Python in a Nutshell, Second Edition (In a Nutshell) Second Edition

by Alex Martelli (Author)

32 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0596100469

ISBN-10: 0596100469

Why is ISBN important?

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Share <Embed>

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$16.00 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Condition: Used - Good

In Stock. Sold by wrookie, Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

62 Used from $1.84

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$28.27 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it Saturday, Oct. 22? Order within and choose Saturday Delivery at checkout. Details

List Price: $39.99 Save: $11.72 (29%)

48 New from $15.95

FREE Shipping.

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Ship to:

Select a shipping address:

More Buying Choices

48 New from $15.95 62 Used from $1.84 1 Collectible from $17.00

111 used & new from $1.84

See All Buying Options

Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

This book offers Python programmers one place to look when they need help remembering or deciphering the syntax of this open source language and its many powerful but scantily documented modules. This comprehensive reference guide makes it easy to look up the most frequently needed information--not just about the Python language itself, but also the most frequently used parts of the standard library and the most important third-party extensions.

Ask any Python aficionado and you'll hear that Python programmers have it all: an elegant object-oriented language with readable and maintainable syntax, that allows for easy integration with components in C, C++, Java, or C#, and an enormous collection of precoded standard library and third-party extension modules. Moreover, Python is easy to learn, yet powerful enough to take on the most ambitious programming challenges. But what Python programmers used to lack is a concise and clear reference resource, with the appropriate measure of guidance in how best to use Python's great power. Python in a Nutshell fills this need.

Python in a Nutshell, Second Edition covers more than the language itself; it also deals with the most frequently used parts of the standard library, and the most popular and important third party extensions. Revised and expanded for Python 2.5, this book now contains the gory details of Python's new subprocess module and breaking news about Microsoft's new IronPython project. Our "Nutshell" format fits Python perfectly by presenting the highlights of the most important modules and functions in its standard library, which cover over 90% of your practical programming needs. This book includes:

A fast-paced tutorial on the syntax of the Python language
An explanation of object-oriented programming in Python
Coverage of iterators, generators, exceptions, modules, packages, strings, and regular expressions
A quick reference for

Python in a Nutshell, Second Edition (In a Nutshell)

$28.27 FREE Shipping. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

+
+

Total price: $85.34

Buy the selected items together

This item:Python in a Nutshell, Second Edition (In a Nutshell) by Alex Martelli Paperback $28.27
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping. Details
Python Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) by Mark Lutz Paperback $10.03
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Learning Python, 5th Edition by Mark Lutz Paperback $47.04
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

David Beazley

73

Paperback
$38.17
Mark Lutz

125

Paperback
$10.03
Ray Lischner

48

Paperback
$27.92
Mark Lutz

279

in Computer Graphics
Paperback
$47.04
Luciano Ramalho

44

Paperback
$39.99
David Beazley

98

Paperback
$27.11

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

(What's this?)

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

Paperback: 738 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Second edition (July 24, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0596100469
ISBN-13: 978-0596100469
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #53 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Unix
- #68 in Books > Textbooks > Computer Science > Object-Oriented Software Design
- #132 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Web Programming > JavaScript

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

(What's this?)

Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars

5 star		62%
4 star		19%
3 star		16%
2 star		3%
1 star		0%

Write a customer review

See all 32 customer reviews

Top Customer Reviews

From zero to Pythonista in less than 700 pages

ByGiuseppe A. Paleologoon October 14, 2006

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

First, one caveat: before reading this book, get a feeling for Python from the official tutorial, and some of the excellent tutorials and book available online (e.g., parts of "Dive into Python"). The greater the experience you have with other languages, the shorter the warm-up period. Then, buy this book. The chapters on the language description and OOP are models of clarity and brevity, in any book/reference and any language. All the other chapters are extremely useful too. This book complements perfectly the official library and language references, and covers almost everything you will ever need. It truly is the ideal reference book, and an incredible value for the money. I just hope that Alex Martelli will keep future editions below 700 pages while adding material on other GUI frameworks and PyPy.

0Comment 21 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Excellent Python Book - If only it was updated to 3.x :^(

ByVisionary800on February 7, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The python community is quickly embracing python 3.x but this book is written for 2.x. I would still recommend this book because many of the explanations still apply to 3.x and best of all it is a very well written book and clearly organized. I saved some money and bought a used one. I have python books by Martelli, Lutz, Summerfield, Beazley, and Ceder. Why so many? I think its important to approach a subject from different conceptual angles to be able to master the subject. Which writer did I think was most effective at teaching the intended subject? 1.Beazley, 2. Martelli (very close) 3. Ceder...

11 comment 6 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Great python reference...

ByValerio Valerioon February 18, 2007

Format: Paperback

Python in a Nutshell is a excellent reference book, all python programmer must have one in the desk.

The online documentation for the python language is good, but some times is difficult to search for a feature of the language, in this book is easy to find anything about python.

This book complements perfectly the official library and language references, and covers almost everything you will ever need.

I Learn python with this book, but i only recommend the book for people with knowledge of other programming language, if you are new in programming and wants to learn python this book is not good for you (try Learning python by David Ascher and Mark Lutz), if you already have programming skills this is the perfect book for learn python.

