Python Tutorial

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Python is a general-purpose interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, and high-level
programming language. It was created by Guido van Rossum during 1985- 1990. Like
Perl, Python source code is also available under the GNU General Public License
(GPL). This tutorial gives enough understanding on Python programming language.

Why to Learn Python?

Python is a high-level, interpreted, interactive and object-oriented scripting language.
Python is designed to be highly readable. It uses English keywords frequently where as
other languages use punctuation, and it has fewer syntactical constructions than other
languages.
Python is a MUST for students and working professionals to become a great Software
Engineer specially when they are working in Web Development Domain. I will list down
some of the key advantages of learning Python:
 Python is Interpreted − Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. You
do not need to compile your program before executing it. This is similar to PERL
and PHP.
 Python is Interactive − You can actually sit at a Python prompt and interact
with the interpreter directly to write your programs.
 Python is Object-Oriented − Python supports Object-Oriented style or
technique of programming that encapsulates code within objects.
 Python is a Beginner's Language − Python is a great language for the
beginner-level programmers and supports the development of a wide range of
applications from simple text processing to WWW browsers to games.

Characteristics of Python
Following are important characteristics of Python Programming −
 It supports functional and structured programming methods as well as OOP.
 It can be used as a scripting language or can be compiled to byte-code for
building large applications.
 It provides very high-level dynamic data types and supports dynamic type
checking.
 It supports automatic garbage collection.
 It can be easily integrated with C, C++, COM, ActiveX, CORBA, and Java.

Hello World using Python.

Just to give you a little excitement about Python, I'm going to give you a small
conventional Python Hello World program, You can try it using Demo link.
Live Demo
print ("Hello, Python!");

Applications of Python
As mentioned before, Python is one of the most widely used language over the web.
I'm going to list few of them here:
 Easy-to-learn − Python has few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly
defined syntax. This allows the student to pick up the language quickly.
 Easy-to-read − Python code is more clearly defined and visible to the eyes.
 Easy-to-maintain − Python's source code is fairly easy-to-maintain.
 A broad standard library − Python's bulk of the library is very portable and
cross-platform compatible on UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh.
 Interactive Mode − Python has support for an interactive mode which allows
interactive testing and debugging of snippets of code.
 Portable − Python can run on a wide variety of hardware platforms and has the
same interface on all platforms.
 Extendable − You can add low-level modules to the Python interpreter. These
modules enable programmers to add to or customize their tools to be more
efficient.
 Databases − Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases.
 GUI Programming − Python supports GUI applications that can be created and
ported to many system calls, libraries and windows systems, such as Windows
MFC, Macintosh, and the X Window system of Unix.
 Scalable − Python provides a better structure and support for large programs
than shell scripting.

Audience
This Python tutorial is designed for software programmers who need to learn Python
programming language from scratch.

Prerequisites
You should have a basic understanding of Computer Programming terminologies. A
basic understanding of any of the programming languages is a plus.
Python is a high-level, interpreted, interactive and object-oriented scripting language.
Python is designed to be highly readable. It uses English keywords frequently where as
other languages use punctuation, and it has fewer syntactical constructions than other
languages.
 Python is Interpreted − Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. You
do not need to compile your program before executing it. This is similar to PERL
and PHP.
 Python is Interactive − You can actually sit at a Python prompt and interact
with the interpreter directly to write your programs.
 Python is Object-Oriented − Python supports Object-Oriented style or
technique of programming that encapsulates code within objects.
 Python is a Beginner's Language − Python is a great language for the
beginner-level programmers and supports the development of a wide range of
applications from simple text processing to WWW browsers to games.

History of Python
Python was developed by Guido van Rossum in the late eighties and early nineties at
the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the
Netherlands.
Python is derived from many other languages, including ABC, Modula-3, C, C++, Algol-
68, SmallTalk, and Unix shell and other scripting languages.
Python is copyrighted. Like Perl, Python source code is now available under the GNU
General Public License (GPL).
Python is now maintained by a core development team at the institute, although Guido
van Rossum still holds a vital role in directing its progress.

Python Features
Python's features include −
 Easy-to-learn − Python has few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly
defined syntax. This allows the student to pick up the language quickly.
 Easy-to-read − Python code is more clearly defined and visible to the eyes.
 Easy-to-maintain − Python's source code is fairly easy-to-maintain.
 A broad standard library − Python's bulk of the library is very portable and
cross-platform compatible on UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh.
 Interactive Mode − Python has support for an interactive mode which allows
interactive testing and debugging of snippets of code.
 Portable − Python can run on a wide variety of hardware platforms and has the
same interface on all platforms.
 Extendable − You can add low-level modules to the Python interpreter. These
modules enable programmers to add to or customize their tools to be more
efficient.
  Databases − Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases.
 GUI Programming − Python supports GUI applications that can be created and
ported to many system calls, libraries and windows systems, such as Windows
MFC, Macintosh, and the X Window system of Unix.
 Scalable − Python provides a better structure and support for large programs
than shell scripting.
Apart from the above-mentioned features, Python has a big list of good features, few
are listed below −
 It supports functional and structured programming methods as well as OOP.
 It can be used as a scripting language or can be compiled to byte-code for
building large applications.
 It provides very high-level dynamic data types and supports dynamic type
checking.
 It supports automatic garbage collection.
 It can be easily integrated with C, C++, COM, ActiveX, CORBA, and Java.

Python is a high-level, interpreted, interactive and object-oriented scripting language.

Python is designed to be highly readable. It uses English keywords frequently where as
other languages use punctuation, and it has fewer syntactical constructions than other
languages.
 Python is Interpreted − Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. You
do not need to compile your program before executing it. This is similar to PERL
and PHP.
 Python is Interactive − You can actually sit at a Python prompt and interact
with the interpreter directly to write your programs.
 Python is Object-Oriented − Python supports Object-Oriented style or
technique of programming that encapsulates code within objects.
 Python is a Beginner's Language − Python is a great language for the
beginner-level programmers and supports the development of a wide range of
applications from simple text processing to WWW browsers to games.

History of Python
Python was developed by Guido van Rossum in the late eighties and early nineties at
the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the
Netherlands.
Python is derived from many other languages, including ABC, Modula-3, C, C++, Algol-
68, SmallTalk, and Unix shell and other scripting languages.
Python is copyrighted. Like Perl, Python source code is now available under the GNU
General Public License (GPL).
Python is now maintained by a core development team at the institute, although Guido
van Rossum still holds a vital role in directing its progress.
Python Features
Python's features include −
 Easy-to-learn − Python has few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly
defined syntax. This allows the student to pick up the language quickly.
 Easy-to-read − Python code is more clearly defined and visible to the eyes.
 Easy-to-maintain − Python's source code is fairly easy-to-maintain.
 A broad standard library − Python's bulk of the library is very portable and
cross-platform compatible on UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh.
 Interactive Mode − Python has support for an interactive mode which allows
interactive testing and debugging of snippets of code.
 Portable − Python can run on a wide variety of hardware platforms and has the
same interface on all platforms.
 Extendable − You can add low-level modules to the Python interpreter. These
modules enable programmers to add to or customize their tools to be more
efficient.
 Databases − Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases.
 GUI Programming − Python supports GUI applications that can be created and
ported to many system calls, libraries and windows systems, such as Windows
MFC, Macintosh, and the X Window system of Unix.
 Scalable − Python provides a better structure and support for large programs
than shell scripting.
Apart from the above-mentioned features, Python has a big list of good features, few
are listed below −
 It supports functional and structured programming methods as well as OOP.
 It can be used as a scripting language or can be compiled to byte-code for
building large applications.
 It provides very high-level dynamic data types and supports dynamic type
checking.
 It supports automatic garbage collection.
 It can be easily integrated with C, C++, COM, ActiveX, CORBA, and Java.

Local Environment Setup

Open a terminal window and type "python" to find out if it is already installed and which
version is installed.

 Unix (Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD, AIX, HP/UX, SunOS, IRIX, etc.)

 Win 9x/NT/2000
 Macintosh (Intel, PPC, 68K)
 OS/2
 DOS (multiple versions)
  PalmOS
 Nokia mobile phones
 Windows CE
 Acorn/RISC OS
 BeOS
 Amiga
 VMS/OpenVMS
 QNX
 VxWorks
 Psion
 Python has also been ported to the Java and .NET virtual machines

Getting Python
The most up-to-date and current source code, binaries, documentation, news, etc., is
available on the official website of Python https://www.python.org/
You can download Python documentation from https://www.python.org/doc/. The
documentation is available in HTML, PDF, and PostScript formats.

Installing Python
Python distribution is available for a wide variety of platforms. You need to download
only the binary code applicable for your platform and install Python.
If the binary code for your platform is not available, you need a C compiler to compile
the source code manually. Compiling the source code offers more flexibility in terms of
choice of features that you require in your installation.
Here is a quick overview of installing Python on various platforms −
Unix and Linux Installation
Here are the simple steps to install Python on Unix/Linux machine.
 Open a Web browser and go to https://www.python.org/downloads/.
 Follow the link to download zipped source code available for Unix/Linux.
 Download and extract files.
 Editing the Modules/Setup file if you want to customize some options.
 run ./configure script
 make
 make install
This installs Python at standard location /usr/local/bin and its libraries
at /usr/local/lib/pythonXX where XX is the version of Python.
Windows Installation
Here are the steps to install Python on Windows machine.
 Open a Web browser and go to https://www.python.org/downloads/.
 Follow the link for the Windows installer python-XYZ.msi file where XYZ is the
version you need to install.
 To use this installer python-XYZ.msi, the Windows system must support
Microsoft Installer 2.0. Save the installer file to your local machine and then run
it to find out if your machine supports MSI.
 Run the downloaded file. This brings up the Python install wizard, which is really
easy to use. Just accept the default settings, wait until the install is finished, and
you are done.
Macintosh Installation
Recent Macs come with Python installed, but it may be several years out of date.
See http://www.python.org/download/mac/ for instructions on getting the current version
along with extra tools to support development on the Mac. For older Mac OS's before
Mac OS X 10.3 (released in 2003), MacPython is available.
Jack Jansen maintains it and you can have full access to the entire documentation at
his website − http://www.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython.html. You can find complete installation
details for Mac OS installation.

Setting up PATH
Programs and other executable files can be in many directories, so operating systems
provide a search path that lists the directories that the OS searches for executables.
The path is stored in an environment variable, which is a named string maintained by
the operating system. This variable contains information available to the command
shell and other programs.
The path variable is named as PATH in Unix or Path in Windows (Unix is case
sensitive; Windows is not).
In Mac OS, the installer handles the path details. To invoke the Python interpreter from
any particular directory, you must add the Python directory to your path.

Setting path at Unix/Linux

To add the Python directory to the path for a particular session in Unix −
 In the csh shell − type setenv PATH "$PATH:/usr/local/bin/python" and press
Enter.
 In the bash shell (Linux) − type export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin/python"
and press Enter.
 In the sh or ksh shell − type PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin/python" and press
Enter.
  Note − /usr/local/bin/python is the path of the Python directory

Setting path at Windows

To add the Python directory to the path for a particular session in Windows −
At the command prompt − type path %path%;C:\Python and press Enter.
Note − C:\Python is the path of the Python directory

Python Environment Variables

Here are important environment variables, which can be recognized by Python −

Sr.No Variable & Description

.

1
PYTHONPATH
It has a role similar to PATH. This variable tells the Python interpreter where to
locate the module files imported into a program. It should include the Python
source library directory and the directories containing Python source code.
PYTHONPATH is sometimes preset by the Python installer.

2
PYTHONSTARTUP
It contains the path of an initialization file containing Python source code. It is
executed every time you start the interpreter. It is named as .pythonrc.py in Unix
and it contains commands that load utilities or modify PYTHONPATH.

3
PYTHONCASEOK
It is used in Windows to instruct Python to find the first case-insensitive match in
an import statement. Set this variable to any value to activate it.

4
PYTHONHOME
It is an alternative module search path. It is usually embedded in the
PYTHONSTARTUP or PYTHONPATH directories to make switching module
libraries easy.

Running Python
There are three different ways to start Python −
Interactive Interpreter
You can start Python from Unix, DOS, or any other system that provides you a
command-line interpreter or shell window.
Enter python the command line.
Start coding right away in the interactive interpreter.
$python # Unix/Linux
or
python% # Unix/Linux
or
C:> python # Windows/DOS
Here is the list of all the available command line options −

Sr.No Option & Description

.

1
-d
It provides debug output.

2
-O
It generates optimized bytecode (resulting in .pyo files).

3
-S
Do not run import site to look for Python paths on startup.

4
-v
verbose output (detailed trace on import statements).

5
-X
disable class-based built-in exceptions (just use strings); obsolete starting with
version 1.6.

6
-c cmd
run Python script sent in as cmd string
 7
file
run Python script from given file

Script from the Command-line

A Python script can be executed at command line by invoking the interpreter on your
application, as in the following −
$python script.py # Unix/Linux

or

python% script.py # Unix/Linux

or

C: >python script.py # Windows/DOS

Note − Be sure the file permission mode allows execution.
Integrated Development Environment
You can run Python from a Graphical User Interface (GUI) environment as well, if you
have a GUI application on your system that supports Python.
 Unix − IDLE is the very first Unix IDE for Python.
 Windows − PythonWin is the first Windows interface for Python and is an IDE
with a GUI.
 Macintosh − The Macintosh version of Python along with the IDLE IDE is
available from the main website, downloadable as either MacBinary or BinHex'd
files.
If you are not able to set up the environment properly, then you can take help from your
system admin. Make sure the Python environment is properly set up and working
perfectly fine.
Note − All the examples given in subsequent chapters are executed with Python 2.4.3
version available on CentOS flavor of Linux.
We already have set up Python Programming environment online, so that you can
execute all the available examples online at the same time when you are learning
theory. Feel free to modify any example and execute it online.

Types of Operator
Python language supports the following types of operators.

 Arithmetic Operators
  Comparison (Relational) Operators
 Assignment Operators
 Logical Operators
 Bitwise Operators
 Membership Operators
 Identity Operators
Let us have a look on all operators one by one.

Python Arithmetic Operators

Assume variable a holds 10 and variable b holds 20, then −
[ Show Example ]

Operator Description Example

+ Addition Adds values on either side of the operator. a+b=

30

- Subtraction Subtracts right hand operand from left hand operand. a–b=-
10

* Multiplies values on either side of the operator a*b=

Multiplication 200

/ Division Divides left hand operand by right hand operand b/a=2

% Modulus Divides left hand operand by right hand operand and returns b%a=
remainder 0

** Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators a**b =10

to the
power 20

// Floor Division - The division of operands where the result is the 9//2 = 4
quotient in which the digits after the decimal point are removed. and
But if one of the operands is negative, the result is floored, i.e., 9.0//2.0
 rounded away from zero (towards negative infinity) − = 4.0, -
11//3 = -
4, -
11.0//3 =
-4.0

Python Comparison Operators

These operators compare the values on either sides of them and decide the relation
among them. They are also called Relational operators.
Assume variable a holds 10 and variable b holds 20, then −
[ Show Example ]

Operator Description Example

== If the values of two operands are equal, then the condition becomes (a == b)
true. is not
true.

!= If values of two operands are not equal, then condition becomes (a != b)

true. is true.

<> If values of two operands are not equal, then condition becomes (a <> b)
true. is true.
This is
similar to
!=
operator.

> If the value of left operand is greater than the value of right (a > b) is
operand, then condition becomes true. not true.

< If the value of left operand is less than the value of right operand, (a < b) is
then condition becomes true. true.

>= If the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of (a >= b)
 right operand, then condition becomes true. is not
true.

<= If the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of right (a <= b)
operand, then condition becomes true. is true.

Python Assignment Operators

Assume variable a holds 10 and variable b holds 20, then −
[ Show Example ]

Operator Description Example

= Assigns values from right side operands to left side operand c=a+b
assigns
value of a
+ b into c

+= Add AND It adds right operand to the left operand and assign the result c += a is
to left operand equivalent
to c = c +
a

-= Subtract It subtracts right operand from the left operand and assign c -= a is
AND the result to left operand equivalent
to c = c -
a

*= Multiply It multiplies right operand with the left operand and assign c *= a is
AND the result to left operand equivalent
to c = c *
a

/= Divide AND It divides left operand with the right operand and assign the c /= a is
result to left operand equivalent
to c = c /
 a

%= Modulus It takes modulus using two operands and assign the result to c %= a is
AND left operand equivalent
to c = c %
a

**= Exponent Performs exponential (power) calculation on operators and c **= a is

AND assign value to the left operand equivalent
to c = c **
a

//= Floor It performs floor division on operators and assign value to the c //= a is
Division left operand equivalent
to c = c //
a

Python Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operator works on bits and performs bit by bit operation. Assume if a = 60; and
b = 13; Now in the binary format their values will be 0011 1100 and 0000 1101
respectively. Following table lists out the bitwise operators supported by Python
language with an example each in those, we use the above two variables (a and b) as
operands −
a = 0011 1100
b = 0000 1101
-----------------
a&b = 0000 1100
a|b = 0011 1101
a^b = 0011 0001
~a = 1100 0011
There are following Bitwise operators supported by Python language
[ Show Example ]

Operator Description Example

& Binary AND Operator copies a bit to the result if it exists in both (a & b)
operands (means
0000 1100)

| Binary OR It copies a bit if it exists in either operand. (a | b) = 61

(means
0011 1101)

^ Binary XOR It copies the bit if it is set in one operand but not both. (a ^ b) = 49
(means
0011 0001)

~ Binary Ones (~a ) = -61

Complement (means
1100 0011
in 2's
It is unary and has the effect of 'flipping' bits. complement
form due to
a signed
binary
number.

<< Binary Left Shift The left operands value is moved left by the number a << 2 =
of bits specified by the right operand. 240 (means
1111 0000)

>> Binary Right The left operands value is moved right by the number a >> 2 = 15
Shift of bits specified by the right operand. (means
0000 1111)

Python Logical Operators

There are following logical operators supported by Python language. Assume variable
a holds 10 and variable b holds 20 then
[ Show Example ]

Operator Description Example

and Logical If both the operands are true then condition becomes true. (a and b)
AND is true.

or Logical OR If any of the two operands are non-zero then condition (a or b)

becomes true. is true.

not Logical Used to reverse the logical state of its operand. Not(a
NOT and b) is
false.

Python Membership Operators

Python’s membership operators test for membership in a sequence, such as strings,
lists, or tuples. There are two membership operators as explained below −
[ Show Example ]

Operator Description Example

in Evaluates to true if it finds a variable in the specified sequence and x in y,

false otherwise. here in
results in
a 1 if x is
a
member
of
sequence
y.

not in Evaluates to true if it does not finds a variable in the specified x not in y,
sequence and false otherwise. here not
in results
in a 1 if x
is not a
member
of
sequence
y.
Python Identity Operators
Identity operators compare the memory locations of two objects. There are two Identity
operators explained below −
[ Show Example ]

Operator Description Example

is Evaluates to true if the variables on either side of the operator x is y,

point to the same object and false otherwise. here is result
s in 1 if id(x)
equals id(y).

is not Evaluates to false if the variables on either side of the operator x is not y,
point to the same object and true otherwise. here is
not results in
1 if id(x) is not
equal to id(y).

Python Operators Precedence

The following table lists all operators from highest precedence to lowest.
[ Show Example ]

Sr.No. Operator & Description

1 **
Exponentiation (raise to the power)

2 ~+-
Complement, unary plus and minus (method names for the last two are +@ and -
@)

3 * / % //
Multiply, divide, modulo and floor division
4 +-
Addition and subtraction

5 >> <<
Right and left bitwise shift

6 &
Bitwise 'AND'

7 ^|
Bitwise exclusive `OR' and regular `OR'

8 <= < > >=

Comparison operators

9 <> == !=
Equality operators

10 = %= /= //= -= += *= **=
Assignment operators

11 is is not
Identity operators

12 in not in
Membership operators

13 not or and
Logical operators
Decision making is anticipation of conditions occurring while execution of the program
and specifying actions taken according to the conditions.
Decision structures evaluate multiple expressions which produce TRUE or FALSE as
outcome. You need to determine which action to take and which statements to execute
if outcome is TRUE or FALSE otherwise.
Following is the general form of a typical decision making structure found in most of the
programming languages −

Python programming language assumes any non-zero and non-null values as TRUE,
and if it is either zero or null, then it is assumed as FALSE value.
Python programming language provides following types of decision making statements.
Click the following links to check their detail.

Sr.No Statement & Description

.

1 if statements

An if statement consists of a boolean expression followed by one or more

statements.

2 if...else statements

An if statement can be followed by an optional else statement, which executes

 when the boolean expression is FALSE.

3 nested if statements

You can use one if or else if statement inside another if or else if statement(s).

Let us go through each decision making briefly −

Single Statement Suites

If the suite of an if clause consists only of a single line, it may go on the same line as
the header statement.
Here is an example of a one-line if clause −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

var = 100
if ( var == 100 ) : print "Value of expression is 100"
print "Good bye!"

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Value of expression is 100
Good bye

In general, statements are executed sequentially: The first statement in a function is

executed first, followed by the second, and so on. There may be a situation when you
need to execute a block of code several number of times.
Programming languages provide various control structures that allow for more
complicated execution paths.
A loop statement allows us to execute a statement or group of statements multiple
times. The following diagram illustrates a loop statement −
Python programming language provides following types of loops to handle looping
requirements.

Sr.No Loop Type & Description

.

1 while loop

Repeats a statement or group of statements while a given condition is TRUE. It

tests the condition before executing the loop body.

2 for loop

Executes a sequence of statements multiple times and abbreviates the code that
manages the loop variable.

3 nested loops

You can use one or more loop inside any another while, for or do..while loop.

Loop Control Statements

Loop control statements change execution from its normal sequence. When execution
leaves a scope, all automatic objects that were created in that scope are destroyed.
Python supports the following control statements. Click the following links to check their
detail.
Let us go through the loop control statements briefly

Sr.No Control Statement & Description

.

1 break statement

Terminates the loop statement and transfers execution to the statement

immediately following the loop.

2 continue statement

Causes the loop to skip the remainder of its body and immediately retest its
condition prior to reiterating.

3 pass statement

The pass statement in Python is used when a statement is required syntactically

but you do not want any command or code to execute

Number data types store numeric values. They are immutable data types, means that
changing the value of a number data type results in a newly allocated object.
Number objects are created when you assign a value to them. For example −
var1 = 1
var2 = 10
You can also delete the reference to a number object by using the del statement. The
syntax of the del statement is −
del var1[,var2[,var3[....,varN]]]]
You can delete a single object or multiple objects by using the del statement. For
example −
del var
del var_a, var_b
Python supports four different numerical types −
 int (signed integers) − They are often called just integers or ints, are positive or
negative whole numbers with no decimal point.
 long (long integers ) − Also called longs, they are integers of unlimited size,
written like integers and followed by an uppercase or lowercase L.
 float (floating point real values) − Also called floats, they represent real
numbers and are written with a decimal point dividing the integer and fractional
 parts. Floats may also be in scientific notation, with E or e indicating the power
of 10 (2.5e2 = 2.5 x 102 = 250).
 complex (complex numbers) − are of the form a + bJ, where a and b are floats
and J (or j) represents the square root of -1 (which is an imaginary number). The
real part of the number is a, and the imaginary part is b. Complex numbers are
not used much in Python programming.
Examples
Here are some examples of numbers

int long float complex

10 51924361L 0.0 3.14j

100 -0x19323L 15.20 45.j

-786 0122L -21.9 9.322e-36j

080 0xDEFABCECBDAECBFBAEL 32.3+e18 .876j

-0490 535633629843L -90. -.6545+0J

-0x260 -052318172735L -32.54e100 3e+26J

0x69 -4721885298529L 70.2-E12 4.53e-7j

 Python allows you to use a lowercase L with long, but it is recommended that
you use only an uppercase L to avoid confusion with the number 1. Python
displays long integers with an uppercase L.
 A complex number consists of an ordered pair of real floating point numbers
denoted by a + bj, where a is the real part and b is the imaginary part of the
complex number.

Number Type Conversion

Python converts numbers internally in an expression containing mixed types to a
common type for evaluation. But sometimes, you need to coerce a number explicitly
from one type to another to satisfy the requirements of an operator or function
parameter.
 Type int(x) to convert x to a plain integer.
 Type long(x) to convert x to a long integer.
 Type float(x) to convert x to a floating-point number.
 Type complex(x) to convert x to a complex number with real part x and
imaginary part zero.
 Type complex(x, y) to convert x and y to a complex number with real part x and
imaginary part y. x and y are numeric expressions

Mathematical Functions
Python includes following functions that perform mathematical calculations.

Sr.No Function & Returns ( description )

.

1 abs(x)

The absolute value of x: the (positive) distance between x and zero.

2 ceil(x)

The ceiling of x: the smallest integer not less than x

3 cmp(x, y)

-1 if x < y, 0 if x == y, or 1 if x > y

4 exp(x)

The exponential of x: ex

5 fabs(x)

The absolute value of x.

6 floor(x)

The floor of x: the largest integer not greater than x

7 log(x)
 The natural logarithm of x, for x> 0

8 log10(x)

The base-10 logarithm of x for x> 0.

9 max(x1, x2,...)

The largest of its arguments: the value closest to positive infinity

10 min(x1, x2,...)

The smallest of its arguments: the value closest to negative infinity

11 modf(x)

The fractional and integer parts of x in a two-item tuple. Both parts have the same
sign as x. The integer part is returned as a float.

12 pow(x, y)

The value of x**y.

13 round(x [,n])

x rounded to n digits from the decimal point. Python rounds away from zero as a
tie-breaker: round(0.5) is 1.0 and round(-0.5) is -1.0.

14 sqrt(x)

The square root of x for x > 0

Random Number Functions

Random numbers are used for games, simulations, testing, security, and privacy
applications. Python includes following functions that are commonly used.

Sr.No Function & Description

.

1 choice(seq)
 A random item from a list, tuple, or string.

2 randrange ([start,] stop [,step])

A randomly selected element from range(start, stop, step)

3 random()

A random float r, such that 0 is less than or equal to r and r is less than 1

4 seed([x])

Sets the integer starting value used in generating random numbers. Call this
function before calling any other random module function. Returns None.

5 shuffle(lst)

Randomizes the items of a list in place. Returns None.

6 uniform(x, y)

A random float r, such that x is less than or equal to r and r is less than y

Trigonometric Functions
Python includes following functions that perform trigonometric calculations.

Sr.No Function & Description

.

1 acos(x)

Return the arc cosine of x, in radians.

2 asin(x)

Return the arc sine of x, in radians.

3 atan(x)

Return the arc tangent of x, in radians.

4 atan2(y, x)

Return atan(y / x), in radians.

5 cos(x)

Return the cosine of x radians.

6 hypot(x, y)

Return the Euclidean norm, sqrt(x*x + y*y).

7 sin(x)

Return the sine of x radians.

8 tan(x)

Return the tangent of x radians.

9 degrees(x)

Converts angle x from radians to degrees.

10 radians(x)

Converts angle x from degrees to radians.

Mathematical Constants
The module also defines two mathematical constants −

Sr.No Constants & Description

.

1
pi
The mathematical constant pi.

2
e
The mathematical constant e
Strings are amongst the most popular types in Python. We can create them simply by
enclosing characters in quotes. Python treats single quotes the same as double
quotes. Creating strings is as simple as assigning a value to a variable. For example −
var1 = 'Hello World!'
var2 = "Python Programming"

Accessing Values in Strings

Python does not support a character type; these are treated as strings of length one,
thus also considered a substring.
To access substrings, use the square brackets for slicing along with the index or
indices to obtain your substring. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

var1 = 'Hello World!'

var2 = "Python Programming"

print "var1[0]: ", var1[0]

print "var2[1:5]: ", var2[1:5]

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

var1[0]: H
var2[1:5]: ytho

Updating Strings
You can "update" an existing string by (re)assigning a variable to another string. The
new value can be related to its previous value or to a completely different string
altogether. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

var1 = 'Hello World!'

print "Updated String :- ", var1[:6] + 'Python'

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Updated String :- Hello Python
Escape Characters
Following table is a list of escape or non-printable characters that can be represented
with backslash notation.
An escape character gets interpreted; in a single quoted as well as double quoted
strings.

Backslash Hexadecimal Description

notation character

\a 0x07 Bell or alert

\b 0x08 Backspace

\cx Control-x

\C-x Control-x

\e 0x1b Escape

\f 0x0c Formfeed

\M-\C-x Meta-Control-x

\n 0x0a Newline

\nnn Octal notation, where n is in the range 0.7

\r 0x0d Carriage return

\s 0x20 Space

\t 0x09 Tab
 \v 0x0b Vertical tab

\x Character x

\xnn Hexadecimal notation, where n is in the range 0.9,

a.f, or A.F

String Special Operators

Assume string variable a holds 'Hello' and variable b holds 'Python', then −

Operato Description Example

r

+ Concatenation - Adds values on either side of the operator a + b will

give
HelloPython

* Repetition - Creates new strings, concatenating multiple copies of the a*2 will give
same string -HelloHello

[] Slice - Gives the character from the given index a[1] will
give e

[:] Range Slice - Gives the characters from the given range a[1:4] will
give ell

in Membership - Returns true if a character exists in the given string H in a will

give 1

not in Membership - Returns true if a character does not exist in the given M not in a
 string will give 1

r/R Raw String - Suppresses actual meaning of Escape characters. The print r'\n'
syntax for raw strings is exactly the same as for normal strings with the prints \n
exception of the raw string operator, the letter "r," which precedes the and print R'\
quotation marks. The "r" can be lowercase (r) or uppercase (R) and must n'prints \n
be placed immediately preceding the first quote mark.

% Format - Performs String formatting See at next

section

String Formatting Operator

One of Python's coolest features is the string format operator %. This operator is
unique to strings and makes up for the pack of having functions from C's printf() family.
Following is a simple example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print "My name is %s and weight is %d kg!" % ('Zara', 21)

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

My name is Zara and weight is 21 kg!
Here is the list of complete set of symbols which can be used along with % −

Format Symbol Conversion

%c character

%s string conversion via str() prior to formatting

%i signed decimal integer

%d signed decimal integer

%u unsigned decimal integer

%o octal integer

%x hexadecimal integer (lowercase letters)

%X hexadecimal integer (UPPERcase letters)

%e exponential notation (with lowercase 'e')

%E exponential notation (with UPPERcase 'E')

%f floating point real number

%g the shorter of %f and %e

%G the shorter of %f and %E

Other supported symbols and functionality are listed in the following table −

Symbol Functionality

* argument specifies width or precision

- left justification

+ display the sign

<sp> leave a blank space before a positive number

# add the octal leading zero ( '0' ) or hexadecimal leading '0x' or '0X',
 depending on whether 'x' or 'X' were used.

0 pad from left with zeros (instead of spaces)

% '%%' leaves you with a single literal '%'

(var) mapping variable (dictionary arguments)

m.n. m is the minimum total width and n is the number of digits to display
after the decimal point (if appl.)

Triple Quotes
Python's triple quotes comes to the rescue by allowing strings to span multiple lines,
including verbatim NEWLINEs, TABs, and any other special characters.
The syntax for triple quotes consists of three consecutive single or double quotes.
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

para_str = """this is a long string that is made up of

several lines and non-printable characters such as
TAB ( \t ) and they will show up that way when displayed.
NEWLINEs within the string, whether explicitly given like
this within the brackets [ \n ], or just a NEWLINE within
the variable assignment will also show up.
"""
print para_str

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result. Note how every
single special character has been converted to its printed form, right down to the last
NEWLINE at the end of the string between the "up." and closing triple quotes. Also
note that NEWLINEs occur either with an explicit carriage return at the end of a line or
its escape code (\n) −
this is a long string that is made up of
several lines and non-printable characters such as
TAB ( ) and they will show up that way when displayed.
NEWLINEs within the string, whether explicitly given like
this within the brackets [
 ], or just a NEWLINE within
the variable assignment will also show up.
Raw strings do not treat the backslash as a special character at all. Every character
you put into a raw string stays the way you wrote it −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print 'C:\\nowhere'

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

C:\nowhere
Now let's make use of raw string. We would put expression in r'expression' as follows
−
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print r'C:\\nowhere'

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

C:\\nowhere

Unicode String
Normal strings in Python are stored internally as 8-bit ASCII, while Unicode strings are
stored as 16-bit Unicode. This allows for a more varied set of characters, including
special characters from most languages in the world. I'll restrict my treatment of
Unicode strings to the following −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print u'Hello, world!'

