropriate type to built-in operator or function.
      • ValueError
        On argument error not covered by TypeError or more precise.
        • UnicodeError
          On Unicode-related encoding or decoding error.
          • UnicodeDecodeError
            On Unicode decoding error.
          • UnicodeEncodeError
            On Unicode encoding error.
          • UnicodeTranslateError
            On Unicode translation error.
    • StopIteration
      Raised by an iterator's next() method to signal that there are no further values.
    • SystemExit
      Moved under BaseException.
    • Warning
      Base class for warnings (see module warning)
      • DeprecationWarning
        Warning about deprecated code.
      • FutureWarning
        Warning about a construct that will change semantically in the future.
      • ImportWarning
        Warning about probable mistake in module import (e.g. missing __init__.py).
      • OverflowWarning
        Warning about numeric overflow. Won't exist in Python 2.5.
      • PendingDeprecationWarning
        Warning about future deprecated code.
      • RuntimeWarning
        Warning about dubious runtime behavior.
      • SyntaxWarning
        Warning about dubious syntax.
      • UnicodeWarning
        When attempting to compare a Unicode string and an 8-bit string that can't be converted to Unicode using default ASCII encoding (raised a UnicodeDecodeError before 2.5).
      • UserWarning
        Warning generated by user code.

Standard methods & operators redefinition in classes

Standard methods & operators map to special methods '__method__' and thus can be redefined (mostly in user-defined classes), e.g.:
class C:
def __init__(self, v): self.value = v
def __add__(self, r): return self.value + r

a = C(3) # sort of like calling C.__init__(a, 3)
a + 4 # is equivalent to a.__add__(4)

Special methods for any class
Method Description
__new__(cls[, ...]) Instance creation (on construction). If __new__ returns an instance of cls then __init__ is called with the rest of the arguments (...), otherwise __init__ is not invoked. More details here.
__init__(self, args) Instance initialization (on construction)
__del__(self) Called on object demise (refcount becomes 0)
__repr__(self) repr() and `...` conversions
__str__(self) str() and print statement
__sizeof__(self) Returns amount of memory used by object, in bytes (called by sys.getsizeof()).
__format__(self, format_spec) format() and str.format() conversions
__cmp__(self,other) Compares self to other and returns <0, 0, or >0. Implements >, <, == etc...
__index__(self) [PEP357] Allows using any object as integer indice (e.g. for slicing). Must return a single integer or long integer value.
__lt__(self, other) Called for self < other comparisons. Can return anything, or can raise an exception.
__le__(self, other) Called for self <= other comparisons. Can return anything, or can raise an exception.
__gt__(self, other) Called for self > other comparisons. Can return anything, or can raise an exception.
__ge__(self, other) Called for self >= other comparisons. Can return anything, or can raise an exception.
__eq__(self, other) Called for self == other comparisons. Can return anything, or can raise an exception.
__ne__(self, other) Called for self != other (and self <> other) comparisons. Can return anything, or can raise an exception.
__hash__(self) Compute a 32 bit hash code; hash() and dictionary ops. Since 2.5 can also return a long integer, in which case the hash of that value will be taken.Since 2.6 can set __hash__ = None to void class inherited hashability.
__nonzero__(self) Returns 0 or 1 for truth value testing. when this method is not defined, __len__() is called if defined; otherwise all class instances are considered "true".
__getattr__(self,name) Called when attribute lookup doesn't find name. See also __getattribute__.
__getattribute__( self, name) Same as __getattr__ but always called whenever the attribute name is accessed.
__dir__( self) Returns the list of names of valid attributes for the object. Called by builtin function dir(), but ignored unless __getattr__ or __getattribute__ is defined.
__setattr__(self, name, value) Called when setting an attribute (inside, don't use "self.name = value", use instead "self.__dict__[name] = value")
__delattr__(self, name) Called to delete attribute <name>.
__call__(self, *args, **kwargs) Called when an instance is called as function: obj(arg1, arg2, ...) is a shorthand for obj.__call__(arg1, arg2, ...).
__enter__(self) For use with context managers, i.e. when entering the block in a with-statement. The with statement binds this method's return value to the as object.
__exit__(self, type, value, traceback) When exiting the block of a with-statement. If no errors occured, type, value, traceback are None. If an error occured, they will contain information about the class of the exception, the exception object and a traceback object, respectively. If the exception is handled properly, return True. If it returns False, the with-block re-raises the exception.

Operators

See list in the operator module. Operator function names are provided with 2 variants, with or without leading & trailing '__' (e.g. __add__ or add).

Numeric operations special methods
Operator Special method
self + other __add__(self, other)
self - other __sub__(self, other)
self * other __mul__(self, other)
self / other __div__(self, other) or __truediv__(self,other) if __future__.division is active.
self // other __floordiv__(self, other)
self % other __mod__(self, other)
divmod(self,other) __divmod__(self, other)
self ** other __pow__(self, other)
self & other __and__(self, other)
self ^ other __xor__(self, other)
self | other __or__(self, other)
self << other __lshift__(self, other)
self >> other __rshift__(self, other)
bool(self) __nonzero__(self) (used in boolean testing)
-self __neg__(self)
+self __pos__(self)
abs(self) __abs__(self)
~self __invert__(self) (bitwise)
self += other __iadd__(self, other)
self -= other __isub__(self, other)
self *= other __imul__(self, other)
self /= other __idiv__(self, other) or __itruediv__(self,other) if __future__.division is in effect.
self //= other __ifloordiv__(self, other)
self %= other __imod__(self, other)
self **= other __ipow__(self, other)
self &= other __iand__(self, other)
self ^= other __ixor__(self, other)
self |= other __ior__(self, other)
self <<= other __ilshift__(self, other)
self >>= other __irshift__(self, other)

Conversions
built-in function Special method
int(self) __int__(self)
long(self) __long__(self)
float(self) __float__(self)
complex(self) __complex__(self)
oct(self) __oct__(self)
hex(self) __hex__(self)
coerce(self, other) __coerce__(self, other)
Right-hand-side equivalents for all binary operators exist (__radd__, __rsub__, __rmul__, __rdiv__, ...).
They are called when class instance is on r-h-s of operator:
  • a + 3  calls __add__(a, 3)
  • 3 + a  calls __radd__(a, 3)

Special operations for containers
Operation Special method Notes
All sequences and maps :
len(self) __len__(self) length of object, >= 0. Length 0 == false
self[k] __getitem__(self, k) Get element at indice /key k (indice starts at 0). Or, if k is a slice object, return a slice.
  __missing__(self, key) Hook called when key is not found in the dictionary, returns the default value.
self[k] = value __setitem__(self, k, value) Set element at indice/key/slice k.
del self[k] __delitem__(self, k) Delete element at indice/key/slice k.
elt in self
elt not in self
__contains__(self, elt)
not __contains__(self, elt)
More efficient than std iteration thru sequence.
iter(self) __iter__(self) Returns an iterator on elements (keys for mappings <=> self.iterkeys()). See iterators.
Sequences, general methods, plus:
self[i:j] __getslice__(self, i, j) Deprecated since 2.0, replaced by __getitem__ with a slice object as parameter.
self[i:j] = seq __setslice__(self, i, j,seq) Deprecated since 2.0, replaced by __setitem__ with a slice object as parameter.
del self[i:j] __delslice__(self, i, j) Same as self[i:j] = [] - Deprecated since 2.0, replaced by __delitem__ with a slice object as parameter.
self * n __mul__(self, n) (__repeat__ in the official doc but doesn't work!)
self + other __add__(self, other) (__concat__ in the official doc but doesn't work!)
Mappings, general methods, plus:
hash(self) __hash__(self) hashed value of object self is used for dictionary keys

Special informative state attributes for some types:

Tip: use module inspect to inspect live objects.

