automate-the-boring-stuff-with-python-2015-

PRACTICAL PROGRAMMING
FOR TOTAL BEGINNERS
AL SWEIGART
AUTOMATE
THE BORING STUFF
WITH PYTHON
AUTOMATE
THE BORING STUFF
WITH PYTHON
SHELVE IN: PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/ PYTHON
$29.95 ($34.95 CDN)
www.nostarch.com
THE F INE ST IN GEEK ENTERTA I N M E N T™
If you’ve ever spent hours renaming files or updating
hundreds of spreadsheet cells, you know how tedious
tasks like these can be. But what if you could have
your computer do them for you?
minutes what would take you hours to do by hand—
learn how to use Python to write programs that do in
In Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, you’ll
no prior programming experience required. Once
create Python programs that effortlessly perform
useful and impressive feats of automation to:
“I LI E FLA T.”
This book uses a durable binding that won’t snap shut.
you’ve mastered the basics of programming, you’ll
• Search for text in a file or across multiple files
• Create, update, move, and rename files and
folders
• Search the Web and download online content
• Update and format data in Excel spreadsheets
of any size
Don’t spend your time doing work a well-trained
monkey could do. Even if you’ve never written a line
• Send reminder emails and text notifications
• Fill out online forms
Step-by-step instructions walk you through each
program, and practice projects at the end of each
chapter challenge you to improve those programs and
use your newfound skills to automate similar tasks.
• Split, merge, watermark, and encrypt PDFs
GET STUFF DONE.
LEARN PYTHON.
GET STUFF DONE.
LEARN PYTHON.
COVERS PYTHON 3
of code, you can make your computer do the grunt work.
Learn how in Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.
Python books for beginners, including Hacking Secret
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R
Al Sweigart is a software developer and teaches pro-
gramming to kids and adults. He has written several
Ciphers with Python, Invent Your Own Computer Games
with Python, and Making Games with Python & Pygame.
AUTOMATE THE BORING
STUFF WITH PYTHON
AUTOMATE THE BORING
STUFF WITH PYTHON SWEIGART
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AUTOMATE THE BORING STUFF
WITH PYTHON

AUTOMATE THE
BORING STUFF
WITH PYTHON
Practical Programming
for Total Beginners
by Al Sweigart
San Francisco

AutomAte the Boring Stuff with Python. Copyright © 2015 by Al Sweigart.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
Printed in USA
Second printing
19 18 17 16 15 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
ISBN-10: 1-59327-599-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-599-0
Publisher: William Pollock
Production Editor: Laurel Chun
Cover Illustration: Josh Ellingson
Interior Design: Octopod Studios
Developmental Editors: Jennifer Griffith-Delgado, Greg Poulos, and Leslie Shen
Technical Reviewer: Ari Lacenski
Copyeditor: Kim Wimpsett
Compositor: Susan Glinert Stevens
Proofreader: Lisa Devoto Farrell
Indexer: BIM Indexing and Proofreading Services
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please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly:
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phone: [phone]; [email protected]
www.nostarch.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014953114
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For my nephew Jack