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Hello, world!
As you can see, Unicode strings use the prefix u, just as raw strings use the prefix r.

Built-in String Methods

Python includes the following built-in methods to manipulate strings −
Sr.No Methods with Description
.

1 capitalize()

Capitalizes first letter of string

2 center(width, fillchar)

Returns a space-padded string with the original string centered to a total of width
columns.

3 count(str, beg= 0,end=len(string))

Counts how many times str occurs in string or in a substring of string if starting
index beg and ending index end are given.

4 decode(encoding='UTF-8',errors='strict')

Decodes the string using the codec registered for encoding. encoding defaults to
the default string encoding.

5 encode(encoding='UTF-8',errors='strict')

Returns encoded string version of string; on error, default is to raise a ValueError

unless errors is given with 'ignore' or 'replace'.

6 endswith(suffix, beg=0, end=len(string))

Determines if string or a substring of string (if starting index beg and ending index
end are given) ends with suffix; returns true if so and false otherwise.

7 expandtabs(tabsize=8)

Expands tabs in string to multiple spaces; defaults to 8 spaces per tab if tabsize
not provided.

8 find(str, beg=0 end=len(string))

Determine if str occurs in string or in a substring of string if starting index beg and
ending index end are given returns index if found and -1 otherwise.

9 index(str, beg=0, end=len(string))

 Same as find(), but raises an exception if str not found.

10 isalnum()

Returns true if string has at least 1 character and all characters are alphanumeric
and false otherwise.

11 isalpha()

Returns true if string has at least 1 character and all characters are alphabetic
and false otherwise.

12 isdigit()

Returns true if string contains only digits and false otherwise.

13 islower()

Returns true if string has at least 1 cased character and all cased characters are
in lowercase and false otherwise.

14 isnumeric()

Returns true if a unicode string contains only numeric characters and false
otherwise.

15 isspace()

Returns true if string contains only whitespace characters and false otherwise.

16 istitle()

Returns true if string is properly "titlecased" and false otherwise.

17 isupper()

Returns true if string has at least one cased character and all cased characters
are in uppercase and false otherwise.

18 join(seq)

Merges (concatenates) the string representations of elements in sequence seq

into a string, with separator string.

19 len(string)
 Returns the length of the string

20 ljust(width[, fillchar])

Returns a space-padded string with the original string left-justified to a total of

width columns.

21 lower()

Converts all uppercase letters in string to lowercase.

22 lstrip()

Removes all leading whitespace in string.

23 maketrans()

Returns a translation table to be used in translate function.

24 max(str)

Returns the max alphabetical character from the string str.

25 min(str)

Returns the min alphabetical character from the string str.

26 replace(old, new [, max])

Replaces all occurrences of old in string with new or at most max occurrences if
max given.

27 rfind(str, beg=0,end=len(string))

Same as find(), but search backwards in string.

28 rindex( str, beg=0, end=len(string))

Same as index(), but search backwards in string.

29 rjust(width,[, fillchar])

Returns a space-padded string with the original string right-justified to a total of

 width columns.

30 rstrip()

Removes all trailing whitespace of string.

31 split(str="", num=string.count(str))

Splits string according to delimiter str (space if not provided) and returns list of
substrings; split into at most num substrings if given.

32 splitlines( num=string.count('\n'))

Splits string at all (or num) NEWLINEs and returns a list of each line with
NEWLINEs removed.

33 startswith(str, beg=0,end=len(string))

Determines if string or a substring of string (if starting index beg and ending index
end are given) starts with substring str; returns true if so and false otherwise.

34 strip([chars])

Performs both lstrip() and rstrip() on string.

35 swapcase()

Inverts case for all letters in string.

36 title()

Returns "titlecased" version of string, that is, all words begin with uppercase and
the rest are lowercase.

37 translate(table, deletechars="")

Translates string according to translation table str(256 chars), removing those in

the del string.

38 upper()

Converts lowercase letters in string to uppercase.

39 zfill (width)
 Returns original string leftpadded with zeros to a total of width characters;
intended for numbers, zfill() retains any sign given (less one zero).

40 isdecimal()

Returns true if a unicode string contains only decimal characters and false
otherwise.

The most basic data structure in Python is the sequence. Each element of a sequence
is assigned a number - its position or index. The first index is zero, the second index is
one, and so forth.
Python has six built-in types of sequences, but the most common ones are lists and
tuples, which we would see in this tutorial.
There are certain things you can do with all sequence types. These operations include
indexing, slicing, adding, multiplying, and checking for membership. In addition, Python
has built-in functions for finding the length of a sequence and for finding its largest and
smallest elements.

Python Lists
The list is a most versatile datatype available in Python which can be written as a list of
comma-separated values (items) between square brackets. Important thing about a list
is that items in a list need not be of the same type.
Creating a list is as simple as putting different comma-separated values between
square brackets. For example −
list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000];
list2 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ];
list3 = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
Similar to string indices, list indices start at 0, and lists can be sliced, concatenated and
so on.

Accessing Values in Lists

To access values in lists, use the square brackets for slicing along with the index or
indices to obtain value available at that index. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000];

list2 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ];
print "list1[0]: ", list1[0]
print "list2[1:5]: ", list2[1:5]

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

list1[0]: physics
list2[1:5]: [2, 3, 4, 5]

Updating Lists
You can update single or multiple elements of lists by giving the slice on the left-hand
side of the assignment operator, and you can add to elements in a list with the
append() method. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

list = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000];

print "Value available at index 2 : "
print list[2]
list[2] = 2001;
print "New value available at index 2 : "
print list[2]

Note − append() method is discussed in subsequent section.

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Value available at index 2 :
1997
New value available at index 2 :
2001

Delete List Elements

To remove a list element, you can use either the del statement if you know exactly
which element(s) you are deleting or the remove() method if you do not know. For
example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000];

print list1
del list1[2];
print "After deleting value at index 2 : "
print list1

When the above code is executed, it produces following result −

['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000]
After deleting value at index 2 :
['physics', 'chemistry', 2000]
Note − remove() method is discussed in subsequent section.

Basic List Operations

Lists respond to the + and * operators much like strings; they mean concatenation and
repetition here too, except that the result is a new list, not a string.
In fact, lists respond to all of the general sequence operations we used on strings in the
prior chapter.

Python Expression Results Description

len([1, 2, 3]) 3 Length

[1, 2, 3] + [4, 5, 6] [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] Concatenation

['Hi!'] * 4 ['Hi!', 'Hi!', 'Hi!', 'Hi!'] Repetition

3 in [1, 2, 3] True Membership

for x in [1, 2, 3]: print x, 123 Iteration

Indexing, Slicing, and Matrixes

Because lists are sequences, indexing and slicing work the same way for lists as they
do for strings.
Assuming following input −
L = ['spam', 'Spam', 'SPAM!']
Python Expression Results Description
 L[2] SPAM! Offsets start at zero

L[-2] Spam Negative: count from the right

L[1:] ['Spam', 'SPAM!'] Slicing fetches sections

Built-in List Functions & Methods

Python includes the following list functions −

Sr.No. Function with Description

1 cmp(list1, list2)

Compares elements of both lists.

2 len(list)

Gives the total length of the list.

3 max(list)

Returns item from the list with max value.

4 min(list)

Returns item from the list with min value.

5 list(seq)

Converts a tuple into list.

Python includes following list methods

Sr.No. Methods with Description

1 list.append(obj)
 Appends object obj to list

2 list.count(obj)

Returns count of how many times obj occurs in list

3 list.extend(seq)

Appends the contents of seq to list

4 list.index(obj)

Returns the lowest index in list that obj appears

5 list.insert(index, obj)

Inserts object obj into list at offset index

6 list.pop(obj=list[-1])

Removes and returns last object or obj from list

7 list.remove(obj)

Removes object obj from list

8 list.reverse()

Reverses objects of list in place

9 list.sort([func])

Sorts objects of list, use compare func if given

A tuple is a collection of objects which ordered and immutable. Tuples are sequences,
just like lists. The differences between tuples and lists are, the tuples cannot be
changed unlike lists and tuples use parentheses, whereas lists use square brackets.
Creating a tuple is as simple as putting different comma-separated values. Optionally
you can put these comma-separated values between parentheses also. For example −
tup1 = ('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000);
tup2 = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 );
tup3 = "a", "b", "c", "d";
The empty tuple is written as two parentheses containing nothing −
tup1 = ();
To write a tuple containing a single value you have to include a comma, even though
there is only one value −
tup1 = (50,);
Like string indices, tuple indices start at 0, and they can be sliced, concatenated, and
so on.

Accessing Values in Tuples

To access values in tuple, use the square brackets for slicing along with the index or
indices to obtain value available at that index. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

tup1 = ('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000);

tup2 = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 );
print "tup1[0]: ", tup1[0];
print "tup2[1:5]: ", tup2[1:5];

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

tup1[0]: physics
tup2[1:5]: [2, 3, 4, 5]

Updating Tuples
Tuples are immutable which means you cannot update or change the values of tuple
elements. You are able to take portions of existing tuples to create new tuples as the
following example demonstrates −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

tup1 = (12, 34.56);

tup2 = ('abc', 'xyz');

# Following action is not valid for tuples

# tup1[0] = 100;

# So let's create a new tuple as follows

tup3 = tup1 + tup2;
print tup3;

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

(12, 34.56, 'abc', 'xyz')

Delete Tuple Elements

Removing individual tuple elements is not possible. There is, of course, nothing wrong
with putting together another tuple with the undesired elements discarded.
To explicitly remove an entire tuple, just use the del statement. For example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

tup = ('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000);

print tup;
del tup;
print "After deleting tup : ";
print tup;

This produces the following result. Note an exception raised, this is because after del
tup tuple does not exist any more −
('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000)
After deleting tup :
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 9, in <module>
print tup;
NameError: name 'tup' is not defined

Basic Tuples Operations

Tuples respond to the + and * operators much like strings; they mean concatenation
and repetition here too, except that the result is a new tuple, not a string.
In fact, tuples respond to all of the general sequence operations we used on strings in
the prior chapter −

Python Expression Results Description

len((1, 2, 3)) 3 Length

(1, 2, 3) + (4, 5, 6) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Concatenation

('Hi!',) * 4 ('Hi!', 'Hi!', 'Hi!', 'Hi!') Repetition

 3 in (1, 2, 3) True Membership

for x in (1, 2, 3): print x, 123 Iteration

Indexing, Slicing, and Matrixes

Because tuples are sequences, indexing and slicing work the same way for tuples as
they do for strings. Assuming following input −
L = ('spam', 'Spam', 'SPAM!')

Python Expression Results Description

L[2] 'SPAM!' Offsets start at zero

L[-2] 'Spam' Negative: count from the right

L[1:] ['Spam', 'SPAM!'] Slicing fetches sections

No Enclosing Delimiters
Any set of multiple objects, comma-separated, written without identifying symbols, i.e.,
brackets for lists, parentheses for tuples, etc., default to tuples, as indicated in these
short examples −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print 'abc', -4.24e93, 18+6.6j, 'xyz';

x, y = 1, 2;
print "Value of x , y : ", x,y;

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

abc -4.24e+93 (18+6.6j) xyz
Value of x , y : 1 2
Built-in Tuple Functions
Python includes the following tuple functions −

Sr.No. Function with Description

1 cmp(tuple1, tuple2)

Compares elements of both tuples.

2 len(tuple)

Gives the total length of the tuple.

3 max(tuple)

Returns item from the tuple with max value.

4 min(tuple)

Returns item from the tuple with min value.

5 tuple(seq)

Converts a list into tuple

Each key is separated from its value by a colon (:), the items are separated by
commas, and the whole thing is enclosed in curly braces. An empty dictionary without
any items is written with just two curly braces, like this: {}.
Keys are unique within a dictionary while values may not be. The values of a dictionary
can be of any type, but the keys must be of an immutable data type such as strings,
numbers, or tuples.

Accessing Values in Dictionary

To access dictionary elements, you can use the familiar square brackets along with the
key to obtain its value. Following is a simple example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}

print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']
print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

dict['Name']: Zara
dict['Age']: 7
If we attempt to access a data item with a key, which is not part of the dictionary, we
get an error as follows −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}

print "dict['Alice']: ", dict['Alice']

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

dict['Alice']:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 4, in <module>
print "dict['Alice']: ", dict['Alice'];
KeyError: 'Alice'

Updating Dictionary
You can update a dictionary by adding a new entry or a key-value pair, modifying an
existing entry, or deleting an existing entry as shown below in the simple example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}

dict['Age'] = 8; # update existing entry
dict['School'] = "DPS School"; # Add new entry

print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']

print "dict['School']: ", dict['School']

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

dict['Age']: 8
dict['School']: DPS School

Delete Dictionary Elements

You can either remove individual dictionary elements or clear the entire contents of a
dictionary. You can also delete entire dictionary in a single operation.
To explicitly remove an entire dictionary, just use the del statement. Following is a
simple example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}

del dict['Name']; # remove entry with key 'Name'
dict.clear(); # remove all entries in dict
del dict ; # delete entire dictionary

print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']

print "dict['School']: ", dict['School']

This produces the following result. Note that an exception is raised because after del
dict dictionary does not exist any more −
dict['Age']:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 8, in <module>
print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age'];
TypeError: 'type' object is unsubscriptable
Note − del() method is discussed in subsequent section.

Properties of Dictionary Keys

Dictionary values have no restrictions. They can be any arbitrary Python object, either
standard objects or user-defined objects. However, same is not true for the keys.
There are two important points to remember about dictionary keys −
(a) More than one entry per key not allowed. Which means no duplicate key is allowed.
When duplicate keys encountered during assignment, the last assignment wins. For
example −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Name': 'Manni'}

print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

dict['Name']: Manni
(b) Keys must be immutable. Which means you can use strings, numbers or tuples as
dictionary keys but something like ['key'] is not allowed. Following is a simple example
−
 Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {['Name']: 'Zara', 'Age': 7}

print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 3, in <module>
dict = {['Name']: 'Zara', 'Age': 7};
TypeError: unhashable type: 'list'

Built-in Dictionary Functions & Methods

Python includes the following dictionary functions −

Sr.No Function with Description

.

1 cmp(dict1, dict2)

Compares elements of both dict.

2 len(dict)

Gives the total length of the dictionary. This would be equal to the number of
items in the dictionary.

3 str(dict)

Produces a printable string representation of a dictionary

4 type(variable)

Returns the type of the passed variable. If passed variable is dictionary, then it
would return a dictionary type.

Python includes following dictionary methods −

Sr.No. Methods with Description

1 dict.clear()
 Removes all elements of dictionary dict

2 dict.copy()

Returns a shallow copy of dictionary dict

3 dict.fromkeys()

Create a new dictionary with keys from seq and values set to value.

4 dict.get(key, default=None)

For key key, returns value or default if key not in dictionary

5 dict.has_key(key)

Returns true if key in dictionary dict, false otherwise

6 dict.items()

Returns a list of dict's (key, value) tuple pairs

7 dict.keys()

Returns list of dictionary dict's keys

8 dict.setdefault(key, default=None)

Similar to get(), but will set dict[key]=default if key is not already in dict

9 dict.update(dict2)

Adds dictionary dict2's key-values pairs to dict

10 dict.values()

Returns list of dictionary dict's value

A Python program can handle date and time in several ways. Converting between date
formats is a common chore for computers. Python's time and calendar modules help
track dates and times.
What is Tick?
Time intervals are floating-point numbers in units of seconds. Particular instants in time
are expressed in seconds since 00:00:00 hrs January 1, 1970(epoch).
There is a popular time module available in Python which provides functions for
working with times, and for converting between representations. The
function time.time() returns the current system time in ticks since 00:00:00 hrs January
1, 1970(epoch).