Lists & Dictionaries
Attribute Meaning
__methods__ (list, R/O): list of method names of the object Deprecated, use dir() instead
Modules
Attribute Meaning
__doc__ (string/None, R/O): doc string (<=> __dict__['__doc__'])
__name__ (string, R/O): module name (also in __dict__['__name__'])
__package__ (string/None, R/W): If defined, package name used for relative imports (also in __dict__['__package__']). [PEP366].
__dict__ (dict, R/O): module's name space
__file__ (string/undefined, R/O): pathname of .pyc, .pyo or .pyd (undef for modules statically linked to the interpreter).
__path__ (list/undefined, R/W): List of directory paths where to find the package (for packages only).
Classes
Attribute Meaning
__doc__ (string/None, R/W): doc string (<=> __dict__['__doc__'])
__name__ (string, R/W): class name (also in __dict__['__name__'])
__module__ (string, R/W): module name in which the class was defined
__bases__ (tuple, R/W): parent classes
__dict__ (dict, R/W): attributes (class name space)
Instances
Attribute Meaning
__class__ (class, R/W): instance's class
__dict__ (dict, R/W): attributes
User defined functions
Attribute Meaning
__doc__ (string/None, R/W): doc string
__name__ (string, R/O): function name
func_doc (R/W): same as __doc__
func_name (R/O, R/W from 2.4): same as __name__
func_defaults (tuple/None, R/W): default args values if any
func_code (code, R/W): code object representing the compiled function body
func_globals (dict, R/O): ref to dictionary of func global variables
User-defined Methods
Attribute Meaning
__doc__ (string/None, R/O): Doc string
__name__ (string, R/O): Method name (same as im_func.__name__)
im_class (class, R/O): Class defining the method (may be a base class)
im_self (instance/None, R/O): Target instance object (None if unbound). Since 2.6 use __self__ instead, will be deprecated in 3.0.
__self__ (instance/None, R/O): Target instance object (None if unbound).
im_func (function, R/O): Function object. Since 2.6 use __func__ instead, will be deprecated in 3.0.
__func__ (function, R/O): Function object.
Built-in Functions & methods
Attribute Meaning
__doc__ (string/None, R/O): doc string
__name__ (string, R/O): function name
__self__ [methods only] target object
__members__ list of attr names: ['__doc__','__name__','__self__']) Deprecated, use dir() instead.
Codes
Attribute Meaning
co_name (string, R/O): function name
co_argcount (int, R/0): number of positional args
co_nlocals (int, R/O): number of local vars (including args)
co_varnames (tuple, R/O): names of local vars (starting with args)
co_code (string, R/O): sequence of bytecode instructions
co_consts (tuple, R/O): literals used by the bytecode, 1st one is function doc (or None)
co_names (tuple, R/O): names used by the bytecode
co_filename (string, R/O): filename from which the code was compiled
co_firstlineno (int, R/O): first line number of the function
co_lnotab (string, R/O): string encoding bytecode offsets to line numbers.
co_stacksize (int, R/O): required stack size (including local vars)
co_flags (int, R/O): flags for the interpreter bit 2 set if function uses "*arg" syntax, bit 3 set if function uses '**keywords' syntax
Frames
Attribute Meaning
f_back (frame/None, R/O): previous stack frame (toward the caller)
f_code (code, R/O): code object being executed in this frame
f_locals (dict, R/O): local vars
f_globals (dict, R/O): global vars
f_builtins (dict, R/O): built-in (intrinsic) names
f_restricted (int, R/O): flag indicating whether function is executed in restricted mode
f_lineno (int, R/O): current line number
f_lasti (int, R/O): precise instruction (index into bytecode)
f_trace (function/None, R/W): debug hook called at start of each source line
f_exc_type (Type/None, R/W): Most recent exception type
f_exc_value (any, R/W): Most recent exception value
f_exc_traceback (traceback/None, R/W): Most recent exception traceback
Tracebacks
Attribute Meaning
tb_next (frame/None, R/O): next level in stack trace (toward the frame where the exception occurred)
tb_frame (frame, R/O): execution frame of the current level
tb_lineno (int, R/O): line number where the exception occured
tb_lasti (int, R/O): precise instruction (index into bytecode)
Slices
Attribute Meaning
start (any/None, R/O): lowerbound, included
stop (any/None, R/O): upperbound, excluded
step (any/None, R/O): step value
Complex numbers
Attribute Meaning
real (float, R/O): real part
imag (float, R/O): imaginary part
xranges
Attribute Meaning
tolist (Built-in method, R/O): ?

Important Modules

sys

System-specific parameters and functions. [Full doc]

Some sys variables
Variable Content
argv The list of command line arguments passed to a Python script. sys.argv[0] is the script name.
builtin_module_names A list of strings giving the names of all modules written in C that are linked into this interpreter.
byteorder Native byte order, either 'big'(-endian) or 'little'(-endian).
copyright A string containing the copyright pertaining to the Python interpreter.
dont_write_bytecode If True, prevents Python from from writing .pyc or .pyo files (same as invocation option -B).
exec_prefix
prefix
Root directory where platform-dependent Python files are installed, e.g. 'C:\\Python23', '/usr'.
executable Name of executable binary of the Python interpreter (e.g. 'C:\\Python23\\python.exe', '/usr/bin/python')
exitfunc User can set to a parameterless function. It will get called before interpreter exits. Deprecated since 2.4. Code should be using the existing atexit module
flags Status of command line flags, as a R/O struct. [details]
float_info A structseq holding information about the float type (precision, internal representation, etc...). [details]
last_type, last_value, last_traceback Set only when an exception not handled and interpreter prints an error. Used by debuggers.
maxint Maximum positive value for integers. Since 2.2 integers and long integers are unified, thus integers have no limit.
maxunicode Largest supported code point for a Unicode character.
modules Dictionary of modules that have already been loaded.
path Search path for external modules. Can be modified by program. sys.path[0] == directory of script currently executed.
platform The current platform, e.g. "sunos5", "win32"
ps1, ps2 Prompts to use in interactive mode, normally ">>>" and "..."
stdin, stdout, stderr File objects used for I/O. One can redirect by assigning a new file object to them (or any object: with a method write(string) for stdout/stderr, or with a method readline() for stdin). __stdin__,__stdout__ and __stderr__ are the default values.
subversion Info about Python build version in the Subversion repository: tuple (interpreter-name, branch-name, revision-range), e.g. ('CPython', 'tags/r25', '51908').
version String containing version info about Python interpreter.
version_info Tuple containing Python version info - (major, minor, micro, level, serial).
winver Version number used to form registry keys on Windows platforms (e.g. '2.2').
Some sys functions
Function Result
_current_frames() Returns the current stack frames for all running threads, as a dictionary mapping thread identifiers to the topmost stack frame currently active in that thread at the time the function is called.
displayhook The function used to display the output of commands issued in interactive mode - defaults to the builtin repr(). __displayhook__ is the original value.
excepthook Can be set to a user defined function, to which any uncaught exceptions are passed. __excepthook__ is the original value.
exit(n) Exits with status n (usually 0 means OK). Raises SystemExit exception (hence can be caught and ignored by program)
getcheckinterval() / setcheckinterval(interval) Gets / Sets the interpreter's thread switching interval (in number of bytecode instructions, default: 10 until 2.2, 100 from 2.3).
getrefcount(object) Returns the reference count of the object. Generally 1 higher than you might expect, because of object arg temp reference.
getsizeof(object[, default]) Returns the amount of memory used by object, in bytes. Calls o.__sizeof__() if available. default returned if size can't be determined. [details]
settrace(func) Sets a trace function: called before each line of code is exited.
setprofile(func) Sets a profile function for performance profiling.
exc_info() Info on exception currently being handled; this is a tuple (exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback). Warning: assigning the traceback return value to a local variable in a function handling an exception will cause a circular reference.
setdefaultencoding(encoding) Change default Unicode encoding - defaults to 7-bit ASCII.
getrecursionlimit() Retrieve maximum recursion depth.
setrecursionlimit() Set maximum recursion depth (default 1000).

os

Miscellaneous operating system interfaces. Many functions, see the Full documentation for a comprehensive list!

"synonym" for whatever OS-specific module (nt, mac, posix...) is proper for current environment. This module uses posix whenever possible.
See also M.A. Lemburg's utility platform.py (now included in 2.3+).

Some os variables
Variable Meaning
name name of O/S-specific module (e.g. "posix", "mac", "nt")
path O/S-specific module for path manipulations.
On Unix, os.path.split() <=> posixpath.split()
curdir string used to represent current directory (eg '.')
pardir string used to represent parent directory (eg '..')
sep string used to separate directories ('/' or '\'). Tip: Use os.path.join() to build portable paths.
altsep Alternate separator if applicable (None otherwise)
pathsep character used to separate search path components (as in $PATH), eg. ';' for windows.
linesep line separator as used in text files, ie '\n' on Unix, '\r\n' on Dos/Win, '\r' on Mac.
Some os functions
Function Result
makedirs(path[, mode=0777]) Recursive directory creation (create required intermediary dirs); os.error if fails.
removedirs(path) Recursive directory delete (delete intermediary empty dirs); fails (os.error) if the directories are not empty.
renames(old, new) Recursive directory or file renaming; os.error if fails.
urandom(n) Returns a string containing n bytes of random data.

posix

Posix OS interfaces. [Full doc]
Do not import this module directly, import os instead ! (see also module: shutil for file copy & remove functions)

posix Variables
Variable Meaning
environ dictionary of environment variables, e.g. posix.environ['HOME'].
error exception raised on POSIX-related error.
Corresponding value is tuple of errno code and perror() string.
Some posix functions
Function Result
access(path, mode) Returns True if the requested access to path is granted. Use mode=F_OK to check for existence, or an OR-ed combination of R_OK, W_OK, and X_OK to check for r, w, x permissions.
chdir(path) Changes current directory to path.
chmod(path, mode) Changes the mode of path to the numeric mode
close(fd) Closes file descriptor fd opened with posix.open.
_exit(n) Immediate exit, with no cleanups, no SystemExit, etc... Should use this to exit a child process.
execv(p, args) "Become" executable p with args args
getcwd() Returns a string representing the current working directory.
getcwdu() Returns a Unicode string representing the current working directory.
getpid() Returns the current process id.
getsid() Calls the system call getsid() [Unix].
fork() Like C's fork(). Returns 0 to child, child pid to parent [Not on Windows].
kill(pid, signal) Like C's kill [Not on Windows].
listdir(path) Lists (base)names of entries in directory path, excluding '.' and '..'. If path is a Unicode string, so will be the returned strings.
lseek(fd, pos, how) Sets current position in file fd to position pos, expressed as an offset relative to beginning of file (how=0), to current position (how=1), or to end of file (how=2).
mkdir(path[, mode]) Creates a directory named path with numeric mode (default 0777). Actual permissions = (mode & ~umask & 0777). To set directly the permissions, use chmod() after dir creation.
open(file, flags, mode) Like C's open(). Returns file descriptor. Use file object functions rather than this low level ones.
pipe() Creates a pipe. Returns pair of file descriptors (r, w) [Not on Windows].
popen(command, mode='r', bufSize=0) Opens a pipe to or from command. Result is a file object to read to or write from, as indicated by mode being 'r' or 'w'. Use it to catch a command output ('r' mode), or to feed it ('w' mode).
remove(path) See unlink.
rename(old, new) Renames/moves the file or directory old to new. [error if target name already exists]
renames(old, new) Recursive directory or file renaming function. Works like rename(), except creation of any intermediate directories needed to make the new pathname good is attempted first. After the rename, directories corresponding to rightmost path segments of the old name will be pruned away using removedirs().
rmdir(path) Removes the empty directory path
read(fd, n) Reads n bytes from file descriptor fd and return as string.
stat(path) Returns st_mode, st_ino, st_dev, st_nlink, st_uid,st_gid, st_size, st_atime, st_mtime, st_ctime. [st_ino, st_uid, st_gid are dummy on Windows]
system(command) Executes string command in a subshell. Returns exit status of subshell (usually 0 means OK). Since 2.4 use subprocess.call() instead.
times() Returns accumulated CPU times in sec (user, system, children's user, children's sys, elapsed real time) [3 last not on Windows].
unlink(path) Unlinks ("deletes") the file (not dir!) path. Same as: remove.
utime(path, (aTime, mTime)) Sets the access & modified time of the file to the given tuple of values.
wait() Waits for child process completion. Returns tuple of pid, exit_status [Not on Windows].
waitpid(pid, options) Waits for process pid to complete. Returns tuple of pid, exit_status [Not on Windows].
walk(top[, topdown=True [, onerror=None[, followlinks=False]]]) Generates a list of file names in a directory tree, by walking the tree either top down or bottom up. For each directory in the tree rooted at directory top (including top itself), it yields a 3-tuple (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) - more info here. See also os.path.walk().
2.6: New followlinks parameter. If True, visit directories pointed to by links (beware of infinite recursion!).
write(fd, str) Writes str to file fd. Returns nb of bytes written.

posixpath

Posix pathname operations.
Do not import this module directly, import os instead and refer to this module as os.path. (e.g. os.path.exists(p))!

posixpath functions
Function Result
abspath(path) Returns absolute path for path, taking current working dir in account.
commonprefix(list) Returns the longuest path prefix (taken character-by-character) that is a prefix of all paths in list (or '' if list empty).
dirname/basename(path) directory and name parts of path. See also split.
exists(path) True if path is the path of an existing file or directory. See also lexists.
expanduser(path) Returns a copy of path with "~" expansion done.
expandvars(path) Returns string that is (a copy of) path with environment vars $name or ${name} expanded. [Windows: case significant; must use Unix: $var notation, not %var%; 2.6: Notation %name% also supported.]
getatime(path) Returns last access time of path (integer nb of seconds since epoch).
getctime(path) Returns the metadata change time of path (integer nb of seconds since epoch).
getmtime(path) Returns last modification time of path (integer nb of seconds since epoch).
getsize(path) Returns the size in bytes of path. os.error if file inexistent or inaccessible.
isabs(path) True if path is absolute.
isdir(path) True if path is a directory.
isfile(path) True if path is a regular file.
islink(path) True if path is a symbolic link.
ismount(path) True if path is a mount point [true for all dirs on Windows].
join(p[,q[,...]]) Joins one or more path components in a way suitable for the current OS.
lexists(path) True if the file specified by path exists, whether or not it's a symbolic link (unlike exists).
normcase(path) Normalizes case of path. Has no effect under Posix.
normpath(path) Normalizes path, eliminating double slashes, etc...
realpath(path) Returns the canonical path for path, eliminating any symbolic links encountered in the path.
relpath(path[, start]) Returns a relative filepath to path, from the current directory by default, or from start if specified.
samefile(f1, f2) True if the 2 paths f1 and f2 reference the same file.
sameopenfile(f1, f2) True if the 2 open file objects f1 and f2 reference the same file.
samestat(s1, s2) True if the 2 stat buffers s1 and s2 reference the same file.
split(p) Splits p into (head, tail) where tail is last pathname component and head is everything leading up to that. <=> (dirname(p), basename(p))
splitdrive(p) Splits path p in a pair ('drive:', tail) [Windows]
splitext(p) Splits into (root, ext) where last comp of root contains no periods and ext is empty or starts with a period. 2.6: Do not split on leading period.
walk(p, visit, arg) Calls the function visit with arguments (arg, dirname, names) for each directory recursively in the directory tree rooted at p (including p itself if it's a dir). The argument dirname specifies the visited directory, the argument names lists the files in the directory. The visit function may modify names to influence the set of directories visited below dirname, e.g. to avoid visiting certain parts of the tree. See also os.walk() for an alternative.

shutil

High-level file operations (copying, deleting). [Full doc]

Main shutil functions
Function Result
copy(src, dest) Copies the contents of file src to file dest, retaining file permissions.
copytree(src, dest[, symlinks=False [, ignore=None]]) Recursively copies an entire directory tree rooted at src into dest (which should not already exist). If symlinks is true, links in src are kept as such in dest.
2.6: New ignore callable argument. Will be called with each directory path and a list of the directory's contents, must return a list of names to ignore. shutil.ignore_patterns() can be used to exclude glob-style patterns, e.g.:
shutil.copytree('projects/myProjUnderSvn', 'exportDir', ignore=shutil.ignore_patterns('*~', '.svn'))
move(src, dest) Recursively moves a file or directory to a new location.
rmtree(path [, ignore_errors [, onerror]]) Deletes an entire directory tree, ignoring errors if ignore_errors is true, or calling onerror(func, path, sys.exc_info()) if supplied, with arguments func (faulty function), and path (concerned file). This function fails when the files are Read Only.
make_archive(base_name, format [, root_dir [, base_dir [, verbose [, dry_run [, owner [, group [, logger]]]]]]]) Create an archive file (eg. zip or tar) and returns its name. base_name is the name of the file to create, including the path, minus any format-specific extension. format is the archive format: one of “zip”, “tar”, “bztar” or “gztar”. root_dir is a directory that will be the root directory of the archive; ie. we typically chdir into root_dir before creating the archive. base_dir is the directory where we start archiving from; ie. base_dir will be the common prefix of all files and directories in the archive. root_dir and base_dir both default to the current directory. owner and group are used when creating a tar archive. By default, uses the current owner and group. logger is an instance of logging.Logger.
(and also: copyfile, copymode, copystat, copy2)

time

Time access and conversions. [Full doc]
(see also module mxDateTime if you need a more sophisticated date/time management)

Variables
Variable Meaning
altzone Signed offset of local DST timezone in sec west of the 0th meridian.
daylight Non zero if a DST timezone is specified.
timezone The offset of the local (non-DST) timezone, in seconds west of UTC.
tzname A tuple (name of local non-DST timezone, name of local DST timezone).
Some functions
Function Result
clock() On Unix: current processor time as a floating point number expressed in seconds.
On Windows: wall-clock seconds elapsed since the 1st call to this function, as a floating point number (precision < 1µs).
time() Returns a float representing UTC time in seconds since the epoch.
gmtime([secs]),
localtime([secs])
Returns a 9-tuple representing time. Current time is used if secs is not provided.
Since 2.2, returns a struct_time object (still accessible as a tuple) with the following attributes:
IndexAttributeValues
0 tm_year Year (e.g. 1993)
1 tm_mon Month [1,12]
2 tm_mday Day [1,31]
3 tm_hour Hour [0,23]
4 tm_min Minute [0,59]
5 tm_sec Second [0,61]; The 61 accounts for leap seconds and (the very rare) double leap seconds.
6 tm_wday Weekday [0,6], Monday is 0
7 tm_yday Julian day [1,366]
8 tm_isdst Daylight flag: 0, 1 or -1; -1 passed to mktime() will usually work
asctime([timeTuple]), 24-character string of the following form: 'Mon Apr 03 08:31:14 2006'. timeTuple defaults to localtime() if omitted.
ctime([secs]) equivalent to asctime(localtime(secs))
mktime(timeTuple) Inverse of localtime(). Returns a float representing a number of seconds.
strftime(format[, timeTuple]) Formats a time tuple as a string, according to format (see table below). Current time is used if timeTuple is omitted.
strptime(string[, format]) Parses a string representing a time according to format (same format as for strftime(), see below), default "%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y" = asctime format.
Returns a time tuple/struct_time.
sleep(secs) Suspends execution for secs seconds. secs can be a float.

Formatting in strftime() and strptime()
Directive Meaning
%a Locale's abbreviated weekday name.
%A Locale's full weekday name.
%b Locale's abbreviated month name.
%B Locale's full month name.
%c Locale's appropriate date and time representation.
%d Day of the month as a decimal number [01,31].
%f Microsecond as a decimal number [0,999999], zero-padded on the left.
%H Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number [00,23].
%I Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number [01,12].
%j Day of the year as a decimal number [001,366].
%m Month as a decimal number [01,12].
%M Minute as a decimal number [00,59].
%p Locale's equivalent of either AM or PM.
%S Second as a decimal number [00,61]. Yes, 61 !
%U Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number [00,53]. All days in a new year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0.
%w Weekday as a decimal number [0(Sunday),6].
%W Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number [00,53]. All days in a new year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0.
%x Locale's appropriate date representation.
%X Locale's appropriate time representation.
%y Year without century as a decimal number [00,99].
%Y Year with century as a decimal number.
%Z Time zone name (no characters if no time zone exists).
%z UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM (empty string if the date is naive).
%% A literal "%" character.

string

Common string operations. [Full doc]

As of Python 2.0, much (though not all) of the functionality provided by the string module have been superseded by built-in string methods.
Since 2.5 (?) all string module methods are considered deprecated => use built-in string methods instead.

Some string constant
Constant Meaning
digits The string '0123456789'.
hexdigits, octdigits Legal hexadecimal & octal digits.
letters, uppercase, lowercase, whitespace Strings containing the appropriate characters, taking the current locale into account.
ascii_letters, ascii_lowercase, ascii_uppercase Strings containing Ascii characters.
Some string functions
Function Result
expandtabs(s, tabSize) Returns a copy of string s with tabs expanded.
find/rfind(s, sub[, start=0[, end=0]) Returns the lowest/highest index in s where the substring sub is found such that sub is wholly contained in s[start:end]. Return -1 if sub not found.
ljust/rjust/center(s, width[, fillChar=' ']) Returns a copy of string s; left/right justified/centered in a field of given width, padded with spaces or the given character. s is never truncated.
lower/upper(s) Returns a string that is (a copy of) s in lowercase/uppercase.
split(s[, sep=whitespace[, maxsplit=0]]) Returns a list containing the words of the string s, using the string sep as a separator.
rsplit(s[, sep=whitespace[, maxsplit=0]]) Same as split above but starts splitting from the end of string, e.g. 'A,B,C'.split(',', 1) == ['A', 'B,C'] but 'A,B,C'.rsplit(',', 1) == ['A,B', 'C']
join(words[, sep=' ']) Concatenates a list or tuple of words with intervening separators; inverse of split.
replace(s, old, new[, maxsplit=0] Returns a copy of string s with all occurrences of substring old replaced by new. Limits to maxsplit first substitutions if specified.
strip(s[, chars=None]) Returns a string that is (a copy of) s without leading and trailing chars (default: whitespace), if any. Also: lstrip, rstrip.

re (sre)

Regular expression operations. [Full doc]

Handles Unicode strings. Implemented in new module sre, re now a mere front-end for compatibility.
Patterns are specified as strings. Tip: Use raw strings (e.g. r'\w*') to literalize backslashes.

Regular expression syntax
Form Description
. Matches any character (including newline if DOTALL flag specified).
^ Matches start of the string (of every line in MULTILINE mode).
$ Matches end of the string (of every line in MULTILINE mode).
* 0 or more of preceding regular expression (as many as possible).
+ 1 or more of preceding regular expression (as many as possible).
? 0 or 1 occurrence of preceding regular expression.
*?, +?, ?? Same as *, + and ? but matches as few characters as possible.
{m,n} Matches from m to n repetitions of preceding RE.
{m,n}? Idem, attempting to match as few repetitions as possible.
[ ] Defines character set: e.g. '[a-zA-Z]' to match all letters (see also \w \S).
[^ ] Defines complemented character set: matches if char is NOT in set.
\ Escapes special chars '*?+&$|()' and introduces special sequences (see below). Due to Python string rules, write as '\\' or r'\' in the pattern string.
\\ Matches a litteral '\'; due to Python string rules, write as '\\\\' in pattern string, or better using raw string: r'\\'.
| Specifies alternative: 'foo|bar' matches 'foo' or 'bar'.
(...) Matches any RE inside (), and delimits a group.
(?:...) Idem but doesn't delimit a group (non capturing parenthesis).
(?P<name>...) Matches any RE inside (), and delimits a named group, (e.g. r'(?P<id>[a-zA-Z_]\w*)' defines a group named id).
(?P=name) Matches whatever text was matched by the earlier group named name.
(?=...) Matches if ... matches next, but doesn't consume any of the string e.g. 'Isaac (?=Asimov)' matches 'Isaac' only if followed by 'Asimov'.
(?!...) Matches if ... doesn't match next. Negative of (?=...).
(?<=...) Matches if the current position in the string is preceded by a match for ... that ends at the current position. This is called a positive lookbehind assertion.
(?<!...) Matches if the current position in the string is not preceded by a match for .... This is called a negative lookbehind assertion.
(?(group)A|B) [2.4+] group is either a numeric group ID or a group name defined with (?Pgroup...) earlier in the expression. If the specified group matched, the regular expression pattern A will be tested against the string; if the group didn't match, the pattern B will be used instead.
(?#...) A comment; ignored.
(?letters) letters is one or more of 'i','L', 'm', 's', 'u', 'x'. Sets the corresponding flags (re.I, re.L, re.M, re.S, re.U, re.X) for the entire RE. See the compile() function for equivalent flags.
Special sequences
Sequence Description
\number Matches content of the group of the same number; groups are numbered starting from 1.
\A Matches only at the start of the string.
\b Empty str at beginning or end of word: '\bis\b' matches 'is', but not 'his'.
\B Empty str NOT at beginning or end of word.
\d Any decimal digit (<=> [0-9]).
\D Any non-decimal digit char (<=> [^0-9]).
\s Any whitespace char (<=> [ \t\n\r\f\v]).
\S Any non-whitespace char (<=> [^ \t\n\r\f\v]).
\w Any alphaNumeric char (depends on LOCALE flag).
\W Any non-alphaNumeric char (depends on LOCALE flag).
\Z Matches only at the end of the string.
Variables
Variable Meaning
error Exception when pattern string isn't a valid regexp.
Functions
Function Result
compile(pattern[,flags=0]) Compiles a RE pattern string into a regular expression object.
Flags (combinable by |):
I or IGNORECASE <=> (?i)
case insensitive matching
L or LOCALE <=> (?L)
make \w, \W, \b, \B dependent on the current locale
M or MULTILINE <=> (?m)
matches every new line and not only start/end of the whole string
S or DOTALL <=> (?s)
'.' matches ALL chars, including newline
U or UNICODE <=> (?u)
Make \w, \W, \b, and \B dependent on the Unicode character properties database.
X or VERBOSE <=> (?x)
Ignores whitespace outside character sets
escape(string) Returns (a copy of) string with all non-alphanumerics backslashed.
match(pattern, string[, flags]) If 0 or more chars at beginning of string matches the RE pattern string, returns a corresponding MatchObject instance, or None if no match.
search(pattern, string[, flags]) Scans thru string for a location matching pattern, returns a corresponding MatchObject instance, or None if no match.
split(pattern, string[, maxsplit=0 [, flags=0]]) Splits string by occurrences of pattern. If capturing () are used in pattern, then occurrences of patterns or subpatterns are also returned.
findall(pattern, string) Returns a list of non-overlapping matches of pattern in string, either a list of groups or a list of tuples if the pattern has more than 1 group.
finditer(pattern, string[, flags]) Returns an iterator over all non-overlapping matches of pattern in string. For each match, the iterator returns a match object. Empty matches are included in the result unless they touch the beginning of another match.
sub(pattern, repl, string[, count=0 [, flags]]) Returns string obtained by replacing the (count first) leftmost non-overlapping occurrences of pattern (a string or a RE object) in string by repl; repl can be a string or a function called with a single MatchObj arg, which must return the replacement string.
subn(pattern, repl, string[, count=0 [, flags]]) Same as sub(), but returns a tuple (newString, numberOfSubsMade).

Regular Expression Objects

RE objects are returned by the compile function.

re object attributes
Attribute Description
flags Flags arg used when RE obj was compiled, or 0 if none provided.
groupindex Dictionary of {group name: group number} in pattern.
pattern Pattern string from which RE obj was compiled.
re object methods
Method Result
match(string[, pos][, endpos]) If zero or more characters at the beginning of string match this regular expression, returns a corresponding MatchObject instance. Returns None if the string does not match the pattern; note that this is different from a zero-length match.
The optional second parameter pos gives an index in the string where the search is to start; it defaults to 0. This is not completely equivalent to slicing the string; the '' pattern character matches at the real beginning of the string and at positions just after a newline, but not necessarily at the index where the search is to start.
The optional parameter endpos limits how far the string will be searched; it will be as if the string is endpos characters long, so only the characters from pos to endpos will be searched for a match.
search(string[, pos][, endpos]) Scans through string looking for a location where this regular expression produces a match, and returns a corresponding MatchObject instance. Returns None if no position in the string matches the pattern; note that this is different from finding a zero-length match at some point in the string.
The optional pos and endpos parameters have the same meaning as for the match() method.
split(string[, maxsplit=0]) Identical to the split() function, using the compiled pattern.
findall(string[, pos[, endpos]]) Identical to the findall() function, using the compiled pattern.
finditer(string[, pos[, endpos]]) Identical to the finditer() function, using the compiled pattern.
sub(repl, string[, count=0]) Identical to the sub() function, using the compiled pattern.
subn(repl, string[, count=0]) Identical to the subn() function, using the compiled pattern.

Match Objects

Match objects are returned by the match & search functions.

Match object attributes
Attribute Description
pos Value of pos passed to search or match functions; index into string at which RE engine started search.
endpos Value of endpos passed to search or match functions; index into string beyond which RE engine won't go.
re RE object whose match or search function produced this MatchObj instance.
string String passed to match() or search().
Match object methods
Method Result
group([g1, g2, ...]) Returns one or more groups of the match. If one arg, result is a string; if multiple args, result is a tuple with one item per arg. If gi is 0, returns the entire matching string; if 1 <= gi <= 99, returns string matching group #gi (or None if no such group); gi may also be a group name.
groups() Returns a tuple of all groups of the match; groups not participating to the match have a value of None. Returns a string instead of tuple if len(tuple)== 1.
start(group), end(group) Returns indices of start & end of substring matched by group (or None if group exists but didn't contribute to the match).
span(group) Returns the 2-tuple (start(group), end(group)); can be (None, None) if group didn't contibute to the match.

Lexical scanners using regular expressions

There's an undocumented class in the re module called re.Scanner. The following recipee is from stackoverflow:
import re
scanner=re.Scanner([
  (r"[0-9]+",           lambda scanner,token:("INTEGER", token)),
  (r"[a-z_]+",          lambda scanner,token:("IDENTIFIER", token)),
  (r"[,.]+",            lambda scanner,token:("PUNCTUATION", token)),
  (r"\s+", None), # None == skip token.
])

results, remainder=scanner.scan("45 pigeons, 23 cows, 11 spiders.")
print results
which results in
[('INTEGER', '45'),
 ('IDENTIFIER', 'pigeons'),
 ('PUNCTUATION', ','),
 ('INTEGER', '23'),
 ('IDENTIFIER', 'cows'),
 ('PUNCTUATION', ','),
 ('INTEGER', '11'),
 ('IDENTIFIER', 'spiders'),
 ('PUNCTUATION', '.')]

math

For complex number functions, see module cmath. For intensive number crunching, see Numerical Python and the Python and Scientific computing page. [Full doc]

Constants
Name Value
pi 3.1415926535897931
e 2.7182818284590451
Functions
Name Result
acos(x) Returns the arc cosine (measured in radians) of x.
acosh(x) Returns the hyperbolic arc cosine (measured in radians) of x.
asin(x) Returns the arc sine (measured in radians) of x.
asinh(x) Returns the hyperbolic arc sine (measured in radians) of x.
atan(x) Returns the arc tangent (measured in radians) of x.
atan2(y, x) Returns the arc tangent (measured in radians) of y/x. The result is between -pi and pi. Unlike atan(y/x), the signs of both x and y are considered.
atanh(x) Returns the hyperbolic arc tangent (measured in radians) of x.
ceil(x) Returns the ceiling of x as a float. This is the smallest integral value >= x.
copysign(x, y) Copies the sign bit of an IEEE 754 number, returning the absolute value of x combined with the sign bit of y, e.g. copysign(1, -0.0) returns -1.0.
cos(x) Returns the cosine of x (measured in radians).
cosh(x) Returns the hyperbolic cosine of x.
degrees(x) Converts angle x from radians to degrees.
erf(x) Return the error function at x.
erfc(x) Return the complementary error function at x.
exp(x) Returns e raised to the power of x.
exmp1(x) Return e**x - 1 with less loss of precision at small floats than exp(x) - 1.
fabs(x) Returns the absolute value of the float x.
factorial(n) returns n!
floor(x) Returns the floor of x as a float. This is the largest integral value <= x.
fmod(x, y) Returns fmod(x, y), according to platform C. x % y may differ.
frexp(x) Returns the mantissa and exponent of x, as pair (m, e). m is a float and e is an int, such that x = m * 2.**e. If x is 0, m and e are both 0. Else 0.5 <= abs(m) < 1.0.
fsum(iterable) Returns an accurate floating point sum of values in iterable (assumes IEEE-754 floating point arithmetic).
gamma(x) Return the Gamma function at x.
hypot(x, y) Returns the Euclidean distance sqrt(x*x + y*y).
isinf(x) Returns True if x is infinite (positive or negative).
isnan(x) Returns True if x is not a number.
ldexp(x, i) x * (2**i)
lgamma(x) Return the natural logarithm of the absolute value of the Gamma function at x.
log(x[, base]) Returns the logarithm of x to the given base. If the base is not specified, returns the natural logarithm (base e) of x.
log10(x) Returns the base 10 logarithm of x.
log1p(x) Returns the natural logarithm of 1+x (base e). The result is computed in a way which is accurate for x near zero.
modf(x) Returns the fractional and integer parts of x. Both results carry the sign of x. The integer part is returned as a float.
pow(x, y) Returns x**y (x to the power of y). Note that for y=2, it is more efficient to use x*x.
radians(x) Converts angle x from degrees to radians.
sin(x) Returns the sine (measured in radians) of x.
sinh(x) Returns the hyperbolic sine of x.
sqrt(x) Returns the square root of x.
tan(x) Returns the tangent (measured in radians) of x.
tanh(x) Returns the hyperbolic tangent of x.
trunc(x) Returns the Real value x truncated to an Integral. Delegates to x.__trunc__().

Compressions

Python contains several modules for working with compressed files. The builtin function zip does not have anything to do with zipping, think instead of a zipper.
There are three different concepts with compressions:
  • compression of data
  • compression of a single file (e.g. gzip, bz2)
  • compression of archives, ie. zip-files with multple files
Compression of data
Module Description
zlib Compression and decompression of data (strings), using the zlib library.
bz2 Sequential compression and decompression using classes BZ2Compressor and BZ2Decompressor, or One-shot (de)compression though functions compress() and decompress().
Compression of single file
Module Description
gzip Read and write gzip-compressed files as were they normal files, using the GzipFile class.
bz2 Read and write bz2-compressed files as were they normal files, using the BZ2File class.
Compression of archives
Module Description
zipfile Work with ZIP archives.
See the method ZipFile.open for reading a single file in the archive as a normal file.
tarfile Read and write tar archive files.
shutil The function make_archive provides means for packaging a directory into a archive.

List of modules and packages in base distribution

Built-ins and content of python Lib directory. The subdirectory Lib/site-packages contains platform-specific packages and modules.
[Main distributions (Windows, Unix), some OS specific modules may be missing]

Standard library modules
Operation Result
__builtin__ Provide direct access to all `built-in' identifiers of Python, e.g. __builtin__.open is the full name for the built-in function open().
__future__ Future statement definitions. Used to progressively introduce new features in the language.
__main__ Represent the (otherwise anonymous) scope in which the interpreter's main program executes -- commands read either from standard input, from a script file, or from an interactive prompt. Typical idiom to check if a code was run as a script (as opposed to being imported):
if __name__ == '__main__':
  main()  # (this code was run as script)
abc (new in 2.6) Abstract Base Classes (ABC) [PEP 3119]. Equivalent of Java interfaces. The module collections defines interfaces/ABCs for many behaviors/protocols/data structures (Iterable, Hashable, Sequence, Set, etc...).
aifc Stuff to parse AIFF-C and AIFF files.
anydbm Generic interface to all dbm clones. (dbhash, gdbm, dbm, dumbdbm).
argparse Parser for command-line options, arguments and sub-commands. For more C-like command-line processing, see getopt.
array Efficient arrays of numeric values.
ast (new in 2.6) Helpers to process Trees of the Python Abstract Syntax grammar.
asynchat A class supporting chat-style (command/response) protocols.
asyncore Basic infrastructure for asynchronous socket service clients and servers.
atexit Register functions to be called at exit of Python interpreter.
audiodev Classes for manipulating audio devices (currently only for Sun and SGI). Deprecated since 2.6.
audioop Manipulate raw audio data. 2.5: Supports the a-LAW encoding.
base64 Conversions to/from base64 transport encoding as per RFC-1521.
BaseHTTPServer HTTP server base class
Bastion "Bastionification" utility (control access to instance vars).
bdb A generic Python debugger base class.
binascii Convert between binary and ASCII.
binhex Macintosh binhex compression/decompression.
bisect Bisection algorithms.
bsddb (Optional) improved BSD database interface [package].
bz2 BZ2 compression.
calendar Calendar printing functions.
cgi Wraps the WWW Forms Common Gateway Interface (CGI).
CGIHTTPServer CGI-savvy HTTP Server.
cgitb Traceback manager for CGI scripts.
chunk Read IFF chunked data.
cmath Mathematical functions for complex numbers. See also math.
cmd A generic class to build line-oriented command interpreters.
cmp Efficiently compare files, boolean outcome only.
cmpcache Same, but caches 'stat' results for speed.
code Utilities needed to emulate Python's interactive interpreter.
codecs Lookup existing Unicode encodings and register new ones. 2.5: support for incremental codecs.
codeop Utilities to compile possibly incomplete Python source code.
collections High-performance container datatypes. 2.4: The only datatype defined is a double-ended queue deque. 2.5: Type deque has now a remove method. New type defaultdict. 2.6: New type namedtuple. Define many ABCs (Abstract Base Classes) like Container, Hashable, Iterable, Sequence, Set...
colorsys Conversion functions between RGB and other color systems.
commands Execute shell commands via os.popen [Unix].
compileall Force "compilation" of all .py files in a directory.
ConfigParser Configuration file parser (much like windows .ini files).
contextlib Utilities for with statement contexts.
Cookie HTTP state (cookies) management.
copy Generic shallow and deep copying operations.
copy_reg Helper to provide extensibility for modules pickle/cPickle.
cPickle Faster, C implementation of pickle.
cProfile Faster, C implementation of profile.
crypt Function to check Unix passwords [Unix].
cStringIO Faster, C implementation of StringIO.
csv Tools to read comma-separated files (of variations thereof). 2.5: Several enhancements.
ctypes "Foreign function" library for Python. Provides C compatible data types, and allows to call functions in dlls/shared libraries. Can be used to wrap these libraries in pure Python.
curses Terminal handling for character-cell displays [Unix/OS2/DOS only].
datetime Improved date/time types (date, time, datetime, timedelta). 2.5: New method strptime(string, format) for class datetime. 2.6: strftime() new format code %f expanding to number of s.
dbhash (g)dbm-compatible interface to bsdhash.hashopen.
decimal Decimal floating point arithmetic.
difflib Tool for comparing sequences, and computing the changes required to convert one into another. 2.5: Improved SequenceMatcher.get_matching_blocks() method .
dircache Sorted list of files in a dir, using a cache. Deprecated since 2.6.
dircmp Defines a class to build directory diff tools on.
dis Bytecode disassembler.
distutils Package installation system. 2.5: Function setup enhanced with new keyword parameters requires, provides, obsoletes, and download_url [PEP314].
distutils.command.register Registers a module in the Python package index (PyPI). This command plugin adds the register command to distutil scripts.
distutils.debug  
distutils.emxccompiler  
distutils.log  
distutils.sysconfig In 2.7 moved to separate module sysconfig.
dl Call C functions in shared objects [Unix]. Deprecated since 2.6.
doctest Unit testing framework based on running examples embedded in docstrings. 2.5: New SKIP option. New encoding arg to testfile() function.
DocXMLRPCServer Creation of self-documenting XML-RPC servers, using pydoc to create HTML API doc on the fly. 2.5: New attribute rpc_paths.
dospath Common operations on DOS pathnames.
dumbdbm A dumb and slow but simple dbm clone.
dump Print python code that reconstructs a variable.
dummy_thread  
dummy_threading Helpers to make it easier to write code that uses threads where supported, but still runs on Python versions without thread support. The dummy modules simply run the threads sequentially.
email A package for parsing, handling, and generating email messages. New version 3.0 dropped various deprecated APIs and removes support for Python versions earlier than 2.3. 2.5: Updated to version 4.0.
encodings New codecs: idna (IDNA strings), koi8_u (Ukranian), palmos (PalmOS 3.5), punycode (Punycode IDNA codec), string_escape (Python string escape codec: replaces non-printable chars w/ Python-style string escapes). New codecs in 2.4: HP Roman8, ISO_8859-11, ISO_8859-16, PCTP-154, TIS-620; Chinese, Japanese and Korean codecs.
errno Standard errno system symbols. The value of each symbol is the corresponding integer value.
exceptions Class based built-in exception hierarchy.
fcntl The fcntl() and ioctl() system calls [Unix].
filecmp File and directory comparison.
fileinput Helper class to quickly write a loop over all standard input files. 2.5: Made more flexible (Unicode filenames, mode parameter, etc...)
find Find files directory hierarchy matching a pattern.
fnmatch Filename matching with shell patterns.
formatter Generic output formatting.
fpectl Floating point exception control [Unix].
fpformat General floating point formatting functions. Deprecated since 2.6.
fractions (new in 2.6) Rational Numbers.
ftplib An FTP client class. Based on RFC 959.
functools Tools for functional-style programming. See in particular function partial() [PEP309].
future_builtins (new in 2.6) Python 3 builtins. Provides functions that exist in 2.x, but have different behavior in Python 3 (ascii, map, filter, hex...). To write Python 3 compatible code, import the functions from this module, e.g.:
from future_builtins import map
...code using Python3-syle map()...
gc Perform garbage collection, obtain GC debug stats, and tune GC parameters. 2.5: New get_count() function. gc.collect() takes a new generation argument.
gdbm GNU's reinterpretation of dbm [Unix].
getopt Standard command line processing in C getopt() style. See also argparse.
getpass Utilities to get a password and/or the current user name.
gettext Internationalization and localization support.
glob Filename "globbing" utility.
gopherlib Gopher protocol client interface.
grp The group database [Unix].
grep 'grep' utilities.
gzip Read & write gzipped files.
hashlib Secure hashes and message digests.
heapq Heap queue (priority queue) helpers. 2.5: nsmallest() and nlargest() takes a key keyword param.
hmac HMAC (Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication).
hotshot.stones Helper to run the pystone benchmark under the Hotshot profiler.
htmlentitydefs HTML character entity references.
htmllib HTML2 parsing utilities. Deprecated since 2.6; see HTMLParser-class.
HTMLParser Simple HTML and XHTML parser.
httplib HTTP1 client class.
idlelib (package) Support library for the IDLE development environment.
ihooks Hooks into the "import" mechanism. Deprecated since 2.6.
imageop Manipulate raw image data. Deprecated since 2.6; removed in Python 3.
imaplib IMAP4 client.Based on RFC 2060.
imghdr Recognizing image files based on their first few bytes.
imp Access the import internals.
imputil Provides a way of writing customized import hooks.
inspect Get information about live Python objects.
io (new in 2.6) Core tools for working with streams [PEP 3116]. Define Abstract Base Classes RawIOBase (I/O operations: read, write, seek..), BufferedIOBase (buffering), and TextIOBase (reading & writing strings).
itertools Tools to work with iterators and lazy sequences. 2.5: islice() accepts None for start & step args. 2.6: Several new functions: izip_longest, product, combinations, permutations.
json (new in 2.6) JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) interchange format support.
keyword List of Python keywords.
knee A Python re-implementation of hierarchical module import.
linecache Cache lines from files.
linuxaudiodev Linux /dev/audio support. Replaced by ossaudiodev(Linux).
locale Support for number formatting using the current locale settings. 2.5: format() modified; new functions format_string() and currency()
logging (package) Tools for structured logging in log4j style.
macpath Pathname (or related) operations for the Macintosh [Mac].
macurl2path Mac specific module for conversion between pathnames and URLs [Mac].
mailbox Classes to handle Unix style, MMDF style, and MH style mailboxes. 2.5: added capability to modify mailboxes in addition to reading them.
mailcap Mailcap file handling (RFC 1524).
marshal Internal Python object serialization.
markupbase Shared support for scanning document type declarations in HTML and XHTML.
math Mathematical functions. See also cmath
md5 MD5 message digest algorithm. 2.5: Now a mere wrapper around new library hashlib. Deprecated since 2.6, use hashlib module instead.
mhlib MH (mailbox) interface. Deprecated since 2.6.
mimetools Various tools used by MIME-reading or MIME-writing programs. Deprecated since 2.6.
mimetypes Guess the MIME type of a file.
MimeWriter Generic MIME writer. Deprecated since 2.3, use email package instead.
mimify Mimification and unmimification of mail messages. Deprecated since 2.6, use email package instead.
mmap Interface to memory-mapped files - they behave like mutable strings.
modulefinder Tools to find what modules a given Python program uses, without actually running the program.
msilib Read and write Microsoft Installer files [Windows].
msvcrt File & Console Windows-specific operations [Windows].
multifile A readline()-style interface to the parts of a multipart message. Deprecated since 2.6.
multiprocessing (new in 2.6) Process-based "threading" interface. Allows to fully leverage multiple processors on a machine [Windows, Unix] [PEP 371].
mutex Mutual exclusion -- for use with module sched. See also std module threading, and glock.
netrc Parses and encapsulates the netrc file format.
new Creation of runtime internal objects (interface to interpreter object creation functions). Deprecated since 2.6.
nis Interface to Sun's NIS (Yellow Pages) [Unix]. 2.5: New domain arg to nis.match() and nis.maps().
nntplib An NNTP client class. Based on RFC 977.
ntpath Common operations on Windows pathnames [Windows].
nturl2path Convert a NT pathname to a file URL and vice versa [Windows].
numbers Numeric Abstract Base Classes (ABC) [PEP 3141]. Define a type hierarchy for numbers: Number, Complex, Real, Rational, Integral.
olddifflib Old version of difflib (helpers for computing deltas between objects)?
operator Standard operators as functions. 2.5: itemgetter() and attrgetter() now supports multiple fields.
optparse Improved command-line option parsing library (see also getopt). 2.5: Updated to Optik library 1.51.
os OS routines for Mac, DOS, NT, or Posix depending on what system we're on. 2.5: os.stat() return time values as floats; new constants to os.lseek(); new functions wait3() and wait4(); on FreeBSD, os.stat() returns times with nanosecond resolution.
os.path Common pathname manipulations.
os2emxpath os.path support for OS/2 EMX.
packmail Create a self-unpacking shell archive.
parser Access Python parse trees.
pdb A Python debugger.
pickle Pickling (save/serialize and restore/deserialize) of Python objects (a faster C implementation exists in built-in module: cPickle). 2.5: Value returned by __reduce__() must be different from None.
pickletools Tools to analyze and disassemble pickles.
pipes Conversion pipeline templates [Unix].
pkgutil Tools to extend the module search path for a given package. 2.5: PEP302's import hooks support; works for packages in ZIP format archives.
platform Get info about the underlying platform.
poly Polynomials.
popen2 Spawn a command with pipes to its stdin, stdout, and optionally stderr. Superseded by module subprocess since 2.4. Deprecated since 2.6.
poplib A POP3 client class.
posix Most common POSIX system calls [Unix].
posixpath Common operations on POSIX pathnames.
pprint Support to pretty-print lists, tuples, & dictionaries recursively.
pre Support for regular expressions (RE) - see re.
profile Class for profiling python code. 2.5: See also new fast C implementation cProfile
pstats Class for printing reports on profiled python code. 2.5: new stream arg to Stats constructor.
pty Pseudo terminal utilities [Linux, IRIX].
pwd The password database [Unix].
py_compile Routine to "compile" a .py file to a .pyc file.
pyclbr Parse a Python file and retrieve classes and methods.
pydoc Generate Python documentation in HTML or text for interactive use.
pyexpat Interface to the Expat XML parser. 2.5: now uses V2.0 of the expat parser.
PyUnit Unit test framework inspired by JUnit. See unittest.
Queue A multi-producer, multi-consumer queue. 2.6: New queue variants PriorityQueue and LifoQueue.
quopri Conversions to/from quoted-printable transport encoding as per RFC 1521.
rand Don't use unless you want compatibility with C's rand().
random Random variable generators.
re Regular Expressions.
readline GNU readline interface [Unix].
reconvert Convert old ("regex") regular expressions to new syntax ("re").
regexp Backward compatibility for module "regexp" using "regex".
regex_syntax Flags for regex.set_syntax().
regsub Regexp-based split and replace using the obsolete regex module.
repr Alternate repr() implementation.
resource Resource usage information [Unix].
rexec Restricted execution facilities ("safe" exec, eval, etc).
rfc822 Parse RFC-8222 mail headers.
rgbimg Read and write 'SGI RGB' files.
rlcompleter Word completion for GNU readline 2.0 [Unix]. 2.5: Doesn't depend on readline anymore; now works on non-Unix platforms.
robotparser Parse robot.txt files, useful for web spiders.
sched A generally useful event scheduler class.
select Waiting for I/O completion.
sets A Set datatype implementation based on dictionaries. Deprecated since 2.6, use built-in types set and frozenset instead.
sgmllib A parser for SGML, using the derived class as a static DTD.
sha SHA-1 message digest algorithm. 2.5: Now a mere wrapper around new library hashlib. Deprecated since 2.6, use hashlib instead.
shelve Manage shelves of pickled objects.
shlex Lexical analyzer class for simple shell-like syntaxes.
shutil Utility functions for copying files and directory trees.
signal Set handlers for asynchronous events.
SimpleHTTPServer Simple HTTP Server.
SimpleXMLRPCServer Simple XML-RPC Server. 2.5: New attribute rpc_paths.
site Append module search paths for third-party packages to sys.path.
smtpd An RFC 2821 SMTP server.
smtplib SMTP/ESMTP client class.
sndhdr Several routines that help recognizing sound.
socket Socket operations and some related functions. Now supports timeouts thru function settimeout(t). Also supports SSL on Windows. 2.5: Now supports AF_NETLINK sockets on Linux; new socket methods recv_buf(buffer), recvfrom_buf(buffer), getfamily(), gettype() and getproto() .
SocketServer Generic socket server classes.
spwd Access to the UNIX shadow password database [Unix].
sqlite3 DB-API 2.0 interface for SQLite databases.
sre Support for regular expressions (RE). See re.
stat Constants/functions for interpreting results of os.
statvfs Constants for interpreting statvfs struct as returned by os.statvfs() and os.fstatvfs() (if they exist). Deprecated since 2.6.
string A collection of string operations (see Strings).
StringIO File-like objects that read/write a string buffer (a faster C implementation exists in built-in module cStringIO).
stringprep Normalization and manipulation of Unicode strings.
struct Perform conversions between Python values and C structs represented as Python strings. 2.5: faster (new pack() and unpack() methods); pack and unpack to and from buffer objects via methods pack_into and unpack_from.
subprocess Subprocess management. Replacement for os.system, os.spawn*, os.popen*, popen2.* [PEP324]
sunau Stuff to parse Sun and NeXT audio files.
sunaudio Interpret sun audio headers.
symbol Non-terminal symbols of Python grammar (from "graminit.h").
symtable Interface to the compiler's internal symbol tables.
sys System-specific parameters and functions.
sysconfig Provides access to Python’s configuration information like the list of installation paths and the configuration variables relevant for the current platform.
syslog Unix syslog library routines [Unix].
tabnanny Check Python source for ambiguous indentation.
tarfile Tools to read and create TAR archives. 2.5: New method TarFile.extractall().
telnetlib TELNET client class. Based on RFC 854.
tempfile Temporary files and filenames. 2.6: New classes SpooledTemporaryFile and NamedTemporaryFile.
termios POSIX style tty control [Unix].
test Regression tests package for Python.
textwrap Tools to wrap paragraphs of text.
thread Multiple threads of control (see also threading below).
threading New threading module, emulating a subset of Java's threading model. 2.5: New function stack_size([size]) allows to get/set the stack size for threads created. 2.6: Several functions renamed or replaced by properties, new property Thread.ident. See also new module multiprocessing.
threading_api (doc of the threading module).
time Time access and conversions.
timeit Benchmark tool.
Tix Extension widgets for Tk.
Tkinter Python interface to Tcl/Tk.
toaiff Convert "arbitrary" sound files to AIFF (Apple and SGI's audio format). Deprecated since 2.6.
token Token constants (from "token.h").
tokenize Tokenizer for Python source.
trace Tools to trace execution of a function or program.
traceback Extract, format and print information about Python stack traces.
tty Terminal utilities [Unix].
turtle LogoMation-like turtle graphics.
types Define names for all type symbols in the std interpreter.
tzparse Parse a timezone specification.
unicodedata Interface to unicode properties. 2.5: Updated to Unicode DB 4.1.0; Version 3.2.0 still available as unicodedata.ucd_3_2_0. 2.6: Updated to Unicode DB 5.1.0.
unittest Python unit testing framework, based on Erich Gamma's and Kent Beck's JUnit.
urllib Open an arbitrary URL.
urllib2 An extensible library for opening URLs using a variety of protocols.
urlparse Parse (absolute and relative) URLs.
user Hook to allow user-specified customization code to run.
UserDict A wrapper to allow subclassing of built-in dict class (useless with new-style classes. Since Python 2.2, dict is subclassable).
UserList A wrapper to allow subclassing of built-in list class (useless with new-style classes. Since Python 2.2, list is subclassable)
UserString A wrapper to allow subclassing of built-in string class (useless with new-style classes. Since Python 2.2, str is subclassable).
util some useful functions that don't fit elsewhere !!
uu Implementation of the UUencode and UUdecode functions.
uuid UUID objects according to RFC 4122.
warnings Python part of the warnings subsystem. Issue warnings, and filter unwanted warnings.
wave Stuff to parse WAVE files.
weakref Weak reference support for Python. Also allows the creation of proxy objects. 2.5: new methods iterkeyrefs(), keyrefs(), itervaluerefs() and valuerefs().
webbrowser Platform independent URL launcher. 2.5: several enhancements (more browsers supported, etc...).
whatsound Several routines that help recognizing sound files.
whichdb Guess which db package to use to open a db file.
whrandom Wichmann-Hill random number generator (obsolete, use random instead).
winsound Sound-playing interface for Windows [Windows].
wsgiref WSGI Utilities and Reference Implementation.
xdrlib Implements (a subset of) Sun XDR (eXternal Data Representation).
xml.dom Classes for processing XML using the DOM (Document Object Model). 2.3: New modules expatbuilder, minicompat, NodeFilter, xmlbuilder.
xml.etree.ElementTree Subset of Fredrik Lundh's ElementTree library for processing XML.
xml.parsers.expat An interface to the Expat non-validating XML parser.
xml.sax Classes for processing XML using the SAX API.
xmlrpclib An XML-RPC client interface for Python. 2.5: Supports returning datetime objects for the XML-RPC date type.
xreadlines Provides a sequence-like object for reading a file line-by-line without reading the entire file into memory. Deprecated since release 2.3. Use for line in file instead. Removed since 2.4
zipfile Read & write PK zipped files. 2.5: Supports ZIP64 version, a .zip archive can now be larger than 4GB. 2.6: Class ZipFile has new methods extract() and extractall().
zipimport ZIP archive importer.
zlib Compression compatible with gzip. 2.5: Compress and Decompress objects now support a copy() method.
zmod Demonstration of abstruse mathematical concepts.

Workspace exploration and idiom hints

dir(object)list valid attributes of object (which can be a module, type or class object)
dir()list names in current local symbol table.
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()
invoke main() if running as script
map(None, lst1, lst2, ...)merge lists; see also zip(lst1, lst2, ...)
b = a[:]create a copy b of sequence a
b = list(a)If a is a list, create a copy of it.
a,b,c = 1,2,3Multiple assignment, same as a=1; b=2; c=3
for key, value in dic.items(): ...Works also in this context
if 1 < x <= 5: ... Works as expected
for line in fileinput.input(): ...Process each file in command line args, one line at a time
_(underscore) in interactive mode, refers to the last value printed.

Python Mode for Emacs

Emacs goodies available here.
(The following has not been revised, probably not up to date - any contribution welcome -)


Type C-c ? when in python-mode for extensive help.
INDENTATION
Primarily for entering new code:
TAB indent line appropriately
LFD insert newline, then indent
DEL reduce indentation, or delete single character
Primarily for reindenting existing code:
C-c : guess py-indent-offset from file content; change locally
C-u C-c : ditto, but change globally
C-c TAB reindent region to match its context
C-c < shift region left by py-indent-offset
C-c > shift region right by py-indent-offset
MARKING & MANIPULATING REGIONS OF CODE
C-c C-b mark block of lines
M-C-h mark smallest enclosing def
C-u M-C-h mark smallest enclosing class
C-c # comment out region of code
C-u C-c # uncomment region of code
MOVING POINT
C- c C-p move to statement preceding point
C-c C-n move to statement following point
C-c C-u move up to start of current block
M-C-a move to start of def
C-u M-C-a move to start of class
M-C-e move to end of def
C-u M-C-e move to end of class
EXECUTING PYTHON CODE
C-c C-c sends the entire buffer to the Python interpreter
C-c | sends the current region
C-c ! starts a Python interpreter window; this will be used by
subsequent C-c C-c or C-c | commands
VARIABLES
py-indent-offset indentation increment
py-block-comment-prefix comment string used by py-comment-region
py-python-command shell command to invoke Python interpreter
py-scroll-process-buffer t means always scroll Python process buffer
py-temp-directory directory used for temp files (if needed)
py-beep-if-tab-change ring the bell if tab-width is changed

Changes to this document

May 27, 2013 (Stefan McKinnon Høj-Edwards)
Corrected the list comprehensions description. See www.iysik.com/pqr2.7/list_comprehensions for an in depth examination of why it was wrong.
April, 2013 (Stefan McKinnon Høj-Edwards)
Corrections
Oct, 2011 (Stefan McKinnon Høj-Edwards)
Upgraded to Python 2.7
Prior to Oct. 2011,
see Last updated on-list