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Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 2nd Edition: Practical...

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2,913 global ratings

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Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 2nd Edition: Practical Programming for Total Beginners

byAl Sweigart

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Top positive review

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Amazon Customer

Great Book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 1, 2023

I took a college level Java class 3 years ago just because it was required. 3 years and a new job later, this book made the transition easy if not almost repetitive. Great Book, got me off and running in my new job. Then read, "Python for Excel" to fill some gaps and then added in stackexchange screenshots for python questions and dug deeper into selenium. and now save roughly 3-4 hours of my typical day to automation.

Note of Selenium:
The newest version of the book is not the compatible with the current version of Selenium. You'll have to modify the code a bit. Luckily this book is popular enough that when you search you find someone who already read the book and asked exactly what you're struggling with.

Great Book!!!

4 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Digital version is significantly flawed -- get the paper copy

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 27, 2021

I'm several chapters in and enjoying the book. It's clear and has an approachable tone that's really nice.

However, there's a significant issue with the Kindle digital version. In converting it to digital, the indentations in the code exercises have gotten all messed up. And how the code is indented has a direct effect on how it executes. I'll attach an example where the indentations are the opposite of what they actually should be.

This is a really terrible problem to have in a programming book, especially for beginners. Unless they fix it, you should get the print version instead.

8 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Amazon Customer

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 1, 2023

Verified Purchase

I took a college level Java class 3 years ago just because it was required. 3 years and a new job later, this book made the transition easy if not almost repetitive. Great Book, got me off and running in my new job. Then read, "Python for Excel" to fill some gaps and then added in stackexchange screenshots for python questions and dug deeper into selenium. and now save roughly 3-4 hours of my typical day to automation.

Note of Selenium:
The newest version of the book is not the compatible with the current version of Selenium. You'll have to modify the code a bit. Luckily this book is popular enough that when you search you find someone who already read the book and asked exactly what you're struggling with.

Great Book!!!

4 people found this helpful

Like new as advertised

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 19, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book was delivered sooner than expected and is in like new condition--just as advertised.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 12, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book is easy to read and give real examples about python coding. Don't hesitate, it's a good deal.

One person found this helpful

Parminder Singh Bola

Practical Hands on Book for Automation!!!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 7, 2023

Verified Purchase

Practical Hands on Book for Automation!!!

Amazon Customer

In a land of Python book, here is your buried treasure!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

I am a developer who has read many books and articles on Python (and other programming languages). This book is well written, refreshing, and HELPFUL! If you are learning python for the first time and have never written a program, are a business professional looking to “automate the boring stuff”, or an experienced Python programmer, there is literally something here for everyone. The projects are very simple to follow, the author even provides the source code for you if you don’t want to hand code it out (even though I definitely recommend coding along yourself to learn). I have purchased so many books and tools along my learning journey but this one is by far my absolute favorite and the cover is worn with proof of use and love. If your on the fence, this book is simply brilliant and having a copy at home is an essential and so valuable all I can say is DO IT!

14 people found this helpful

David R. Flores

Excellent book, Content is relevant.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 8, 2023

Verified Purchase

The table of contents is loaded with excellent topics, it promises to be a fantastic tool for my network engineering and security role.

2 people found this helpful

Best way to learn Python with Zero Experience!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 24, 2022

Verified Purchase

I'm currently a college student not studying CS at the moment but needing to know a lot of the core key concepts with languages such as Python for data science and software engineering projects. I had a lot of experiences with online courses such as those on Udemy, Coursera, and Codecademy, but I felt like all of these were very lacking when it came to the support and resources behind these courses. As a college student trying to teach myself while observing my CS friends, I realized that the most important difference between taking college classes and self-studying is the community and on-demand support that books lack. Fortunately, a book like this has a whole community behind it and the support I have gotten is amazing! On top of not having to worry about grades for my classes, I can actually focus on learning Python without having to think about what assignments I need to allocate my efforts to. I found the supplementary Udemy course very helpful in verabilizing the key concepts of each chapter and this has helped me learn and focus on the right concepts.

15 people found this helpful

Detroit Customer

My sixth book from No Starch Press, not disappointed.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2021

Verified Purchase

I have six books from this company now, three on Linux and three on Python. All are excellent additions to any library. The material they present continues to be easy to understand with every new book I buy from them. Coding is NOT easy, there's a lot of stuff to learn and tons that you've got to commit to memory. These books make the process enjoyable, and they use practical examples that make it a lot easier to understand things like the flow of logic within statements.

Allow me to give a little context: I started with computers in the 80's when I was a kid. BASIC was all I had access to, fun, but not a great start. My first PC came along and I learned DOS, despite the mostly crappy documentation. Linux came along at the end of the 90's and, while it was a great OS back then, documentation held it back on the desktop. Best I could do was get it to boot, so Windows was the only choice for a couple decades.

Flash forward to the present, and I've ditched Windows completely, picked up a couple books (I don't yet own a book on Linux NOT published by No Starch) and I do better now with Linux than I ever did with Windows. Linux documentation quality is also light-years beyond what it was in the 90's, too. I spent a month on Mint and went straight to Arch. Things have changed THAT much.

2 people found this helpful

Good Projects, but Not an Ideal Book for a True Beginner

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is intended for beginners, and really breaks down python in a very approachable manner. Despite that being said, I wouldn't recommend this book to a beginner. In the preface, the author mentions that this book uses many bad habits (or at the very least frowned upon habits), which is true. Many of coding examples are inefficient (which, to the author's credit, he acknowledges), and while the code might run, it's not going to be pretty. The projects look worthwhile, and those alone would be what I'd argue makes the book worth it. Many novice developers (as well as intermediate & advanced) can shrug off the idiosyncrasies that are presented in this book, but a person brand new to coding would likely misunderstand the material, ultimately leading to bad habits that'll be harder to unlearn.

For a true beginner, I'd recommend the Python Crash Course book by the same publisher (No Starch Press). The fundamentals are clearly presented, and easy to understand. The foundation developed will be stronger, and you'll be less likely to develop bad habits, since most of the material is presented in a manner consistent with the python community (PEP).

For example, the way variables and input functions are utilized between the two books are drastically different. In this book, user input and assignment is handled as follows:

print('What's your name?')
name = input()

This is inefficient, and somewhat confusing, given that the alternative (as presented in Python Crash Course) is easier. In Python Crash Course, the same outcome is presented as follows:

name = input("What is your name? ")

The print statement asking for the user's name is excessive. If I'm trying to automate the boring stuff, I'm trying to trim the fat - not eat it.

195 people found this helpful

Good tutorial, but stay away from Kindle...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 22, 2022

Verified Purchase

I'm a non-programmer who played with BASIC back in the TRS-80 days. So, with my limited knowledge of computer logic, I found Python very easy to learn. I downloaded a Kindle sample to spend some time with Python to see if I wanted to go "all-in."

What drove me nuts for the first few days was that the Kindle doesn't show the program layouts as clearly as the author's website. I was getting a lot of programming errors for having improper indentation. Viewing the code on the author's website straightened me out. It also convinced me to buy the paper version of the book, instead of the Kindle version. That's not a criticism of the author or his book, just the idiosyncrasies of the Kindle formatting.

Content: A+ for non-programmers. Kindle layout: Leaves some clarity to be desired.

16 people found this helpful

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