Example
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python
import time; # This is required to include time module.

ticks = time.time()
print "Number of ticks since 12:00am, January 1, 1970:", ticks

This would produce a result something as follows −

Number of ticks since 12:00am, January 1, 1970: 7186862.73399
Date arithmetic is easy to do with ticks. However, dates before the epoch cannot be
represented in this form. Dates in the far future also cannot be represented this way -
the cutoff point is sometime in 2038 for UNIX and Windows.

What is TimeTuple?
Many of Python's time functions handle time as a tuple of 9 numbers, as shown below
−

Inde Field Values

x

0 4-digit year 2008

1 Month 1 to 12

2 Day 1 to 31

3 Hour 0 to 23
 4 Minute 0 to 59

5 Second 0 to 61 (60 or 61 are leap-seconds)

6 Day of Week 0 to 6 (0 is Monday)

7 Day of year 1 to 366 (Julian day)

8 Daylight savings -1, 0, 1, -1 means library determines DST

The above tuple is equivalent to struct_time structure. This structure has following
attributes −

Inde Attributes Values

x

0 tm_year 2008

1 tm_mon 1 to 12

2 tm_mday 1 to 31

3 tm_hour 0 to 23

4 tm_min 0 to 59

5 tm_sec 0 to 61 (60 or 61 are leap-seconds)

6 tm_wday 0 to 6 (0 is Monday)
 7 tm_yday 1 to 366 (Julian day)

8 tm_isdst -1, 0, 1, -1 means library determines DST

Getting current time

To translate a time instant from a seconds since the epoch floating-point value into a
time-tuple, pass the floating-point value to a function (e.g., localtime) that returns a
time-tuple with all nine items valid.
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python
import time;

localtime = time.localtime(time.time())
print "Local current time :", localtime

This would produce the following result, which could be formatted in any other
presentable form −
Local current time : time.struct_time(tm_year=2013, tm_mon=7,
tm_mday=17, tm_hour=21, tm_min=26, tm_sec=3, tm_wday=2,
tm_yday=198, tm_isdst=0)

Getting formatted time

You can format any time as per your requirement, but simple method to get time in
readable format is asctime() −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python
import time;

localtime = time.asctime( time.localtime(time.time()) )

print "Local current time :", localtime

This would produce the following result −

Local current time : Tue Jan 13 10:17:09 2009

Getting calendar for a month

The calendar module gives a wide range of methods to play with yearly and monthly
calendars. Here, we print a calendar for a given month ( Jan 2008 ) −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python
import calendar

cal = calendar.month(2008, 1)
print "Here is the calendar:"
print cal

This would produce the following result −

Here is the calendar:
January 2008
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31

The time Module

There is a popular time module available in Python which provides functions for
working with times and for converting between representations. Here is the list of all
available methods −

Sr.No. Function with Description

1 time.altzone

The offset of the local DST timezone, in seconds west of UTC, if one is defined.
This is negative if the local DST timezone is east of UTC (as in Western Europe,
including the UK). Only use this if daylight is nonzero.

2 time.asctime([tupletime])
Accepts a time-tuple and returns a readable 24-character string such as 'Tue Dec
11 18:07:14 2008'.

3 time.clock( )
Returns the current CPU time as a floating-point number of seconds. To measure
computational costs of different approaches, the value of time.clock is more
useful than that of time.time().

4 time.ctime([secs])
 Like asctime(localtime(secs)) and without arguments is like asctime( )

5 time.gmtime([secs])
Accepts an instant expressed in seconds since the epoch and returns a time-
tuple t with the UTC time. Note : t.tm_isdst is always 0

6 time.localtime([secs])
Accepts an instant expressed in seconds since the epoch and returns a time-
tuple t with the local time (t.tm_isdst is 0 or 1, depending on whether DST applies
to instant secs by local rules).

7 time.mktime(tupletime)
Accepts an instant expressed as a time-tuple in local time and returns a floating-
point value with the instant expressed in seconds since the epoch.

8 time.sleep(secs)
Suspends the calling thread for secs seconds.

9 time.strftime(fmt[,tupletime])
Accepts an instant expressed as a time-tuple in local time and returns a string
representing the instant as specified by string fmt.

10 time.strptime(str,fmt='%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y')

Parses str according to format string fmt and returns the instant in time-tuple
format.

11 time.time( )
Returns the current time instant, a floating-point number of seconds since the
epoch.

12 time.tzset()
Resets the time conversion rules used by the library routines. The environment
variable TZ specifies how this is done.

Let us go through the functions briefly −

There are following two important attributes available with time module −
Sr.No. Attribute with Description

1 time.timezone
Attribute time.timezone is the offset in seconds of the local time zone (without
DST) from UTC (>0 in the Americas; <=0 in most of Europe, Asia, Africa).

2 time.tzname
Attribute time.tzname is a pair of locale-dependent strings, which are the names
of the local time zone without and with DST, respectively.

The calendar Module

The calendar module supplies calendar-related functions, including functions to print a
text calendar for a given month or year.
By default, calendar takes Monday as the first day of the week and Sunday as the last
one. To change this, call calendar.setfirstweekday() function.
Here is a list of functions available with the calendar module −

Sr.No. Function with Description

1 calendar.calendar(year,w=2,l=1,c=6)
Returns a multiline string with a calendar for year year formatted into three
columns separated by c spaces. w is the width in characters of each date; each
line has length 21*w+18+2*c. l is the number of lines for each week.

2 calendar.firstweekday( )
Returns the current setting for the weekday that starts each week. By default,
when calendar is first imported, this is 0, meaning Monday.

3 calendar.isleap(year)
Returns True if year is a leap year; otherwise, False.

4 calendar.leapdays(y1,y2)
 Returns the total number of leap days in the years within range(y1,y2).

5 calendar.month(year,month,w=2,l=1)
Returns a multiline string with a calendar for month month of year year, one line
per week plus two header lines. w is the width in characters of each date; each
line has length 7*w+6. l is the number of lines for each week.

6 calendar.monthcalendar(year,month)
Returns a list of lists of ints. Each sublist denotes a week. Days outside month
month of year year are set to 0; days within the month are set to their day-of-
month, 1 and up.

7 calendar.monthrange(year,month)
Returns two integers. The first one is the code of the weekday for the first day of
the month month in year year; the second one is the number of days in the
month. Weekday codes are 0 (Monday) to 6 (Sunday); month numbers are 1 to
12.

8 calendar.prcal(year,w=2,l=1,c=6)
Like print calendar.calendar(year,w,l,c).

9 calendar.prmonth(year,month,w=2,l=1)
Like print calendar.month(year,month,w,l).

10 calendar.setfirstweekday(weekday)
Sets the first day of each week to weekday code weekday. Weekday codes are 0
(Monday) to 6 (Sunday).

11 calendar.timegm(tupletime)
The inverse of time.gmtime: accepts a time instant in time-tuple form and returns
the same instant as a floating-point number of seconds since the epoch.

12 calendar.weekday(year,month,day)
 Returns the weekday code for the given date. Weekday codes are 0 (Monday) to
6 (Sunday); month numbers are 1 (January) to 12 (December).

Other Modules & Functions

If you are interested, then here you would find a list of other important modules and
functions to play with date & time in Python −
 The datetime Module
 The pytz Module
 The dateutil Module
A function is a block of organized, reusable code that is used to perform a single,
related action. Functions provide better modularity for your application and a high
degree of code reusing.
As you already know, Python gives you many built-in functions like print(), etc. but you
can also create your own functions. These functions are called user-defined functions.

Defining a Function
You can define functions to provide the required functionality. Here are simple rules to
define a function in Python.
 Function blocks begin with the keyword def followed by the function name and
parentheses ( ( ) ).
 Any input parameters or arguments should be placed within these parentheses.
You can also define parameters inside these parentheses.
 The first statement of a function can be an optional statement - the
documentation string of the function or docstring.
 The code block within every function starts with a colon (:) and is indented.
 The statement return [expression] exits a function, optionally passing back an
expression to the caller. A return statement with no arguments is the same as
return None.

Syntax
def functionname( parameters ):
"function_docstring"
function_suite
return [expression]
By default, parameters have a positional behavior and you need to inform them in the
same order that they were defined.

Example
The following function takes a string as input parameter and prints it on standard
screen.
def printme( str ):
"This prints a passed string into this function"
print str
return

Calling a Function
Defining a function only gives it a name, specifies the parameters that are to be
included in the function and structures the blocks of code.
Once the basic structure of a function is finalized, you can execute it by calling it from
another function or directly from the Python prompt. Following is the example to call
printme() function −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printme( str ):
"This prints a passed string into this function"
print str
return;

# Now you can call printme function

printme("I'm first call to user defined function!")
printme("Again second call to the same function")

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

I'm first call to user defined function!
Again second call to the same function

Pass by reference vs value

All parameters (arguments) in the Python language are passed by reference. It means
if you change what a parameter refers to within a function, the change also reflects
back in the calling function. For example −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def changeme( mylist ):
"This changes a passed list into this function"
mylist.append([1,2,3,4]);
print "Values inside the function: ", mylist
return

# Now you can call changeme function

mylist = [10,20,30];
changeme( mylist );
print "Values outside the function: ", mylist

Here, we are maintaining reference of the passed object and appending values in the
same object. So, this would produce the following result −
Values inside the function: [10, 20, 30, [1, 2, 3, 4]]
Values outside the function: [10, 20, 30, [1, 2, 3, 4]]
There is one more example where argument is being passed by reference and the
reference is being overwritten inside the called function.
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def changeme( mylist ):
"This changes a passed list into this function"
mylist = [1,2,3,4]; # This would assig new reference in mylist
print "Values inside the function: ", mylist
return

# Now you can call changeme function

mylist = [10,20,30];
changeme( mylist );
print "Values outside the function: ", mylist

The parameter mylist is local to the function changeme. Changing mylist within the
function does not affect mylist. The function accomplishes nothing and finally this
would produce the following result −
Values inside the function: [1, 2, 3, 4]
Values outside the function: [10, 20, 30]

Function Arguments
You can call a function by using the following types of formal arguments −

 Required arguments
  Keyword arguments
 Default arguments
 Variable-length arguments

Required arguments
Required arguments are the arguments passed to a function in correct positional order.
Here, the number of arguments in the function call should match exactly with the
function definition.
To call the function printme(), you definitely need to pass one argument, otherwise it
gives a syntax error as follows −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printme( str ):
"This prints a passed string into this function"
print str
return;

# Now you can call printme function

printme()

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 11, in <module>
printme();
TypeError: printme() takes exactly 1 argument (0 given)

Keyword arguments
Keyword arguments are related to the function calls. When you use keyword
arguments in a function call, the caller identifies the arguments by the parameter name.
This allows you to skip arguments or place them out of order because the Python
interpreter is able to use the keywords provided to match the values with parameters.
You can also make keyword calls to the printme() function in the following ways −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printme( str ):
"This prints a passed string into this function"
print str
 return;

# Now you can call printme function

printme( str = "My string")

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

My string
The following example gives more clear picture. Note that the order of parameters
does not matter.
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printinfo( name, age ):
"This prints a passed info into this function"
print "Name: ", name
print "Age ", age
return;

# Now you can call printinfo function

printinfo( age=50, name="miki" )

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Name: miki
Age 50

Default arguments
A default argument is an argument that assumes a default value if a value is not
provided in the function call for that argument. The following example gives an idea on
default arguments, it prints default age if it is not passed −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printinfo( name, age = 35 ):
"This prints a passed info into this function"
print "Name: ", name
print "Age ", age
return;

# Now you can call printinfo function

printinfo( age=50, name="miki" )
printinfo( name="miki" )
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
Name: miki
Age 50
Name: miki
Age 35

Variable-length arguments
You may need to process a function for more arguments than you specified while
defining the function. These arguments are called variable-length arguments and are
not named in the function definition, unlike required and default arguments.
Syntax for a function with non-keyword variable arguments is this −
def functionname([formal_args,] *var_args_tuple ):
"function_docstring"
function_suite
return [expression]
An asterisk (*) is placed before the variable name that holds the values of all
nonkeyword variable arguments. This tuple remains empty if no additional arguments
are specified during the function call. Following is a simple example −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def printinfo( arg1, *vartuple ):
"This prints a variable passed arguments"
print "Output is: "
print arg1
for var in vartuple:
print var
return;

# Now you can call printinfo function

printinfo( 10 )
printinfo( 70, 60, 50 )

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Output is:
10
Output is:
70
60
50

The Anonymous Functions

These functions are called anonymous because they are not declared in the standard
manner by using the def keyword. You can use the lambda keyword to create small
anonymous functions.
 Lambda forms can take any number of arguments but return just one value in
the form of an expression. They cannot contain commands or multiple
expressions.
 An anonymous function cannot be a direct call to print because lambda requires
an expression
 Lambda functions have their own local namespace and cannot access variables
other than those in their parameter list and those in the global namespace.
 Although it appears that lambda's are a one-line version of a function, they are
not equivalent to inline statements in C or C++, whose purpose is by passing
function stack allocation during invocation for performance reasons.

Syntax
The syntax of lambda functions contains only a single statement, which is as follows −
lambda [arg1 [,arg2,.....argn]]:expression
Following is the example to show how lambda form of function works −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

sum = lambda arg1, arg2: arg1 + arg2;

# Now you can call sum as a function

print "Value of total : ", sum( 10, 20 )
print "Value of total : ", sum( 20, 20 )

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Value of total : 30
Value of total : 40

The return Statement

The statement return [expression] exits a function, optionally passing back an
expression to the caller. A return statement with no arguments is the same as return
None.
All the above examples are not returning any value. You can return a value from a
function as follows −
 Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Function definition is here

def sum( arg1, arg2 ):
# Add both the parameters and return them."
total = arg1 + arg2
print "Inside the function : ", total
return total;

# Now you can call sum function

total = sum( 10, 20 );
print "Outside the function : ", total

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Inside the function : 30
Outside the function : 30

Scope of Variables
All variables in a program may not be accessible at all locations in that program. This
depends on where you have declared a variable.
The scope of a variable determines the portion of the program where you can access a
particular identifier. There are two basic scopes of variables in Python −

 Global variables
 Local variables

Global vs. Local variables

Variables that are defined inside a function body have a local scope, and those defined
outside have a global scope.
This means that local variables can be accessed only inside the function in which they
are declared, whereas global variables can be accessed throughout the program body
by all functions. When you call a function, the variables declared inside it are brought
into scope. Following is a simple example −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

total = 0; # This is global variable.

# Function definition is here
def sum( arg1, arg2 ):
# Add both the parameters and return them."
 total = arg1 + arg2; # Here total is local variable.
print "Inside the function local total : ", total
return total;

# Now you can call sum function

sum( 10, 20 );
print "Outside the function global total : ", total

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Inside the function local total : 30
Outside the function global total : 0
A module allows you to logically organize your Python code. Grouping related code
into a module makes the code easier to understand and use. A module is a Python
object with arbitrarily named attributes that you can bind and reference.
Simply, a module is a file consisting of Python code. A module can define functions,
classes and variables. A module can also include runnable code.

Example
The Python code for a module named aname normally resides in a file
named aname.py. Here's an example of a simple module, support.py
def print_func( par ):
print "Hello : ", par
return

The import Statement

You can use any Python source file as a module by executing an import statement in
some other Python source file. The import has the following syntax −
import module1[, module2[,... moduleN]
When the interpreter encounters an import statement, it imports the module if the
module is present in the search path. A search path is a list of directories that the
interpreter searches before importing a module. For example, to import the module
support.py, you need to put the following command at the top of the script −
#!/usr/bin/python

# Import module support

import support

# Now you can call defined function that module as follows

support.print_func("Zara")

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Hello : Zara
A module is loaded only once, regardless of the number of times it is imported. This
prevents the module execution from happening over and over again if multiple imports
occur.

The from...import Statement

Python's from statement lets you import specific attributes from a module into the
current namespace. The from...import has the following syntax −
from modname import name1[, name2[, ... nameN]]
For example, to import the function fibonacci from the module fib, use the following
statement −
from fib import fibonacci
This statement does not import the entire module fib into the current namespace; it just
introduces the item fibonacci from the module fib into the global symbol table of the
importing module.

The from...import * Statement

It is also possible to import all names from a module into the current namespace by
using the following import statement −
from modname import *
This provides an easy way to import all the items from a module into the current
namespace; however, this statement should be used sparingly.

Locating Modules
When you import a module, the Python interpreter searches for the module in the
following sequences −
 The current directory.
 If the module isn't found, Python then searches each directory in the shell
variable PYTHONPATH.
 If all else fails, Python checks the default path. On UNIX, this default path is
normally /usr/local/lib/python/.
The module search path is stored in the system module sys as the sys.path variable.
The sys.path variable contains the current directory, PYTHONPATH, and the
installation-dependent default.

The PYTHONPATH Variable

The PYTHONPATH is an environment variable, consisting of a list of directories. The
syntax of PYTHONPATH is the same as that of the shell variable PATH.
Here is a typical PYTHONPATH from a Windows system −
set PYTHONPATH = c:\python20\lib;
And here is a typical PYTHONPATH from a UNIX system −
set PYTHONPATH = /usr/local/lib/python

Namespaces and Scoping

Variables are names (identifiers) that map to objects. A namespace is a dictionary of
variable names (keys) and their corresponding objects (values).
A Python statement can access variables in a local namespace and in the global
namespace. If a local and a global variable have the same name, the local variable
shadows the global variable.
Each function has its own local namespace. Class methods follow the same scoping
rule as ordinary functions.
Python makes educated guesses on whether variables are local or global. It assumes
that any variable assigned a value in a function is local.
Therefore, in order to assign a value to a global variable within a function, you must
first use the global statement.
The statement global VarName tells Python that VarName is a global variable. Python
stops searching the local namespace for the variable.
For example, we define a variable Money in the global namespace. Within the
function Money, we assign Money a value, therefore Python assumes Money as a local
variable. However, we accessed the value of the local variable Money before setting it,
so an UnboundLocalError is the result. Uncommenting the global statement fixes the
problem.
#!/usr/bin/python

Money = 2000
def AddMoney():
# Uncomment the following line to fix the code:
# global Money
Money = Money + 1

print Money
AddMoney()
print Money

The dir( ) Function

The dir() built-in function returns a sorted list of strings containing the names defined by
a module.
The list contains the names of all the modules, variables and functions that are defined
in a module. Following is a simple example −
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

# Import built-in module math

import math

content = dir(math)
print content

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

['__doc__', '__file__', '__name__', 'acos', 'asin', 'atan',
'atan2', 'ceil', 'cos', 'cosh', 'degrees', 'e', 'exp',
'fabs', 'floor', 'fmod', 'frexp', 'hypot', 'ldexp', 'log',
'log10', 'modf', 'pi', 'pow', 'radians', 'sin', 'sinh',
'sqrt', 'tan', 'tanh']
Here, the special string variable __name__ is the module's name, and __file__ is the
filename from which the module was loaded.

The globals() and locals() Functions

The globals() and locals() functions can be used to return the names in the global and
local namespaces depending on the location from where they are called.
If locals() is called from within a function, it will return all the names that can be
accessed locally from that function.
If globals() is called from within a function, it will return all the names that can be
accessed globally from that function.
The return type of both these functions is dictionary. Therefore, names can be
extracted using the keys() function.

The reload() Function

When the module is imported into a script, the code in the top-level portion of a module
is executed only once.
Therefore, if you want to reexecute the top-level code in a module, you can use
the reload() function. The reload() function imports a previously imported module again.
The syntax of the reload() function is this −
reload(module_name)
Here, module_name is the name of the module you want to reload and not the string
containing the module name. For example, to reload hello module, do the following −
reload(hello)

Packages in Python
A package is a hierarchical file directory structure that defines a single Python
application environment that consists of modules and subpackages and sub-
subpackages, and so on.
Consider a file Pots.py available in Phone directory. This file has following line of
source code −
#!/usr/bin/python

def Pots():
print "I'm Pots Phone"

Similar way, we have another two files having different functions with the same name
as above −
 Phone/Isdn.py file having function Isdn()
 Phone/G3.py file having function G3()
Now, create one more file __init__.py in Phone directory −

 Phone/__init__.py
To make all of your functions available when you've imported Phone, you need to put
explicit import statements in __init__.py as follows −
from Pots import Pots
from Isdn import Isdn
from G3 import G3
After you add these lines to __init__.py, you have all of these classes available when
you import the Phone package.
#!/usr/bin/python

# Now import your Phone Package.

import Phone

Phone.Pots()
Phone.Isdn()
Phone.G3()

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

I'm Pots Phone
I'm 3G Phone
I'm ISDN Phone
In the above example, we have taken example of a single functions in each file, but
you can keep multiple functions in your files. You can also define different Python
classes in those files and then you can create your packages out of those classes
This chapter covers all the basic I/O functions available in Python. For more functions,
please refer to standard Python documentation.

Printing to the Screen

The simplest way to produce output is using the print statement where you can pass
zero or more expressions separated by commas. This function converts the
expressions you pass into a string and writes the result to standard output as follows −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

print "Python is really a great language,", "isn't it?"

This produces the following result on your standard screen −

Python is really a great language, isn't it?

Reading Keyboard Input

Python provides two built-in functions to read a line of text from standard input, which
by default comes from the keyboard. These functions are −

 raw_input
 input

The raw_input Function

The raw_input([prompt]) function reads one line from standard input and returns it as a
string (removing the trailing newline).
#!/usr/bin/python

str = raw_input("Enter your input: ")

print "Received input is : ", str

This prompts you to enter any string and it would display same string on the screen.
When I typed "Hello Python!", its output is like this −
Enter your input: Hello Python
Received input is : Hello Python
The input Function
The input([prompt]) function is equivalent to raw_input, except that it assumes the input
is a valid Python expression and returns the evaluated result to you.
#!/usr/bin/python

str = input("Enter your input: ")

print "Received input is : ", str

This would produce the following result against the entered input −
Enter your input: [x*5 for x in range(2,10,2)]
Recieved input is : [10, 20, 30, 40]

Opening and Closing Files

Until now, you have been reading and writing to the standard input and output. Now,
we will see how to use actual data files.
Python provides basic functions and methods necessary to manipulate files by default.
You can do most of the file manipulation using a file object.

The open Function

Before you can read or write a file, you have to open it using Python's built-
in open() function. This function creates a file object, which would be utilized to call
other support methods associated with it.
Syntax
file object = open(file_name [, access_mode][, buffering])
Here are parameter details −
 file_name − The file_name argument is a string value that contains the name of
the file that you want to access.
 access_mode − The access_mode determines the mode in which the file has to
be opened, i.e., read, write, append, etc. A complete list of possible values is
given below in the table. This is optional parameter and the default file access
mode is read (r).
 buffering − If the buffering value is set to 0, no buffering takes place. If the
buffering value is 1, line buffering is performed while accessing a file. If you
specify the buffering value as an integer greater than 1, then buffering action is
performed with the indicated buffer size. If negative, the buffer size is the system
default(default behavior).
Here is a list of the different modes of opening a file −
Sr.No Modes & Description
.

1
r
Opens a file for reading only. The file pointer is placed at the beginning of the file.
This is the default mode.

2
rb
Opens a file for reading only in binary format. The file pointer is placed at the
beginning of the file. This is the default mode.

3
r+
Opens a file for both reading and writing. The file pointer placed at the beginning
of the file.

4
rb+
Opens a file for both reading and writing in binary format. The file pointer placed
at the beginning of the file.

5
w
Opens a file for writing only. Overwrites the file if the file exists. If the file does not
exist, creates a new file for writing.

6
wb
Opens a file for writing only in binary format. Overwrites the file if the file exists. If
the file does not exist, creates a new file for writing.

7
w+
Opens a file for both writing and reading. Overwrites the existing file if the file
exists. If the file does not exist, creates a new file for reading and writing.

8
wb+
Opens a file for both writing and reading in binary format. Overwrites the existing
file if the file exists. If the file does not exist, creates a new file for reading and
 writing.

9
a
Opens a file for appending. The file pointer is at the end of the file if the file exists.
That is, the file is in the append mode. If the file does not exist, it creates a new
file for writing.

10
ab
Opens a file for appending in binary format. The file pointer is at the end of the file
if the file exists. That is, the file is in the append mode. If the file does not exist, it
creates a new file for writing.

11
a+
Opens a file for both appending and reading. The file pointer is at the end of the
file if the file exists. The file opens in the append mode. If the file does not exist, it
creates a new file for reading and writing.

12
ab+
Opens a file for both appending and reading in binary format. The file pointer is at
the end of the file if the file exists. The file opens in the append mode. If the file
does not exist, it creates a new file for reading and writing.

The file Object Attributes

Once a file is opened and you have one file object, you can get various information
related to that file.
Here is a list of all attributes related to file object −

Sr.No. Attribute & Description

1
file.closed
Returns true if file is closed, false otherwise.

2
file.mode
 Returns access mode with which file was opened.

3
file.name
Returns name of the file.

4
file.softspace
Returns false if space explicitly required with print, true otherwise.

Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "wb")
print "Name of the file: ", fo.name
print "Closed or not : ", fo.closed
print "Opening mode : ", fo.mode
print "Softspace flag : ", fo.softspace

This produces the following result −

Name of the file: foo.txt
Closed or not : False
Opening mode : wb
Softspace flag : 0

The close() Method

The close() method of a file object flushes any unwritten information and closes the file
object, after which no more writing can be done.
Python automatically closes a file when the reference object of a file is reassigned to
another file. It is a good practice to use the close() method to close a file.
Syntax
fileObject.close()
Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "wb")
print "Name of the file: ", fo.name

# Close opend file

fo.close()

This produces the following result −

Name of the file: foo.txt

Reading and Writing Files

The file object provides a set of access methods to make our lives easier. We would
see how to use read() and write() methods to read and write files.

The write() Method

The write() method writes any string to an open file. It is important to note that Python
strings can have binary data and not just text.
The write() method does not add a newline character ('\n') to the end of the string −
Syntax
fileObject.write(string)
Here, passed parameter is the content to be written into the opened file.
Example
#!/usr/bin/python

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "wb")
fo.write( "Python is a great language.\nYeah its great!!\n")

# Close opend file

fo.close()

The above method would create foo.txt file and would write given content in that file
and finally it would close that file. If you would open this file, it would have following
content.
Python is a great language.
Yeah its great!!

The read() Method

The read() method reads a string from an open file. It is important to note that Python
strings can have binary data. apart from text data.
Syntax
fileObject.read([count])
Here, passed parameter is the number of bytes to be read from the opened file. This
method starts reading from the beginning of the file and if count is missing, then it tries
to read as much as possible, maybe until the end of file.
Example
Let's take a file foo.txt, which we created above.
#!/usr/bin/python

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "r+")
str = fo.read(10);
print "Read String is : ", str
# Close opend file
fo.close()

This produces the following result −

Read String is : Python is

File Positions
The tell() method tells you the current position within the file; in other words, the next
read or write will occur at that many bytes from the beginning of the file.
The seek(offset[, from]) method changes the current file position. The offset argument
indicates the number of bytes to be moved. The from argument specifies the reference
position from where the bytes are to be moved.
If from is set to 0, it means use the beginning of the file as the reference position and 1
means use the current position as the reference position and if it is set to 2 then the
end of the file would be taken as the reference position.
Example
Let us take a file foo.txt, which we created above.
#!/usr/bin/python

# Open a file
fo = open("foo.txt", "r+")
str = fo.read(10)
print "Read String is : ", str

# Check current position

position = fo.tell()
print "Current file position : ", position
# Reposition pointer at the beginning once again
position = fo.seek(0, 0);
str = fo.read(10)
print "Again read String is : ", str
# Close opend file
fo.close()

This produces the following result −

Read String is : Python is
Current file position : 10
Again read String is : Python is

Renaming and Deleting Files

Python os module provides methods that help you perform file-processing operations,
such as renaming and deleting files.
To use this module you need to import it first and then you can call any related
functions.

The rename() Method

The rename() method takes two arguments, the current filename and the new
filename.
Syntax
os.rename(current_file_name, new_file_name)
Example
Following is the example to rename an existing file test1.txt −
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# Rename a file from test1.txt to test2.txt

os.rename( "test1.txt", "test2.txt" )

The remove() Method

You can use the remove() method to delete files by supplying the name of the file to be
deleted as the argument.
Syntax
os.remove(file_name)
Example
Following is the example to delete an existing file test2.txt −
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# Delete file test2.txt

os.remove("text2.txt")

Directories in Python
All files are contained within various directories, and Python has no problem handling
these too. The os module has several methods that help you create, remove, and
change directories.

The mkdir() Method

You can use the mkdir() method of the os module to create directories in the current
directory. You need to supply an argument to this method which contains the name of
the directory to be created.
Syntax
os.mkdir("newdir")
Example
Following is the example to create a directory test in the current directory −
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# Create a directory "test"

os.mkdir("test")

The chdir() Method

You can use the chdir() method to change the current directory. The chdir() method
takes an argument, which is the name of the directory that you want to make the
current directory.
Syntax
os.chdir("newdir")
Example
Following is the example to go into "/home/newdir" directory −
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# Changing a directory to "/home/newdir"

os.chdir("/home/newdir")
The getcwd() Method
The getcwd() method displays the current working directory.
Syntax
os.getcwd()
Example
Following is the example to give current directory −
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# This would give location of the current directory

os.getcwd()

The rmdir() Method

The rmdir() method deletes the directory, which is passed as an argument in the
method.
Before removing a directory, all the contents in it should be removed.
Syntax
os.rmdir('dirname')
Example
Following is the example to remove "/tmp/test" directory. It is required to give fully
qualified name of the directory, otherwise it would search for that directory in the
current directory.
#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# This would remove "/tmp/test" directory.

os.rmdir( "/tmp/test" )

File & Directory Related Methods

There are three important sources, which provide a wide range of utility methods to
handle and manipulate files & directories on Windows and Unix operating systems.
They are as follows −
 File Object Methods: The file object provides functions to manipulate files.
 OS Object Methods: This provides methods to process files as well as directories.
Python provides two very important features to handle any unexpected error in your
Python programs and to add debugging capabilities in them −
  Exception Handling − This would be covered in this tutorial. Here is a list
standard Exceptions available in Python: Standard Exceptions.
 Assertions − This would be covered in Assertions in Python tutorial.

List of Standard Exceptions −

Sr.No Exception Name & Description

.

1
Exception
Base class for all exceptions

2
StopIteration
Raised when the next() method of an iterator does not point to any object.

3
SystemExit
Raised by the sys.exit() function.

4
StandardError
Base class for all built-in exceptions except StopIteration and SystemExit.

5
ArithmeticError
Base class for all errors that occur for numeric calculation.

6
OverflowError
Raised when a calculation exceeds maximum limit for a numeric type.

7
FloatingPointError
Raised when a floating point calculation fails.

8
ZeroDivisionError
Raised when division or modulo by zero takes place for all numeric types.

9
AssertionError
 Raised in case of failure of the Assert statement.

10
AttributeError
Raised in case of failure of attribute reference or assignment.

11
EOFError
Raised when there is no input from either the raw_input() or input() function and
the end of file is reached.

12
ImportError
Raised when an import statement fails.

13
KeyboardInterrupt
Raised when the user interrupts program execution, usually by pressing Ctrl+c.

14
LookupError
Base class for all lookup errors.

15
IndexError
Raised when an index is not found in a sequence.

16
KeyError
Raised when the specified key is not found in the dictionary.

17
NameError
Raised when an identifier is not found in the local or global namespace.

18
UnboundLocalError
Raised when trying to access a local variable in a function or method but no value
has been assigned to it.
19
EnvironmentError
Base class for all exceptions that occur outside the Python environment.

20
IOError
Raised when an input/ output operation fails, such as the print statement or the
open() function when trying to open a file that does not exist.

21
IOError
Raised for operating system-related errors.

22
SyntaxError
Raised when there is an error in Python syntax.

23
IndentationError
Raised when indentation is not specified properly.

24
SystemError
Raised when the interpreter finds an internal problem, but when this error is
encountered the Python interpreter does not exit.

25
SystemExit
Raised when Python interpreter is quit by using the sys.exit() function. If not
handled in the code, causes the interpreter to exit.

26
TypeError
Raised when an operation or function is attempted that is invalid for the specified
data type.

27
ValueError
Raised when the built-in function for a data type has the valid type of arguments,
but the arguments have invalid values specified.
 28
RuntimeError
Raised when a generated error does not fall into any category.

29
NotImplementedError
Raised when an abstract method that needs to be implemented in an inherited
class is not actually implemented.

Assertions in Python
An assertion is a sanity-check that you can turn on or turn off when you are done with
your testing of the program.
The easiest way to think of an assertion is to liken it to a raise-if statement (or to be
more accurate, a raise-if-not statement). An expression is tested, and if the result
comes up false, an exception is raised.
Assertions are carried out by the assert statement, the newest keyword to Python,
introduced in version 1.5.
Programmers often place assertions at the start of a function to check for valid input,
and after a function call to check for valid output.
The assert Statement
When it encounters an assert statement, Python evaluates the accompanying
expression, which is hopefully true. If the expression is false, Python raises
an AssertionError exception.
The syntax for assert is −
assert Expression[, Arguments]
If the assertion fails, Python uses ArgumentExpression as the argument for the
AssertionError. AssertionError exceptions can be caught and handled like any other
exception using the try-except statement, but if not handled, they will terminate the
program and produce a traceback.
Example
Here is a function that converts a temperature from degrees Kelvin to degrees
Fahrenheit. Since zero degrees Kelvin is as cold as it gets, the function bails out if it
sees a negative temperature −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
def KelvinToFahrenheit(Temperature):
assert (Temperature >= 0),"Colder than absolute zero!"
return ((Temperature-273)*1.8)+32
print KelvinToFahrenheit(273)
print int(KelvinToFahrenheit(505.78))
print KelvinToFahrenheit(-5)

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

32.0
451
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 9, in <module>
print KelvinToFahrenheit(-5)
File "test.py", line 4, in KelvinToFahrenheit
assert (Temperature >= 0),"Colder than absolute zero!"
AssertionError: Colder than absolute zero!

What is Exception?
An exception is an event, which occurs during the execution of a program that disrupts
the normal flow of the program's instructions. In general, when a Python script
encounters a situation that it cannot cope with, it raises an exception. An exception is a
Python object that represents an error.
When a Python script raises an exception, it must either handle the exception
immediately otherwise it terminates and quits.

Handling an exception
If you have some suspicious code that may raise an exception, you can defend your
program by placing the suspicious code in a try: block. After the try: block, include
an except: statement, followed by a block of code which handles the problem as
elegantly as possible.
Syntax
Here is simple syntax of try....except...else blocks −
try:
You do your operations here;
......................
except ExceptionI:
If there is ExceptionI, then execute this block.
except ExceptionII:
If there is ExceptionII, then execute this block.
......................
else:
If there is no exception then execute this block.
Here are few important points about the above-mentioned syntax −
  A single try statement can have multiple except statements. This is useful when
the try block contains statements that may throw different types of exceptions.
 You can also provide a generic except clause, which handles any exception.
 After the except clause(s), you can include an else-clause. The code in the else-
block executes if the code in the try: block does not raise an exception.
 The else-block is a good place for code that does not need the try: block's
protection.
Example
This example opens a file, writes content in the, file and comes out gracefully because
there is no problem at all −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

try:
fh = open("testfile", "w")
fh.write("This is my test file for exception handling!!")
except IOError:
print "Error: can\'t find file or read data"
else:
print "Written content in the file successfully"
fh.close()

This produces the following result −

Written content in the file successfully
Example
This example tries to open a file where you do not have write permission, so it raises
an exception −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

try:
fh = open("testfile", "r")
fh.write("This is my test file for exception handling!!")
except IOError:
print "Error: can\'t find file or read data"
else:
print "Written content in the file successfully"

This produces the following result −

Error: can't find file or read data

The except Clause with No Exceptions

You can also use the except statement with no exceptions defined as follows −
try:
You do your operations here;
......................
except:
If there is any exception, then execute this block.
......................
else:
If there is no exception then execute this block.
This kind of a try-except statement catches all the exceptions that occur. Using this
kind of try-except statement is not considered a good programming practice though,
because it catches all exceptions but does not make the programmer identify the root
cause of the problem that may occur.

The except Clause with Multiple Exceptions

You can also use the same except statement to handle multiple exceptions as follows
−
try:
You do your operations here;
......................
except(Exception1[, Exception2[,...ExceptionN]]]):
If there is any exception from the given exception list,
then execute this block.
......................
else:
If there is no exception then execute this block.

The try-finally Clause

You can use a finally: block along with a try: block. The finally block is a place to put
any code that must execute, whether the try-block raised an exception or not. The
syntax of the try-finally statement is this −
try:
You do your operations here;
......................
Due to any exception, this may be skipped.
finally:
This would always be executed.
......................

You cannot use else clause as well along with a finally clause.
Example
Live Demo
#!/usr/bin/python

try:
fh = open("testfile", "w")
fh.write("This is my test file for exception handling!!")
finally:
print "Error: can\'t find file or read data"

If you do not have permission to open the file in writing mode, then this will produce the
following result −
Error: can't find file or read data
Same example can be written more cleanly as follows −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

try:
fh = open("testfile", "w")
try:
fh.write("This is my test file for exception handling!!")
finally:
print "Going to close the file"
fh.close()
except IOError:
print "Error: can\'t find file or read data"

When an exception is thrown in the try block, the execution immediately passes to
the finally block. After all the statements in the finally block are executed, the exception
is raised again and is handled in the except statements if present in the next higher
layer of the try-except statement.

Argument of an Exception
An exception can have an argument, which is a value that gives additional information
about the problem. The contents of the argument vary by exception. You capture an
exception's argument by supplying a variable in the except clause as follows −
try:
You do your operations here;
......................
except ExceptionType, Argument:
You can print value of Argument here...

If you write the code to handle a single exception, you can have a variable follow the
name of the exception in the except statement. If you are trapping multiple exceptions,
you can have a variable follow the tuple of the exception.
This variable receives the value of the exception mostly containing the cause of the
exception. The variable can receive a single value or multiple values in the form of a
tuple. This tuple usually contains the error string, the error number, and an error
location.
Example
Following is an example for a single exception −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

# Define a function here.

def temp_convert(var):
try:
return int(var)
except ValueError, Argument:
print "The argument does not contain numbers\n", Argument

# Call above function here.

temp_convert("xyz");

This produces the following result −

The argument does not contain numbers
invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'xyz'

Raising an Exceptions
You can raise exceptions in several ways by using the raise statement. The general
syntax for the raise statement is as follows.
Syntax
raise [Exception [, args [, traceback]]]
Here, Exception is the type of exception (for example, NameError) and argument is a
value for the exception argument. The argument is optional; if not supplied, the
exception argument is None.
The final argument, traceback, is also optional (and rarely used in practice), and if
present, is the traceback object used for the exception.
Example
An exception can be a string, a class or an object. Most of the exceptions that the
Python core raises are classes, with an argument that is an instance of the class.
Defining new exceptions is quite easy and can be done as follows −
def functionName( level ):
if level < 1:
raise "Invalid level!", level
 # The code below to this would not be executed
# if we raise the exception

Note: In order to catch an exception, an "except" clause must refer to the same
exception thrown either class object or simple string. For example, to capture above
exception, we must write the except clause as follows −
try:
Business Logic here...
except "Invalid level!":
Exception handling here...
else:
Rest of the code here...

User-Defined Exceptions
Python also allows you to create your own exceptions by deriving classes from the
standard built-in exceptions.
Here is an example related to RuntimeError. Here, a class is created that is subclassed
from RuntimeError. This is useful when you need to display more specific information
when an exception is caught.
In the try block, the user-defined exception is raised and caught in the except block.
The variable e is used to create an instance of the class Networkerror.
class Networkerror(RuntimeError):
def __init__(self, arg):
self.args = arg

So once you defined above class, you can raise the exception as follows −
try:
raise Networkerror("Bad hostname")
except Networkerror,e:
print e.args

Python has been an object-oriented language since it existed. Because of this, creating
and using classes and objects are downright easy. This chapter helps you become an
expert in using Python's object-oriented programming support.
If you do not have any previous experience with object-oriented (OO) programming,
you may want to consult an introductory course on it or at least a tutorial of some sort
so that you have a grasp of the basic concepts.
However, here is small introduction of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) to bring
you at speed −

Overview of OOP Terminology

  Class − A user-defined prototype for an object that defines a set of attributes
that characterize any object of the class. The attributes are data members (class
variables and instance variables) and methods, accessed via dot notation.
 Class variable − A variable that is shared by all instances of a class. Class
variables are defined within a class but outside any of the class's methods.
Class variables are not used as frequently as instance variables are.
 Data member − A class variable or instance variable that holds data associated
with a class and its objects.
 Function overloading − The assignment of more than one behavior to a
particular function. The operation performed varies by the types of objects or
arguments involved.
 Instance variable − A variable that is defined inside a method and belongs only
to the current instance of a class.
 Inheritance − The transfer of the characteristics of a class to other classes that
are derived from it.
 Instance − An individual object of a certain class. An object obj that belongs to a
class Circle, for example, is an instance of the class Circle.
 Instantiation − The creation of an instance of a class.
 Method − A special kind of function that is defined in a class definition.
 Object − A unique instance of a data structure that's defined by its class. An
object comprises both data members (class variables and instance variables)
and methods.
 Operator overloading − The assignment of more than one function to a
particular operator.

Creating Classes
The class statement creates a new class definition. The name of the class immediately
follows the keyword class followed by a colon as follows −
class ClassName:
'Optional class documentation string'
class_suite
 The class has a documentation string, which can be accessed
via ClassName.__doc__.
 The class_suite consists of all the component statements defining class
members, data attributes and functions.
Example
Following is the example of a simple Python class −
class Employee:
'Common base class for all employees'
empCount = 0

def __init__(self, name, salary):

self.name = name
 self.salary = salary
Employee.empCount += 1

def displayCount(self):
print "Total Employee %d" % Employee.empCount

def displayEmployee(self):
print "Name : ", self.name, ", Salary: ", self.salary

 The variable empCount is a class variable whose value is shared among all
instances of a this class. This can be accessed as Employee.empCount from
inside the class or outside the class.
 The first method __init__() is a special method, which is called class constructor
or initialization method that Python calls when you create a new instance of this
class.
 You declare other class methods like normal functions with the exception that
the first argument to each method is self. Python adds the self argument to the
list for you; you do not need to include it when you call the methods.

Creating Instance Objects

To create instances of a class, you call the class using class name and pass in
whatever arguments its __init__ method accepts.
"This would create first object of Employee class"
emp1 = Employee("Zara", 2000)
"This would create second object of Employee class"
emp2 = Employee("Manni", 5000)

Accessing Attributes
You access the object's attributes using the dot operator with object. Class variable
would be accessed using class name as follows −
emp1.displayEmployee()
emp2.displayEmployee()
print "Total Employee %d" % Employee.empCount
Now, putting all the concepts together −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

class Employee:
'Common base class for all employees'
empCount = 0

def __init__(self, name, salary):

 self.name = name
self.salary = salary
Employee.empCount += 1

def displayCount(self):
print "Total Employee %d" % Employee.empCount

def displayEmployee(self):
print "Name : ", self.name, ", Salary: ", self.salary

"This would create first object of Employee class"

emp1 = Employee("Zara", 2000)
"This would create second object of Employee class"
emp2 = Employee("Manni", 5000)
emp1.displayEmployee()
emp2.displayEmployee()
print "Total Employee %d" % Employee.empCount

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Name : Zara ,Salary: 2000
Name : Manni ,Salary: 5000
Total Employee 2
You can add, remove, or modify attributes of classes and objects at any time −
emp1.age = 7 # Add an 'age' attribute.
emp1.age = 8 # Modify 'age' attribute.
del emp1.age # Delete 'age' attribute.
Instead of using the normal statements to access attributes, you can use the following
functions −
 The getattr(obj, name[, default]) − to access the attribute of object.
 The hasattr(obj,name) − to check if an attribute exists or not.
 The setattr(obj,name,value) − to set an attribute. If attribute does not exist, then
it would be created.
 The delattr(obj, name) − to delete an attribute.
hasattr(emp1, 'age') # Returns true if 'age' attribute exists
getattr(emp1, 'age') # Returns value of 'age' attribute
setattr(emp1, 'age', 8) # Set attribute 'age' at 8
delattr(empl, 'age') # Delete attribute 'age'

Built-In Class Attributes

Every Python class keeps following built-in attributes and they can be accessed using
dot operator like any other attribute −
 __dict__ − Dictionary containing the class's namespace.
 __doc__ − Class documentation string or none, if undefined.
  __name__ − Class name.
 __module__ − Module name in which the class is defined. This attribute is
"__main__" in interactive mode.
 __bases__ − A possibly empty tuple containing the base classes, in the order of
their occurrence in the base class list.
For the above class let us try to access all these attributes −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

class Employee:
'Common base class for all employees'
empCount = 0

def __init__(self, name, salary):

self.name = name
self.salary = salary
Employee.empCount += 1

def displayCount(self):
print "Total Employee %d" % Employee.empCount

def displayEmployee(self):
print "Name : ", self.name, ", Salary: ", self.salary

print "Employee.__doc__:", Employee.__doc__

print "Employee.__name__:", Employee.__name__
print "Employee.__module__:", Employee.__module__
print "Employee.__bases__:", Employee.__bases__
print "Employee.__dict__:", Employee.__dict__

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Employee.__doc__: Common base class for all employees
Employee.__name__: Employee
Employee.__module__: __main__
Employee.__bases__: ()
Employee.__dict__: {'__module__': '__main__', 'displayCount':
<function displayCount at 0xb7c84994>, 'empCount': 2,
'displayEmployee': <function displayEmployee at 0xb7c8441c>,
'__doc__': 'Common base class for all employees',
'__init__': <function __init__ at 0xb7c846bc>}

Destroying Objects (Garbage Collection)

Python deletes unneeded objects (built-in types or class instances) automatically to
free the memory space. The process by which Python periodically reclaims blocks of
memory that no longer are in use is termed Garbage Collection.
Python's garbage collector runs during program execution and is triggered when an
object's reference count reaches zero. An object's reference count changes as the
number of aliases that point to it changes.
An object's reference count increases when it is assigned a new name or placed in a
container (list, tuple, or dictionary). The object's reference count decreases when it's
deleted with del, its reference is reassigned, or its reference goes out of scope. When
an object's reference count reaches zero, Python collects it automatically.
a = 40 # Create object <40>
b = a # Increase ref. count of <40>
c = [b] # Increase ref. count of <40>

del a # Decrease ref. count of <40>

b = 100 # Decrease ref. count of <40>
c[0] = -1 # Decrease ref. count of <40>
You normally will not notice when the garbage collector destroys an orphaned instance
and reclaims its space. But a class can implement the special method __del__(), called
a destructor, that is invoked when the instance is about to be destroyed. This method
might be used to clean up any non memory resources used by an instance.
Example
This __del__() destructor prints the class name of an instance that is about to be
destroyed −
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

class Point:
def __init__( self, x=0, y=0):
self.x = x
self.y = y
def __del__(self):
class_name = self.__class__.__name__
print class_name, "destroyed"

pt1 = Point()
pt2 = pt1
pt3 = pt1
print id(pt1), id(pt2), id(pt3) # prints the ids of the obejcts
del pt1
del pt2
del pt3
When the above code is executed, it produces following result −
3083401324 3083401324 3083401324
Point destroyed
Note − Ideally, you should define your classes in separate file, then you should import
them in your main program file using import statement.

Class Inheritance
Instead of starting from scratch, you can create a class by deriving it from a preexisting
class by listing the parent class in parentheses after the new class name.
The child class inherits the attributes of its parent class, and you can use those
attributes as if they were defined in the child class. A child class can also override data
members and methods from the parent.
Syntax
Derived classes are declared much like their parent class; however, a list of base
classes to inherit from is given after the class name −
class SubClassName (ParentClass1[, ParentClass2, ...]):
'Optional class documentation string'
class_suite
Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

class Parent: # define parent class

parentAttr = 100
def __init__(self):
print "Calling parent constructor"

def parentMethod(self):
print 'Calling parent method'

def setAttr(self, attr):

Parent.parentAttr = attr

def getAttr(self):
print "Parent attribute :", Parent.parentAttr

class Child(Parent): # define child class

def __init__(self):
print "Calling child constructor"

def childMethod(self):
 print 'Calling child method'

c = Child() # instance of child

c.childMethod() # child calls its method
c.parentMethod() # calls parent's method
c.setAttr(200) # again call parent's method
c.getAttr() # again call parent's method

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Calling child constructor
Calling child method
Calling parent method
Parent attribute : 200
Similar way, you can drive a class from multiple parent classes as follows −
class A: # define your class A
.....

class B: # define your class B

.....

class C(A, B): # subclass of A and B

.....
You can use issubclass() or isinstance() functions to check a relationships of two
classes and instances.
 The issubclass(sub, sup) boolean function returns true if the given
subclass sub is indeed a subclass of the superclass sup.
 The isinstance(obj, Class) boolean function returns true if obj is an instance of
class Class or is an instance of a subclass of Class

Overriding Methods
You can always override your parent class methods. One reason for overriding
parent's methods is because you may want special or different functionality in your
subclass.
Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

class Parent: # define parent class

def myMethod(self):
print 'Calling parent method'

class Child(Parent): # define child class

 def myMethod(self):
print 'Calling child method'

c = Child() # instance of child

c.myMethod() # child calls overridden method

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Calling child method

Base Overloading Methods

Following table lists some generic functionality that you can override in your own
classes −

Sr.No Method, Description & Sample Call

.

1
__init__ ( self [,args...] )
Constructor (with any optional arguments)
Sample Call : obj = className(args)

2
__del__( self )
Destructor, deletes an object
Sample Call : del obj

3
__repr__( self )
Evaluable string representation
Sample Call : repr(obj)

4
__str__( self )
Printable string representation
Sample Call : str(obj)

5
__cmp__ ( self, x )
Object comparison
 Sample Call : cmp(obj, x)

Overloading Operators
Suppose you have created a Vector class to represent two-dimensional vectors, what
happens when you use the plus operator to add them? Most likely Python will yell at
you.
You could, however, define the __add__ method in your class to perform vector
addition and then the plus operator would behave as per expectation −
Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python

class Vector:
def __init__(self, a, b):
self.a = a
self.b = b

def __str__(self):
return 'Vector (%d, %d)' % (self.a, self.b)

def __add__(self,other):
return Vector(self.a + other.a, self.b + other.b)

v1 = Vector(2,10)
v2 = Vector(5,-2)
print v1 + v2

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Vector(7,8)

Data Hiding
An object's attributes may or may not be visible outside the class definition. You need
to name attributes with a double underscore prefix, and those attributes then are not be
directly visible to outsiders.
Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
class JustCounter:
__secretCount = 0

def count(self):
self.__secretCount += 1
print self.__secretCount

counter = JustCounter()
counter.count()
counter.count()
print counter.__secretCount

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

1
2
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 12, in <module>
print counter.__secretCount
AttributeError: JustCounter instance has no attribute
'__secretCount'
Python protects those members by internally changing the name to include the class
name. You can access such attributes as object._className__attrName. If you would
replace your last line as following, then it works for you −
.........................
print counter._JustCounter__secretCount
When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −
1
2
2
A regular expression is a special sequence of characters that helps you match or find
other strings or sets of strings, using a specialized syntax held in a pattern. Regular
expressions are widely used in UNIX world.
The Python module re provides full support for Perl-like regular expressions in Python.
The re module raises the exception re.error if an error occurs while compiling or using
a regular expression.
We would cover two important functions, which would be used to handle regular
expressions. But a small thing first: There are various characters, which would have
special meaning when they are used in regular expression. To avoid any confusion
while dealing with regular expressions, we would use Raw Strings as r'expression'.

The match Function

This function attempts to match RE pattern to string with optional flags.
Here is the syntax for this function −
re.match(pattern, string, flags=0)
Here is the description of the parameters −

Sr.No Parameter & Description

.

1
pattern
This is the regular expression to be matched.

2
string
This is the string, which would be searched to match the pattern at the beginning
of string.

3
flags
You can specify different flags using bitwise OR (|). These are modifiers, which
are listed in the table below.

The re.match function returns a match object on success, None on failure. We

usegroup(num) or groups() function of match object to get matched expression.

Sr.No Match Object Method & Description

.

1
group(num=0)
This method returns entire match (or specific subgroup num)

2
groups()
This method returns all matching subgroups in a tuple (empty if there weren't any)

Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
import re

line = "Cats are smarter than dogs"

matchObj = re.match( r'(.*) are (.*?) .*', line, re.M|re.I)

if matchObj:
print "matchObj.group() : ", matchObj.group()
print "matchObj.group(1) : ", matchObj.group(1)
print "matchObj.group(2) : ", matchObj.group(2)
else:
print "No match!!"

When the above code is executed, it produces following result −

matchObj.group() : Cats are smarter than dogs
matchObj.group(1) : Cats
matchObj.group(2) : smarter

The search Function

This function searches for first occurrence of RE pattern within string with
optional flags.
Here is the syntax for this function −
re.search(pattern, string, flags=0)
Here is the description of the parameters −

Sr.No Parameter & Description

.

1
pattern
This is the regular expression to be matched.

2
string
This is the string, which would be searched to match the pattern anywhere in the
string.

3
flags
You can specify different flags using bitwise OR (|). These are modifiers, which
are listed in the table below.

The re.search function returns a match object on success, none on failure. We

use group(num) or groups() function of match object to get matched expression.
 Sr.No Match Object Methods & Description
.

1
group(num=0)
This method returns entire match (or specific subgroup num)

2
groups()
This method returns all matching subgroups in a tuple (empty if there weren't any)

Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
import re

line = "Cats are smarter than dogs";

searchObj = re.search( r'(.*) are (.*?) .*', line, re.M|re.I)

if searchObj:
print "searchObj.group() : ", searchObj.group()
print "searchObj.group(1) : ", searchObj.group(1)
print "searchObj.group(2) : ", searchObj.group(2)
else:
print "Nothing found!!"

When the above code is executed, it produces following result −

searchObj.group() : Cats are smarter than dogs
searchObj.group(1) : Cats
searchObj.group(2) : smarter

Matching Versus Searching

Python offers two different primitive operations based on regular
expressions: match checks for a match only at the beginning of the string,
while search checks for a match anywhere in the string (this is what Perl does by
default).
Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
import re
line = "Cats are smarter than dogs";

matchObj = re.match( r'dogs', line, re.M|re.I)

if matchObj:
print "match --> matchObj.group() : ", matchObj.group()
else:
print "No match!!"

searchObj = re.search( r'dogs', line, re.M|re.I)

if searchObj:
print "search --> searchObj.group() : ", searchObj.group()
else:
print "Nothing found!!"

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

No match!!
search --> searchObj.group() : dogs

Search and Replace

One of the most important re methods that use regular expressions is sub.
Syntax
re.sub(pattern, repl, string, max=0)
This method replaces all occurrences of the RE pattern in string with repl, substituting
all occurrences unless max provided. This method returns modified string.
Example
Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/python
import re

phone = "2004-959-559 # This is Phone Number"

# Delete Python-style comments

num = re.sub(r'#.*$', "", phone)
print "Phone Num : ", num

# Remove anything other than digits

num = re.sub(r'\D', "", phone)
print "Phone Num : ", num

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

Phone Num : 2004-959-559
Phone Num : 2004959559
Regular Expression Modifiers: Option Flags
Regular expression literals may include an optional modifier to control various aspects
of matching. The modifiers are specified as an optional flag. You can provide multiple
modifiers using exclusive OR (|), as shown previously and may be represented by one
of these −

Sr.No Modifier & Description

.

1
re.I
Performs case-insensitive matching.

2
re.L
Interprets words according to the current locale. This interpretation affects the
alphabetic group (\w and \W), as well as word boundary behavior(\b and \B).

3
re.M
Makes $ match the end of a line (not just the end of the string) and makes ^
match the start of any line (not just the start of the string).

4
re.S
Makes a period (dot) match any character, including a newline.

5
re.U
Interprets letters according to the Unicode character set. This flag affects the
behavior of \w, \W, \b, \B.

6
re.X
Permits "cuter" regular expression syntax. It ignores whitespace (except inside a
set [] or when escaped by a backslash) and treats unescaped # as a comment
marker.

Regular Expression Patterns

Except for control characters, (+ ? . * ^ $ ( ) [ ] { } | \), all characters match themselves.
You can escape a control character by preceding it with a backslash.
Following table lists the regular expression syntax that is available in Python −

Sr.No Pattern & Description

.

1
^
Matches beginning of line.

2
$
Matches end of line.

3
.
Matches any single character except newline. Using m option allows it to match
newline as well.

4
[...]
Matches any single character in brackets.

5
[^...]
Matches any single character not in brackets

6
re*
Matches 0 or more occurrences of preceding expression.

7
re+
Matches 1 or more occurrence of preceding expression.

8
re?
Matches 0 or 1 occurrence of preceding expression.

9
re{ n}
 Matches exactly n number of occurrences of preceding expression.

10
re{ n,}
Matches n or more occurrences of preceding expression.

11
re{ n, m}
Matches at least n and at most m occurrences of preceding expression.

12
a| b
Matches either a or b.

13
(re)
Groups regular expressions and remembers matched text.

14
(?imx)
Temporarily toggles on i, m, or x options within a regular expression. If in
parentheses, only that area is affected.

15
(?-imx)
Temporarily toggles off i, m, or x options within a regular expression. If in
parentheses, only that area is affected.

16
(?: re)
Groups regular expressions without remembering matched text.

17
(?imx: re)
Temporarily toggles on i, m, or x options within parentheses.

18
(?-imx: re)
Temporarily toggles off i, m, or x options within parentheses.
19
(?#...)
Comment.

20
(?= re)
Specifies position using a pattern. Doesn't have a range.

21
(?! re)
Specifies position using pattern negation. Doesn't have a range.

22
(?> re)
Matches independent pattern without backtracking.

23
\w
Matches word characters.

24
\W
Matches nonword characters.

25
\s
Matches whitespace. Equivalent to [\t\n\r\f].

26
\S
Matches nonwhitespace.

27
\d
Matches digits. Equivalent to [0-9].

28
\D
Matches nondigits.

29
\A
 Matches beginning of string.

30
\Z
Matches end of string. If a newline exists, it matches just before newline.

31
\z
Matches end of string.

32
\G
Matches point where last match finished.

33
\b
Matches word boundaries when outside brackets. Matches backspace (0x08)
when inside brackets.

34
\B
Matches nonword boundaries.

35
\n, \t, etc.
Matches newlines, carriage returns, tabs, etc.

36
\1...\9
Matches nth grouped subexpression.

37
\10
Matches nth grouped subexpression if it matched already. Otherwise refers to the
octal representation of a character code.

Regular Expression Examples

Literal characters
Sr.No Example & Description
 .

1
python
Match "python".

Character classes
Sr.No Example & Description
.

1
[Pp]ython
Match "Python" or "python"

2
rub[ye]
Match "ruby" or "rube"

3
[aeiou]
Match any one lowercase vowel

4
[0-9]
Match any digit; same as [0123456789]

5
[a-z]
Match any lowercase ASCII letter

6
[A-Z]
Match any uppercase ASCII letter

7
[a-zA-Z0-9]
Match any of the above
8
[^aeiou]
Match anything other than a lowercase vowel

9
[^0-9]
Match anything other than a digit

Special Character Classes

Sr.No Example & Description
.

1
.
Match any character except newline

2
\d
Match a digit: [0-9]

3
\D
Match a nondigit: [^0-9]

4
\s
Match a whitespace character: [ \t\r\n\f]

5
\S
Match nonwhitespace: [^ \t\r\n\f]

6
\w
Match a single word character: [A-Za-z0-9_]

7
\W
 Match a nonword character: [^A-Za-z0-9_]

Repetition Cases
Sr.No Example & Description
.

1
ruby?
Match "rub" or "ruby": the y is optional

2
ruby*
Match "rub" plus 0 or more ys

3
ruby+
Match "rub" plus 1 or more ys

4
\d{3}
Match exactly 3 digits

5
\d{3,}
Match 3 or more digits

6
\d{3,5}
Match 3, 4, or 5 digits

Nongreedy repetition
This matches the smallest number of repetitions −

Sr.No. Example & Description

1
<.*>
Greedy repetition: matches "<python>perl>"

2
<.*?>
Nongreedy: matches "<python>" in "<python>perl>"

Grouping with Parentheses

Sr.No Example & Description
.

1
\D\d+
No group: + repeats \d

2
(\D\d)+
Grouped: + repeats \D\d pair

3
([Pp]ython(, )?)+
Match "Python", "Python, python, python", etc.

Backreferences
This matches a previously matched group again −

Sr.No Example & Description

.

1
([Pp])ython&\1ails
Match python&pails or Python&Pails

2
(['"])[^\1]*\1
 Single or double-quoted string. \1 matches whatever the 1st group matched. \2
matches whatever the 2nd group matched, etc.

Alternatives
Sr.No Example & Description
.

1
python|perl
Match "python" or "perl"

2
rub(y|le))
Match "ruby" or "ruble"

3
Python(!+|\?)
"Python" followed by one or more ! or one ?

Anchors
This needs to specify match position.

Sr.No Example & Description

.

1
^Python
Match "Python" at the start of a string or internal line

2
Python$
Match "Python" at the end of a string or line

3
\APython
Match "Python" at the start of a string
4
Python\Z
Match "Python" at the end of a string

5
\bPython\b
Match "Python" at a word boundary

6
\brub\B
\B is nonword boundary: match "rub" in "rube" and "ruby" but not alone

7
Python(?=!)
Match "Python", if followed by an exclamation point.

8
Python(?!!)
Match "Python", if not followed by an exclamation point.

Special Syntax with Parentheses

Sr.No Example & Description
.

1
R(?#comment)
Matches "R". All the rest is a comment

2
R(?i)uby
Case-insensitive while matching "uby"

3
R(?i:uby)
Same as above

4
rub(?:y|le))
 Group only without creating \1 backreference

The Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a set of standards that define how
information is exchanged between the web server and a custom script. The CGI specs
are currently maintained by the NCSA.

What is CGI?
 The Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a standard for external gateway
programs to interface with information servers such as HTTP servers.
 The current version is CGI/1.1 and CGI/1.2 is under progress.

Web Browsing
To understand the concept of CGI, let us see what happens when we click a hyper link
to browse a particular web page or URL.
 Your browser contacts the HTTP web server and demands for the URL, i.e.,
filename.
 Web Server parses the URL and looks for the filename. If it finds that file then
sends it back to the browser, otherwise sends an error message indicating that
you requested a wrong file.
 Web browser takes response from web server and displays either the received
file or error message.
However, it is possible to set up the HTTP server so that whenever a file in a certain
directory is requested that file is not sent back; instead it is executed as a program, and
whatever that program outputs is sent back for your browser to display. This function is
called the Common Gateway Interface or CGI and the programs are called CGI scripts.
These CGI programs can be a Python Script, PERL Script, Shell Script, C or C++
program, etc.

CGI Architecture Diagram

Web Server Support and Configuration
Before you proceed with CGI Programming, make sure that your Web Server supports
CGI and it is configured to handle CGI Programs. All the CGI Programs to be executed
by the HTTP server are kept in a pre-configured directory. This directory is called CGI
Directory and by convention it is named as /var/www/cgi-bin. By convention, CGI files
have extension as. cgi, but you can keep your files with python extension .py as well.
By default, the Linux server is configured to run only the scripts in the cgi-bin directory
in /var/www. If you want to specify any other directory to run your CGI scripts, comment
the following lines in the httpd.conf file −
<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
AllowOverride None
Options ExecCGI
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
Options All
</Directory>

Here, we assume that you have Web Server up and running successfully and you are
able to run any other CGI program like Perl or Shell, etc.

First CGI Program

Here is a simple link, which is linked to a CGI script called hello.py. This file is kept in
/var/www/cgi-bin directory and it has following content. Before running your CGI
program, make sure you have change mode of file using chmod 755 hello.py UNIX
command to make file executable.
#!/usr/bin/python

print "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n"
print '<html>'
print '<head>'
print '<title>Hello World - First CGI Program</title>'
print '</head>'
print '<body>'
print '<h2>Hello World! This is my first CGI program</h2>'
print '</body>'
print '</html>'

If you click hello.py, then this produces the following output −

Hello World! This is my first CGI program

This hello.py script is a simple Python script, which writes its output on STDOUT file,
i.e., screen. There is one important and extra feature available which is first line to be
printed Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n. This line is sent back to the browser and it
specifies the content type to be displayed on the browser screen.
By now you must have understood basic concept of CGI and you can write many
complicated CGI programs using Python. This script can interact with any other
external system also to exchange information such as RDBMS.

HTTP Header
The line Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n is part of HTTP header which is sent to the
browser to understand the content. All the HTTP header will be in the following form −
HTTP Field Name: Field Content

For Example
Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n
There are few other important HTTP headers, which you will use frequently in your CGI
Programming.

Sr.No. Header & Description

1 Content-type:
A MIME string defining the format of the file being returned. Example is Content-
type:text/html

2 Expires: Date
The date the information becomes invalid. It is used by the browser to decide
when a page needs to be refreshed. A valid date string is in the format 01 Jan
1998 12:00:00 GMT.

3 Location: URL
The URL that is returned instead of the URL requested. You can use this field to
redirect a request to any file.

4 Last-modified: Date
The date of last modification of the resource.

5 Content-length: N
The length, in bytes, of the data being returned. The browser uses this value to
report the estimated download time for a file.

6 Set-Cookie: String
Set the cookie passed through the string

CGI Environment Variables

All the CGI programs have access to the following environment variables. These
variables play an important role while writing any CGI program.

Sr.No. Variable Name & Description

1 CONTENT_TYPE
The data type of the content. Used when the client is sending attached content to
the server. For example, file upload.

2 CONTENT_LENGTH
The length of the query information. It is available only for POST requests.

3 HTTP_COOKIE
Returns the set cookies in the form of key & value pair.

4 HTTP_USER_AGENT
The User-Agent request-header field contains information about the user agent
originating the request. It is name of the web browser.

5 PATH_INFO
The path for the CGI script.

6 QUERY_STRING
The URL-encoded information that is sent with GET method request.

7 REMOTE_ADDR
The IP address of the remote host making the request. This is useful logging or
for authentication.

8 REMOTE_HOST
The fully qualified name of the host making the request. If this information is not
available, then REMOTE_ADDR can be used to get IR address.

9 REQUEST_METHOD
The method used to make the request. The most common methods are GET and
POST.
10 SCRIPT_FILENAME
The full path to the CGI script.

11 SCRIPT_NAME
The name of the CGI script.

12 SERVER_NAME
The server's hostname or IP Address

13 SERVER_SOFTWARE
The name and version of the software the server is running.

Here is small CGI program to list out all the CGI variables. Click this link to see the
result Get Environment
#!/usr/bin/python

import os

print "Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n";

print "<font size=+1>Environment</font><\br>";
for param in os.environ.keys():
print "<b>%20s</b>: %s<\br>" % (param, os.environ[param])

GET and POST Methods

You must have come across many situations when you need to pass some information
from your browser to web server and ultimately to your CGI Program. Most frequently,
browser uses two methods two pass this information to web server. These methods
are GET Method and POST Method.

Passing Information using GET method

The GET method sends the encoded user information appended to the page request.
The page and the encoded information are separated by the ? character as follows −
http://www.test.com/cgi-bin/hello.py?key1=value1&key2=value2
The GET method is the default method to pass information from browser to web server
and it produces a long string that appears in your browser's Location:box. Never use
GET method if you have password or other sensitive information to pass to the server.
The GET method has size limitation: only 1024 characters can be sent in a request
string. The GET method sends information using QUERY_STRING header and will be
accessible in your CGI Program through QUERY_STRING environment variable.
You can pass information by simply concatenating key and value pairs along with any
URL or you can use HTML <FORM> tags to pass information using GET method.

Simple URL Example:Get Method

Here is a simple URL, which passes two values to hello_get.py program using GET
method.
/cgi-bin/hello_get.py?first_name=ZARA&last_name=ALI
Below is hello_get.py script to handle input given by web browser. We are going to
use cgi module, which makes it very easy to access passed information −
#!/usr/bin/python

# Import modules for CGI handling

import cgi, cgitb

# Create instance of FieldStorage

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

# Get data from fields

first_name = form.getvalue('first_name')
last_name = form.getvalue('last_name')

print "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n"
print "<html>"
print "<head>"
print "<title>Hello - Second CGI Program</title>"
print "</head>"
print "<body>"
print "<h2>Hello %s %s</h2>" % (first_name, last_name)
print "</body>"
print "</html>"

This would generate the following result −

Hello ZARA ALI

Simple FORM Example:GET Method

This example passes two values using HTML FORM and submit button. We use same
CGI script hello_get.py to handle this input.
<form action = "/cgi-bin/hello_get.py" method = "get">
First Name: <input type = "text" name = "first_name"> <br />

Last Name: <input type = "text" name = "last_name" />

<input type = "submit" value = "Submit" />
</form>

Here is the actual output of the above form, you enter First and Last Name and then
click submit button to see the result.

First Name:
Submit
Last Name:
Passing Information Using POST Method
A generally more reliable method of passing information to a CGI program is the POST
method. This packages the information in exactly the same way as GET methods, but
instead of sending it as a text string after a ? in the URL it sends it as a separate
message. This message comes into the CGI script in the form of the standard input.
Below is same hello_get.py script which handles GET as well as POST method.
#!/usr/bin/python

# Import modules for CGI handling

import cgi, cgitb

# Create instance of FieldStorage

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

# Get data from fields

first_name = form.getvalue('first_name')
last_name = form.getvalue('last_name')

print "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n"
print "<html>"
print "<head>"
print "<title>Hello - Second CGI Program</title>"
print "</head>"
print "<body>"
print "<h2>Hello %s %s</h2>" % (first_name, last_name)
print "</body>"
print "</html>"

Let us take again same example as above which passes two values using HTML
FORM and submit button. We use same CGI script hello_get.py to handle this input.
<form action = "/cgi-bin/hello_get.py" method = "post">
First Name: <input type = "text" name = "first_name"><br />
Last Name: <input type = "text" name = "last_name" />
<input type = "submit" value = "Submit" />
</form>

Here is the actual output of the above form. You enter First and Last Name and then
click submit button to see the result.

First Name:
Submit
Last Name:
Passing Checkbox Data to CGI Program
Checkboxes are used when more than one option is required to be selected.
Here is example HTML code for a form with two checkboxes −
<form action = "/cgi-bin/checkbox.cgi" method = "POST" target =
"_blank">
<input type = "checkbox" name = "maths" value = "on" /> Maths
<input type = "checkbox" name = "physics" value = "on" /> Physics
<input type = "submit" value = "Select Subject" />
</form>

The result of this code is the following form −

Select Subject
Maths Physics
Below is checkbox.cgi script to handle input given by web browser for checkbox button.
#!/usr/bin/python

# Import modules for CGI handling

import cgi, cgitb

# Create instance of FieldStorage

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

# Get data from fields

if form.getvalue('maths'):
math_flag = "ON"
else:
math_flag = "OFF"

if form.getvalue('physics'):
physics_flag = "ON"
else:
physics_flag = "OFF"

print "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n"
print "<html>"
print "<head>"
print "<title>Checkbox - Third CGI Program</title>"
print "</head>"
print "<body>"
print "<h2> CheckBox Maths is : %s</h2>" % math_flag
print "<h2> CheckBox Physics is : %s</h2>" % physics_flag
print "</body>"
print "</html>"

Passing Radio Button Data to CGI Program

Radio Buttons are used when only one option is required to be selected.
Here is example HTML code for a form with two radio buttons −
<form action = "/cgi-bin/radiobutton.py" method = "post" target =
"_blank">
<input type = "radio" name = "subject" value = "maths" /> Maths
<input type = "radio" name = "subject" value = "physics" /> Physics
<input type = "submit" value = "Select Subject" />
</form>

The result of this code is the following form −

Select Subject
Maths Physics
Below is radiobutton.py script to handle input given by web browser for radio button −
#!/usr/bin/python

# Import modules for CGI handling

import cgi, cgitb

# Create instance of FieldStorage

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

# Get data from fields

if form.getvalue('subject'):
subject = form.getvalue('subject')
else:
subject = "Not set"

print "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n"
print "<html>"
print "<head>"
print "<title>Radio - Fourth CGI Program</title>"
print "</head>"
print "<body>"
print "<h2> Selected Subject is %s</h2>" % subject
print "</body>"
print "</html>"
Passing Text Area Data to CGI Program
TEXTAREA element is used when multiline text has to be passed to the CGI Program.
Here is example HTML code for a form with a TEXTAREA box −
<form action = "/cgi-bin/textarea.py" method = "post" target =
"_blank">
<textarea name = "textcontent" cols = "40" rows = "4">
Type your text here...
</textarea>
<input type = "submit" value = "Submit" />
</form>

The result of this code is the following form −

Submit

Below is textarea.cgi script to handle input given by web browser −

#!/usr/bin/python

# Import modules for CGI handling

import cgi, cgitb

# Create instance of FieldStorage

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

# Get data from fields

if form.getvalue('textcontent'):
text_content = form.getvalue('textcontent')
else:
text_content = "Not entered"

print "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n"
print "<html>"
print "<head>";
print "<title>Text Area - Fifth CGI Program</title>"
print "</head>"
print "<body>"
print "<h2> Entered Text Content is %s</h2>" % text_content
print "</body>"

Passing Drop Down Box Data to CGI Program

Drop Down Box is used when we have many options available but only one or two will
be selected.
Here is example HTML code for a form with one drop down box −
<form action = "/cgi-bin/dropdown.py" method = "post" target =
"_blank">
<select name = "dropdown">
<option value = "Maths" selected>Maths</option>
<option value = "Physics">Physics</option>
</select>
<input type = "submit" value = "Submit"/>
</form>

The result of this code is the following form −

Maths Submit

Below is dropdown.py script to handle input given by web browser.

#!/usr/bin/python

# Import modules for CGI handling

import cgi, cgitb

# Create instance of FieldStorage

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

# Get data from fields

if form.getvalue('dropdown'):
subject = form.getvalue('dropdown')
else:
subject = "Not entered"

print "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n"
print "<html>"
print "<head>"
print "<title>Dropdown Box - Sixth CGI Program</title>"
print "</head>"
print "<body>"
print "<h2> Selected Subject is %s</h2>" % subject
print "</body>"
print "</html>"

Using Cookies in CGI

HTTP protocol is a stateless protocol. For a commercial website, it is required to
maintain session information among different pages. For example, one user
registration ends after completing many pages. How to maintain user's session
information across all the web pages?
In many situations, using cookies is the most efficient method of remembering and
tracking preferences, purchases, commissions, and other information required for
better visitor experience or site statistics.

How It Works?
Your server sends some data to the visitor's browser in the form of a cookie. The
browser may accept the cookie. If it does, it is stored as a plain text record on the
visitor's hard drive. Now, when the visitor arrives at another page on your site, the
cookie is available for retrieval. Once retrieved, your server knows/remembers what
was stored.
Cookies are a plain text data record of 5 variable-length fields −
 Expires − The date the cookie will expire. If this is blank, the cookie will expire
when the visitor quits the browser.
 Domain − The domain name of your site.
 Path − The path to the directory or web page that sets the cookie. This may be
blank if you want to retrieve the cookie from any directory or page.
 Secure − If this field contains the word "secure", then the cookie may only be
retrieved with a secure server. If this field is blank, no such restriction exists.
 Name=Value − Cookies are set and retrieved in the form of key and value pairs.

Setting up Cookies
It is very easy to send cookies to browser. These cookies are sent along with HTTP
Header before to Content-type field. Assuming you want to set UserID and Password
as cookies. Setting the cookies is done as follows −
#!/usr/bin/python

print "Set-Cookie:UserID = XYZ;\r\n"

print "Set-Cookie:Password = XYZ123;\r\n"
print "Set-Cookie:Expires = Tuesday, 31-Dec-2007 23:12:40 GMT";\r\
n"
print "Set-Cookie:Domain = www.tutorialspoint.com;\r\n"
print "Set-Cookie:Path = /perl;\n"
print "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n"
...........Rest of the HTML Content....

From this example, you must have understood how to set cookies. We use Set-
Cookie HTTP header to set cookies.
It is optional to set cookies attributes like Expires, Domain, and Path. It is notable that
cookies are set before sending magic line "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n.
Retrieving Cookies
It is very easy to retrieve all the set cookies. Cookies are stored in CGI environment
variable HTTP_COOKIE and they will have following form −
key1 = value1;key2 = value2;key3 = value3....
Here is an example of how to retrieve cookies.
#!/usr/bin/python

# Import modules for CGI handling

from os import environ
import cgi, cgitb

if environ.has_key('HTTP_COOKIE'):
for cookie in map(strip, split(environ['HTTP_COOKIE'], ';')):
(key, value ) = split(cookie, '=');
if key == "UserID":
user_id = value

if key == "Password":
password = value

print "User ID = %s" % user_id

print "Password = %s" % password

This produces the following result for the cookies set by above script −
User ID = XYZ
Password = XYZ123

File Upload Example

To upload a file, the HTML form must have the enctype attribute set to multipart/form-
data. The input tag with the file type creates a "Browse" button.
<html>
<body>
<form enctype = "multipart/form-data"
action = "save_file.py" method = "post">
<p>File: <input type = "file" name = "filename" /></p>
<p><input type = "submit" value = "Upload" /></p>
</form>
</body>
</html>

The result of this code is the following form −

File:
 Upload

Above example has been disabled intentionally to save people uploading file on our
server, but you can try above code with your server.
Here is the script save_file.py to handle file upload −
#!/usr/bin/python

import cgi, os
import cgitb; cgitb.enable()

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

# Get filename here.

fileitem = form['filename']

# Test if the file was uploaded

if fileitem.filename:
# strip leading path from file name to avoid
# directory traversal attacks
fn = os.path.basename(fileitem.filename)
open('/tmp/' + fn, 'wb').write(fileitem.file.read())

message = 'The file "' + fn + '" was uploaded successfully'

else:
message = 'No file was uploaded'

print """\
Content-Type: text/html\n
<html>
<body>
<p>%s</p>
</body>
</html>
""" % (message,)

If you run the above script on Unix/Linux, then you need to take care of replacing file
separator as follows, otherwise on your windows machine above open() statement
should work fine.
fn = os.path.basename(fileitem.filename.replace("\\", "/" ))

How To Raise a "File Download" Dialog Box?

Sometimes, it is desired that you want to give option where a user can click a link and it
will pop up a "File Download" dialogue box to the user instead of displaying actual
content. This is very easy and can be achieved through HTTP header. This HTTP
header is be different from the header mentioned in previous section.
For example, if you want make a FileName file downloadable from a given link, then its
syntax is as follows −
#!/usr/bin/python

# HTTP Header
print "Content-Type:application/octet-stream; name = \"FileName\"\
r\n";
print "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename = \"FileName\"\r\
n\n";

# Actual File Content will go here.

fo = open("foo.txt", "rb")

str = fo.read();
print str

# Close opend file

fo.close()

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