The author explain the language in a very simple way with good examples, and don't wast time explaining the basics of programming, the book starts with a introduction to the python language, in chapter 2 the author explain the installation of various python interpreters, from chapter 4 to 9 the author explain the core of the python language, in the rest of the book the author cover the python library and extensions modules, network and web programming with python and in the last section the author talk about the various ways of embedding and extending the python language, in my opinion the book is well written and very easy to read.

I highly recommend Python in a Nutshell, for all programmers who wants to start coding in python, and for all python programmers as a language reference.

0Comment 9 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Python in a Nutshell 2nd Edition

ByMax Slimmeron December 31, 2007

Format: Paperback

The author Alex Martelli is Uber Technical Lead at Google, Inc. Martelli holds a laurea in Ingegneria Elettronica from Bologna University. He wrote Python in a Nutshell two editions, and also co-edited the Python Cookbook. He's a member of the Python Software Foundation, and won the 2002 Activators' Choice Award. Martelli spent 8 years with IBM Research, earning three Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards, and on.

The book is a great reference and full of insights and good programming techniques. It moves pretty fast to make a good introductory book, but once one has a reasonable understanding of Python fundamentals, anyone wishing to advance their understanding and application of the language can benefit from Python in a Nutshell.

I found that this book has been able to cover every thing from fundamentals of the Python language to a comprehensive description of some of the more esoteric newer language features and at the same time address many of the applications of the language. The presentation style is clear and very readable with concise examples, and not full of extraneous fluff. The subjects are well laid out beginning with a swift comprehensive introduction to the language, and a good description of the basic elements including classes, methods exceptions, modules, decorators and built-ins. There are sections on the Python library and extension modules, Network and web programming including some discussion of some of the existing python web frame works and socket programming. There is material on extending and embedding Python and alternate ways to extend python beyond c-extensions. The book was released just prior to the final release of Python 2.5, but there is considerable material covering most if not all of the latest 2.5 features such as the with statement.

I have found Python in a nutshell 2nd edition a valuable learning tool and reference resource and would recommend it for anyone interested in using Python to its fullest.

Reviewed by Max Slimmer user and proponent of Python since release 1.3.

0Comment 5 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

A Python Developer's Third Arm

ByDan McKinnonVINE VOICEon February 7, 2008

Format: Paperback

'Python In A Nutshell' is one of those de facto standard O'Reilly books that is required reading/owning for anyone that develops in said language. In this case it's the long time popular scripting language Python. Originally released in 1991, this language has grown and expanded into the juggernaut it is today. With around 700 pages of material, this book will show you the ins and outs of everything yummy that Python can do. From the basics of talking about to define variables and create conditional statements to object oriented programming, you are going to quickly see why Python is popular and USABLE.

This book goes further than just a teaching book and/or just a language reference. It's meant to bridge both necessities as you learn to progam in Python or want to improve your existing skillset. With this book you will achieve all your Python goalssssssssssssssssssssss (pathetic snake joke attempt here)

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Proabably You want one of these for Python 2.7.X

Still a good book. I wish that the 3rd edition which I have an ecopy from O'Reilly had gone to V2.7.X and V3.5.X as two books.

Published 3 months ago by John Jeffers

Published 11 months ago by david j. blackstone

Good value and coherent

Long and dense. Good value and coherent.

Published 1 year ago by Bill Baran

Solid reference and learning book

It's a IT manual. It has information. It is a solid reference. 4 stars because you can't really love a reference book.

Published 1 year ago by Kevin J Young

Very handy to have.

A great way to read one of the many technical references I use on a daily basis. Much more convenient than a dead tree book.

Published 1 year ago by Julie in Austin

Neither problems nor examples.

Published 1 year ago by Jose Manuel

Good reference but somewhat outdated

Overall not a bad book as a python reference but by now quite outdated, since even the 2.x branch is considerably more evolved than the most current version (2.Read more

Published 1 year ago by mHaesem

I am on my second time through. Would have liked more info on wxPython but the object oriented treatment is thorough.

Published on March 20, 2014 by Lawrence Guichard

If you like book references, this one is a nice alternative to the python website. I am not sure I would recommend it for learning python, but overall it is a good reference.

Published on February 5, 2014 by Jack

Good info but spread over too many versions

The info in the book is good, but often it's too hard to sort out the 2.3 vs 2.4 vs 2.5 vs later differences. Seems like it's trying to cover too many versions of Python.

Published on January 28, 2014 by JS

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Python in a Nutshell, Second Edition (In a Nutshell)

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: Python in a Nutshell, Second Edition (In a Nutshell)

Set up a giveaway

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

Python Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) Paperback

Mark Lutz

125

$10.03
Learning Python, 5th Edition Paperback

Mark Lutz

279

$47.04
Python Essential Reference (4th Edition) Paperback

David Beazley

98

$27.11
Python Cookbook, Third edition Paperback

David Beazley

73

$38.17

Conditions of Use
Privacy Notice
Interest-Based Ads
© 1996-2016, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates