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

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.

As this book makes very clear from the start, you don’t have to be a programmer to using this book. I’m a professional software engineer that just needed to learn some python automation for work and personal projects. This book helped me get there but I can see how this book really was tailored toward those who are not experienced in programming as it breaks down each section into consumable bits that would seem a bit tedious to someone like me but would be perfectly helpful to someone without programming experience. I was able to skim the first few chapters that teach the language as I’m already versed in programming and was able to glean pythons syntax style pretty quickly. It’s a simple yet elegant language especially compared to others that I use daily. The part about this book that got me all excited was the web scraping section. As a web developer, I deal with web pages a lot and it would be nice to have some scripts that would auto fill forms and interact with the web pages for me as I’m making code changes on the day to day. It would really make my job—even as a developer—super easy, and it has.

Add this book to my small collection of Python books, and I am sure it will be a very good book, because this is not my first book for the same author (Al Sweigart), I have one more else, +the author provides all his books for free reading in the net, +there is an Udemy video course for this book by him. Hoping good reading, practicing, time with this book.

While this is indeed a great book to get started with python projects I won’t say it’s a great book for total beginners. The author often uses coding concepts at the beginning of the book that are not explained until a later chapter leaving some beginners feeling overwhelmed with his programming methods. I am not a beginner though so understanding the basics was easy for me. The projects are really good for beginners too. Though I would recommend starting with Python Crash Course 2nd edition which goes through the fundamentals in greater detail and is more organized in its teaching approach (it also comes with projects at the end of the fundamental chapters). Overall good book just wished it was better organized for the “beginner”

I just bought couple of weeks before. Almost half of the book I have finished. The author explains very well and You can actually use his example in python and test them. I recommend people who looking to work as a Cloud Architect / AWS architect etc.

The posted links to the examples at author(dot)com all seem to be pretty much dead, at , least as of the last time I checked several days ago. Big demerit for this. There is a lot of typing for the purpose of entering the code. It would be great, or it would be great if the web site was not DOA, to just be able to download some of those files. Or ship the book with a CD, which doesn’t seem to be a thing any more. Anyhow, it is OK so far, but there are issues with the execution.

Can’t say I enjoy reading technical book but I do it for learning. This one, is a gem. Funny, interesting relevant but not overwhelming. Good pace and got me started with Python better than googling.

I am working through this book and haven't finished it yet. I am a long term programmer having programmed for pay in Fortran for multiple jobs. I have been programming for over 30 years and learning an object oriented language requires a shift in perspective. So, I need little in algorithm development but details on the language features is important and capabilities to do the things that were simple in other languages is important to know how to do it in Python. This book is very complementary to the book Think Python, IMHO. I am working in Data Science and Machine Learning in particular and found that my ability to program in Python was lacking. So far this book has done a very good job familiarizing me with how to do certain critical things in Python. For Data Science having a section on web site data scraping is very important. I could just look how to do this. Also the data structures are much richer and varied. In Fortran you created any complexity in data structure yourself. I highly recommend this book for both new programmers and advanced programmers who need or want to learn Python.

I have gone through some chapters of this book and it is just wonderful. this is a unique resource with its great ability to clearly explain the content to everyone even with no programming knowledge at all. thanks to the author for such great book.

For those who have been coding know the importance of setup and organization. This book, I found, is lacking serious initial setup steps to get someone up and running smoothly with a dedicated directory. Demands you download files for use with the book but doesn't tell you EXPLICITLY where to place them or tell you some basic navigation commands to navigate directories and files. If the rest of the book is like the first chapter, this is going to be a waste of my time. Should be a BASIC book and assume readers do NOT know basics. Jury is still out whether I'd recommend this and may change my rating up if it improves....

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.

As this book makes very clear from the start, you don’t have to be a programmer to using this book. I’m a professional software engineer that just needed to learn some python automation for work and personal projects. This book helped me get there but I can see how this book really was tailored toward those who are not experienced in programming as it breaks down each section into consumable bits that would seem a bit tedious to someone like me but would be perfectly helpful to someone without programming experience. I was able to skim the first few chapters that teach the language as I’m already versed in programming and was able to glean pythons syntax style pretty quickly. It’s a simple yet elegant language especially compared to others that I use daily. The part about this book that got me all excited was the web scraping section. As a web developer, I deal with web pages a lot and it would be nice to have some scripts that would auto fill forms and interact with the web pages for me as I’m making code changes on the day to day. It would really make my job—even as a developer—super easy, and it has.

Add this book to my small collection of Python books, and I am sure it will be a very good book, because this is not my first book for the same author (Al Sweigart), I have one more else, +the author provides all his books for free reading in the net, +there is an Udemy video course for this book by him. Hoping good reading, practicing, time with this book.

While this is indeed a great book to get started with python projects I won’t say it’s a great book for total beginners. The author often uses coding concepts at the beginning of the book that are not explained until a later chapter leaving some beginners feeling overwhelmed with his programming methods. I am not a beginner though so understanding the basics was easy for me. The projects are really good for beginners too. Though I would recommend starting with Python Crash Course 2nd edition which goes through the fundamentals in greater detail and is more organized in its teaching approach (it also comes with projects at the end of the fundamental chapters). Overall good book just wished it was better organized for the “beginner”

I just bought couple of weeks before. Almost half of the book I have finished. The author explains very well and You can actually use his example in python and test them. I recommend people who looking to work as a Cloud Architect / AWS architect etc.

The posted links to the examples at author(dot)com all seem to be pretty much dead, at , least as of the last time I checked several days ago. Big demerit for this. There is a lot of typing for the purpose of entering the code. It would be great, or it would be great if the web site was not DOA, to just be able to download some of those files. Or ship the book with a CD, which doesn’t seem to be a thing any more. Anyhow, it is OK so far, but there are issues with the execution.

Can’t say I enjoy reading technical book but I do it for learning. This one, is a gem. Funny, interesting relevant but not overwhelming. Good pace and got me started with Python better than googling.

I am working through this book and haven't finished it yet. I am a long term programmer having programmed for pay in Fortran for multiple jobs. I have been programming for over 30 years and learning an object oriented language requires a shift in perspective. So, I need little in algorithm development but details on the language features is important and capabilities to do the things that were simple in other languages is important to know how to do it in Python. This book is very complementary to the book Think Python, IMHO. I am working in Data Science and Machine Learning in particular and found that my ability to program in Python was lacking. So far this book has done a very good job familiarizing me with how to do certain critical things in Python. For Data Science having a section on web site data scraping is very important. I could just look how to do this. Also the data structures are much richer and varied. In Fortran you created any complexity in data structure yourself. I highly recommend this book for both new programmers and advanced programmers who need or want to learn Python.

I have gone through some chapters of this book and it is just wonderful. this is a unique resource with its great ability to clearly explain the content to everyone even with no programming knowledge at all. thanks to the author for such great book.

For those who have been coding know the importance of setup and organization. This book, I found, is lacking serious initial setup steps to get someone up and running smoothly with a dedicated directory. Demands you download files for use with the book but doesn't tell you EXPLICITLY where to place them or tell you some basic navigation commands to navigate directories and files. If the rest of the book is like the first chapter, this is going to be a waste of my time. Should be a BASIC book and assume readers do NOT know basics. Jury is still out whether I'd recommend this and may change my rating up if it improves....

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.

Not to judge a book by its cover, but mine came so poorly glued on, it separated from the spine of the book within 5 minutes of opening, and within half an hour the front cover had completely popped off. So now i'm awkwardly pressing it back on every 20 minutes or so. I'll probably wind up super-gluing it back down at some point, but this definitely reflects poorly on the publisher from a quality control standpoint. The book seems solid from a content and design standpoint, and I'm hoping to see years of reference use out of my copy, but so far it's a not-so-sticky disappointment.

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.

I bought this book to kill time during the Covid lockdown. It is well written and easy to follow but there is a problem with the digital version. Programming languages are unforgiving of even slight indentation errors and when viewing the sample programs on the Kindle App on my mini ipad, it leads to some frustrating errors. I was able to work these out with the help of online copies of the programs and good old professor Google but if I had known of the problem before, I would have bought the print version.

Start as a beginner. End up a guru. Not to become the greatest Python programmer, but simply to get lots and lots of real work done.

This is great. I don't know if it would be great for an absolute beginner. I took a Coursera course on Python called Python For Everybody. That was a fantastic beginner course for total newbies. This was my follow-up. This covers a lot of ground and I was totally impressed and found it very fun and educational. I like the combination of practice projects during the chapter, followed by questions to answer at the end of each chapter and some more projects at the end of the chapter. Totally lays a great foundation for each topic. I think some of the Python packages are out of date though or there are some code errors. I had to find workarounds on Stack Overflow. Overall, I loved this book!!!

I'm not new to Python at this point so I have a slightly different take on this book. The premise is that you've never programmed before and you're looking for some life shortcuts that you can do using the Python language. Here's the thing. It's not a complete waste for someone who is familiar (but not advanced). When I was going through this, I got a good explanation of some useful modules that I didn't even know existed. I especially like the pyinputplus module (which was actually created by the author) and put it to immediate use (and saved myself some serious frustration). If you've been using Python for years, you probably aren't going to get much out of this book. But if you are either a beginner or have familiarity but are not considered "advanced" yet, you may find some useful information in here.

I am VERY happy with this book and am learning Python 3 quickly and in a menner in which I will retain the information. Turns out that you can actually find the entire book for free, and/or if you buy from the publisher they will Gove you a free Digital copy, but I still bought the actually book. (Which I would recommend if your serious) I actually read the directions as to how to use the book, typed everything in myself, then read, understood, and THEN continued. I even did the practice question at the end of each chapter. It does feel a bit like High School or University in terms of how its laid out, but it works! Buy the book and you WILL learn!

I liked this book better than another book i bought " Python for kids." I haven't finished the whole book yet, but it just flows much better. This book was all i needed.

It has step by step code review. Loved it.

I have struggled to learn programming for many years. I have gone through tutorials and learn-to-code sites aplenty. Nothing ever stuck. The reason? I couldn't think of anything to do with it. This book is fixing that for me. It is chocked full of awesome, practical use cases, really interesting and useful things you can do right now with a very little bit of Python know-how. It is awesome. The only reason I am taking a star off is because the binding sucks. It says on the back cover, "I lie flat. This book uses a durable binding that won't snap shut." False. Not only does it snap shut, the front cover actually came unglued (see attached). Otherwise, the book and its content are amazing and every bit of what I wanted. I would buy it again despite the binding issue.

Bought this to teach my 14 year old son to program in Python. He likes it and was super excited with he completed his first program in the book. I read ahead of him and give him a deadline when to complete each chapter. Its a great time to bond with my son and teaches him something he may use in the future.

Experienced coder but new to Python here. I was able to pick up Python in almost no time. Great examples, interesting projects, easy to read and understand.

There are far better guides than this book. I found it incredibly unhelpful and completely regret purchasing this book.

I'm not a programmer, but deal with large datasets. Automate the Boring Stuff has given me a much better tool than just Excel for parsing data and finding meaning in these large datasets. It's a great book that is both informative and fun. I highly recommend!

I like this man's work a lot. He explains things clearly, but there is much information. Rather than take all my time making notes, I got the book and have been using it to deepen my understanding. It is great.

This is really nice book, there is explained really useful things but I new some of python if I would be really beginner I am afraid that I would not understand thoroughly basic things. there is not explained very well basics but it should not be even. this book is really useful for automating office boarding staffs I love this book really I have it on my desk place.

Great book! Really helpful, I’m learning much more than from the courses I took for python. Would definitely recommend to anyone!

Literally my favorite book on the basic automation functions of Python. Teach a college course and this is my number one recommended book for a course on Software Defined Networking. Great for all levels and roles wishing to automate repetitive computer tasks. Excel, PDF, Windows, Linux, MAC, Word, APIs.... it’s all covered with the basic theory of Python 3.

Could be the most practical and helpful book I've read and used in a long time. Very much enjoying making my life easier

Although you can read it on line or watch the video's on Youtube and talk to the author on Twitch

Love the book, should’ve bought a hard copy instead of Kindle version.

A really deep scope for a python introductory book: this will take you from knowing no programming to knowing how to do basic scripting and automation tasks. Very useful. It's great hacing a paper copy that i can easily reference on my desk or read before bed if I don't wan tto be on the computer. The binding is top quality.

The book and exercises (sample programs) for a total Python novice like me have been very instructive. Even though everything is simplified, it still requires a fair amount of thought to work through the language and programming logic

Read the first few chapters to understand the basics then choose which topics you want to delve into. The book is well-written and helpful. There are myriad chapters on interesting and helpful topics.

None of the Mu installs work and without this you cannot install 3rd-party modules. Makes the book useless.

Al is simply the best Python instructor. Please do a new Pygame book.

Al Sweigart never disappoints-

Item received as advertised

Using this for class and i love how it's easy and well written out

Highly recommend this book for everyone who wants to use Python in practice. This book helped me to improve speed of my office work. I think the book deserves 7 of 5 stars :-)

Easy to follow and broadened my understanding in the Python language

I took the Udemy course online and bought the book as a printed reference. Leveraging both for working on several projects to gain efficiencies and increase accuracy with automation! Best class and materials I've invested in over recent months!

I loved this book because it explained everything from pure basics to advanced development. This book is very easy to understand. Al clearly explained how stuff work on different operating systems such as windows, Mac , and linux.

I have been wanting to learn Python for quite a while. I finally had an excuse to dive into it and this book answered all of the questions that I needed guidance on.

Good book if you are new to Python.

This is a great book to learn python programming.

Helped me learned a lot , also the Udemy course is free online at this moment so both really helped me understand the concepts better.

Useful as one of various study guides

Great book.

Was a bit over simplistic for where I started from but would be great for a bigger

I like this book so much. Great concept with example.

This book was a lot simpler and easier to read with good exercises. Haven't run into a problem yet

very good

Great book for beginners

The book looks great overall and the delivered date was on time.

Like it

Great and useful content.

Good book

Is really a good thing

Many of the tasks for which Python was originally intended according to a lecture I heard by Guido von Rossum were for Operating System Scripting and file type transformation. This is a solid introduction to Python with the necessary smarts to manipulate spreadsheet, textual, PDF and other file types. These are vital tasks for anyone who wishes to really use Python especially in Data Science and Machine Learning. The few mistakes in the earlier edition were corrected and much useful additional material is added. I cannot highly enough recommend this immensely practical and valuable handbook. --Ira Laefsky, Senior Consultant formerly on the Senior Staff of Arthur D> Little and Digital Equipment Corporation

This new Second edition is a great update to the original and is probable one of the best Python3 books. While it is available online, having the print version is just better for learning and for a quick reference. The book is actually two books that play off each other incredibly well. The first part teaches the language features in clear examples and progressions and the second part (automating tasks) is more like the classic "recipe" style with clear examples on how to solve real problems like working with the file system, manipulating spreadsheets, working with zip archives or PDF files. It also covers debugging, GUI programming and even web scraping. A great update to one of No Starch's consistently great titles.

There is some good stuff in this book for learning Python, but the author really glosses over some things that need way more attention and better explanation. For example, the introductory chapter to lists gives a bunch of example of short lists containing strings, integers, and floating point values. He does almost nothing to explain how to manage a list of other lists (sort of a 2 dimensional array), and instead gives an example of Conway's Game of Life to leave the reader figuring out what he's done. It would have been really helpful if he showed some things that would be more useful in the real world--like maybe transposing lists from columns to rows. Or parsing lists to find the maximum integer. He does a really half-hearted explanation on topics then assigns vague, poorly detailed assignments (with specific requirements and constraints) that seem to be way above the skill level of the examples he's provided. I've had better luck REALLY LEARNING Python through websites that present short challenges to slowly build on skills, and increase difficulty gradually. But at least this book did provide me a place to springboard into that. If you're new to programming, you'll not likely be able to do any of the useful stuff at the end of the book just by reading and working through the contents that preceded it.

This has become one of the premier books for getting started with Python. If you can work your way through the entire book, you will have a very good foundation in Python programming, and have acquired quite a broad skillset in terms of what you can do with Python. The first part of the book is a thorough introduction to not just Python, but to computer programming in general and has good coverage of computer language constructs. I like how the author has a number of suggestions for other programs you can work on in there so you have a chance to practice what is being covered. Part 2 of the book starts right out covering regular expressions, which in my opinion is a bit early to jump into if you are new to programming. The rest of the chapters in the second part of the book are a goldmine of how to perform specific tasks using Python. If you work in an office environment and want to find ways to reduce boring and repetitive tasks, this is where the book really shines. Every chapter covers a practical topic, from working with Excel spreadsheets and CSV files to scraping websites for data and sending texts. Overall, the book is well organized and has clear explanations. While it has numerous examples of where you can use Python, it may sometimes fall short in depth of coverage of those topics. But that's OK, because once you know it's a thing you can do and you have the basics down, finding whatever additional details you need for your specific situation becomes much easier. And even if you are a seasoned Python developer, there's a good chance you'll still find some information gems in here.

Alright, so I'm basically an idiot when it comes to programming. I've tried to learn for years through watching tutorials, reading forums, combing through source code to try to understand how a program works, and reading other books, but nothing ever really stuck. But THIS book has actually brought me into a realm of terminology and practical application that I makes sense to me. I haven't finished the entire thing, but so far the first 50 pages have taught me more in an hour than anything else in 5+ years of sporadic research. I absolutely recommend picking this up if you're looking to start from the beginning with Python 3, or even brush up on the basics or tools you may not be familiar with. Obviously no single book has it all and you may need to look up some clarifying examples online, but seriously... START HERE.

Quite surprisingly, when I look at 'Boring Stuff' in retrospect, I realize that it's not even remotely close to my today's coding standards. It does not teach you the best coding practices, and does not even cover all the necessary basics. But it's really helpful in getting you from "I don't even know where to start" stage to "Surely I can do this". After a few weeks, if not days, of learning you won't want to touch the 'Stuff' again. But when you're making the first steps, this book is your best friend.

I purchased the .pdf from nostarch press. I like the .pdf format. There's also an accompanying Udemy course (sold separately) I found very valuable. I've tried to learn Python several times, unsuccessfully. This is the first time I feel like I'm making some headway.

I've learned HTML, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and ES6 through CodeCamp, did some thing with the experience, but I dropped JavaScript in favor of Python, as taught by this book. It really is that simple, great, and straight forward, with some humor laced in to alleviate what could've been an overly serious course. Anyone really can learn Python, especially through this guy's book. I'd recommend checking out this author's course material on Udemy. There, he walks you through his own book with videos and additional "what if I did ( or didn't) do this / that?" I really can't recommend it enough. Very practical examples / projects.

I purchased 'Automate the Boring Stuff with Python' several years ago to learn the basics of Python and it was a good purchase. Mr. Sweigart provides a very good structure for both the sequence of topics and depth of detail. He provided me enough background on Python to give me an understanding of the functions and keep moving forward. At the same time I didn't get pulled into an excess of detail (and there is a lot of detail that could wrap you around the axle). There is still enough detail and examples to make it a useful reference. After learning the basics I have been able to migrate to and understand (at least some of) the vast Python archive in the python.org when more detail is needed. But, when I forget some of the basics my first stop is usually this book. I use this book on my Amazon notepad and have appreciated the updates that keep the book fresh.

This is the single best programming book I have read. The practical exercises are some of the best in any programming book. They are challenging but not impossible. They will force you to use the skills discussed in the preceding text. Al does an excellent job covering everything you need to know to get moving with python and how to do the tasks most people will use. I'm working through another python book right now, and it doesn't hold water compared to this one. Looking forward to more books by this author.

I am an experienced programmer (50 years) but new to Python. I received this book as a Christmas gift and was looking forward to learning a new language. I do not have an opinion yet on the content of the book as I just opened it an hour ago. However, I can attest to the fact that the binding job is totally inadequate. There is no glue on the book's back, just at the first and last page. Within a few minutes of opening the book the cover let go from the first page so I now have a book with no cover. I have contacted the publisher, No Start Press about it. I will update this review based on what I hear from them.

One of the best Introduction to Programming books out there! Al is a phenomenal teacher and this book truly is aimed for people with no programming background at all. He carefully demonstrates how you can accomplish mundane office-related tasks through simple Python commands, automating a chunk of your daily work. It is easy to understand and he states that he does not go into complex topics such as Object Orientated Programming, because of the book's novice nature. This book (and his supplementary course on Udemy) is the primary reason I chose Python to be my first programming language and I love it. Thank you Al!

I have the first edition in paperback, and bought the kindle version of the second edition. In my opinion it is worth getting the second edition, and the kindle version is formatted well!

I've dabbled in Python for a few years...mostly doing little stuff or tweaking something that others have written. I have a few other python books. I got this one to do more "simple stuff". I'm not gonna be writing any big programs but, I want to "automate the boring stuff". I've found that this book give examples of things that I can apply to what I want to do.

This book gives excellent in depth instructions on how to properly use Python. This book is great because unlike other resources it gives clear explanations of what is going on in easy to understand the language. I find a problem with most programming books is that they contain a bunch of numbers & confusing information that can overwhelm their audience. Not this book. You can follow along with Al to understand exactly how to - automate your life.

I bought the book to learn some rudimentary Python programming skills while I was in quarantine. I got exactly what I was hoping for. Not too much in-depth, just enough to manipulate a bunch of files. Very satisfied with my purchase.

You'll spend more time trying (probably unsuccessfully) trying to troubleshoot the code and filling in the missing pieces than you will learning.

I'm only on page 43..and I learned more about programming/python in 45 minutes than what I have learned in a whole semester (I attended c+ class in my UG)

Great for folks with some coding experience as we as for total beginners. Please also check out the authors Udemy course, base on the same book title.

No matter how much programming experience you have , there are many tips and tricks in this book for everyone. Many screen shots for explanations, which tell ideas clearly. Even if you are not programmer , you can pick up many clues from this book and get daily tedious tasks done.

I used this book to learn Python. I didn't know anything about this programming language before. So I was very happy that the book explained everything very detailed.

get this book and do everything throughly. it really pays off. i learned so much from this book alone and the way it's written is really feels good. really got going with python. thanks, al!!!

Really simple for complete beginners, I learned so much

Finally a book that helps you to understand and engage with Python.

I'm pretty good in excel, in terms of formulas, nesting, throwing around tables etc, but never really branched into programming and as a New Years resolution (I know!) I wanted a new skill. Speaking to my developers at work, Python appears to be the weapon of choice for coding the day to day heavy lifting. So I've started my commitment to a bit everyday and its going well. The book is simply laid out, yet covers topics in depth and clarity. Online resources on Youtube and via the books links are also a great mine of information. At some point I want to break from the book to work on a specific task. A few weeks away yet, but as far as taking the plunge, Python ticks ALOT of boxes.

I bought this because it seemed an easy re-entry into programming, and in particular I wanted to wrangle some data in a way that's beyond excel, whilst using excel as both data source and output mechanism. I'm a lapsed programmer, so was coming to the party with some previous, and the straightforward approach the author takes was just spot-on, dealing with just enough coding and plenty of realistic examples to whet your appetite and give you something to develop and grow with. The basics are covered first - just enough to get you going, don't expect a full reference here - then specific topics are worked through such as automating OS-type file/ folder work, then progressing on to dealing with pdf, JSON, CSV, excel (and in this latest version, Google sheets), docx etc files, which gives you a great grounding into the book's overarching aim - automating those trivial everyday repetitive tasks that take up so much time and are generally error-prone. I've now got upwards of 50 short scripts that automate all sorts of work-workload, from wrangling 5,000-record datasets down to monitoring a server folder for excess files (large backups that tend not to get rotated.) On top of re-awakening my interest (and ability!) in programming, I'd estimate this book saves me a good 5 hours a week at work, all boring drudge work. For that alone it's worth the purchase price. Currently my most-used script scrapes a booking website for Covid-19 vaccinations (I manage a small doctors' practice), pulls multiple clinics into 1 spreadsheet and outputs a mail-merge file that prints out card labels with name/ DOB/ NHS number/ clinic date & time. I run it every day at the moment and it saves me 30 minutes a day, minimum. More if we have late-changes- so the book is also helping in the fight against Covid! If you haven't guessed already, I'm a fan. If you have the slightest interest in Python, in learning programming in a practical, useful way, or work a lot at a computer and want to save yourself from boring, repetitive work, do yourself a favour and buy this book. If you don't save the purchase price in time savings within a week, you haven't read it properly.

The content is the book is great. I have ordered two books, both of which the glue holding the binding peeled away from the cover within 24 hours. I'll happily reorder when I am confident the publisher has fixed this problem.

Clear and straightforward book, with one small but frustrating problem in the early stages. It is not clear about installation of the additional pip program and features. The links quoted in the book have clearly changed since publication and there’s no easy explanation readily available in how to overcome this. Took me days of trying Google suggestions to fix. Really frustrating because it will put people off. I was fortunate and resolved with the assistance of a professional Python programmer. Not many folk are as fortunate. It’s a common problem with computer books because computer progams are constantly evolving. It’s no excuse for not addressing changes to links in online help however.

Gone through a number of books on using python for data analysis / ml but wanted something practical where I could build applications to solve real problems for me. Read 3/4 straight through then pick-n-mix the last 1/4 depending on what interested me. Its definitely a book you will use as a reference. So far have automated a few web scrapping tasks and managed to build a custom alert application integrated to my bank. Powerful Stuff. Update - as others have said the physical copy is not great, spine on mine broke. Expect better.

I enjoyed this book up to chapter 9 & 10 when suddenly he choose to read write file for Windows. No help for Mac users it was all a waste of time & no help at all. I need a new book to teach me about organising files, & read write files. Best find a good book for ONLY Mac users!...... If you can, & better if they are British & speak proper English the English way

This book should just simply be the beginner's Python book. It deals in all the basics of learning the language, and then it also applies it to fun projects. I didn't need it mostly, except for the mass file formatting cook book, but I could teach my Medical AI class basic Python with this without them every getting fed up by all the boring documentation.

The content of the book is incredible! One of the best python books I've come across. The problem for me is that the cover of the book has already detached from the spine of the book after a day, not even with rough handling, simply being left open on a table.

Due to the fact it doesn't cover OOP which i would consider pretty important for any starter but if you know the basic and you want to automate the boring stuff at work, then this is the book fo ryou

This is a great book. I keep going back to it for ideas.

Excellent book full of useful info for beginners as well as experienced.

Like how this book explains each concept. Practice questions are different enough to examples to make you think but not so different they trip you up. Also like how you end up re-using and building on code as you get through the book.

Probably the best book out there for begginners. It shows fundamentals of programming based in Python, but it can be implemented later on to more then just that.

I love this book! It is very well structured and helps the reader to follow the correct path in order to familiarize themselves with Python.

Does not cover OOP or best coding practises, not really sure what purpose it fills...

The chapter on Pyautogui is very useful for automating other non-python programs.

Excellent starters guide to Python

Good for beginners. But a very expensive book.

Excellent Book for Python learners. Quality of the book is so good that being a thick book containing 500+ pages the printers having taken to bind the book in such a way the binding is not damaged and reading is so smooth. Author, Book Content, Quality of Book all I am giving 5*. But only suggestion to Amazon is to speed up delivery by improving the logistics maybe in certain departments related to certain products like books.... It took 5+ days to get the book. Otherwise all good. Happy. Thanks Amazon.

Ce n'est pas une vraie initiation, mais comme le titre le laisse entendre, un cahier de recettes pour quiconque veut seulement automatiser quelques tâches simples. Les exemples donnés peuvent être utiles d'entrée, mais ils ne vous apprendront pas vraiment à maîtriser la logique du langage pour passer à des tâches plus élaborées. Je cherche en vain l'équivalent pour Python 3 de ce qu'était originalement le "Learning Python in 24-hours" pour la version1.7, hélas complètement dépassé aujourd'hui.

Habe mir schon die erste Ausgabe damals gekauft und kann nur sagen, ich liebe dies Buchreihe. Mittlerweile hab ich es durch und es wandert an meinen neuen Kollegen weiter. Kann ich uneingeschränkt empfehlen ...

I purchased this book along with python crash course book & I was reading the booking in parallel to python crash course. Definitely a book to compliment python crash course without which developers wouldn't get practical use of python programming language for day-to-day tasks.

Das Buch ist leicht lesbar, aufgeführt mit praktischen Beispielen und konzentriert sich auf das Wesentliche. Ich konnte schon das Wissen aus dem Buch für meine Web Scraping Projekte nutzen.

As others mentioned, the quality of the book itself is a bit poor. The cover loosened over time until completely fell of. I've read quite some books and never have I seen that happen to one of them. But I can live with it, since the content is great. Lot's of examples and small projects which really gives you a better idea of the topics. I wouldn't say I'm a complete beginner, but I definitely have lot's to learn and this book is great for that.

Amazing book for beginners , It explains everything so well. One of the best book to learn python in starting 6 chapters tells us about python language and in rest chapters it tells us how to automate tasks using python

It's perfect for any kind of developer (including the beginners).

El libro es fácil de leer y comprender; aunado a que puedes practicar mientras vas avanzando entre sus páginas.

Muy buen libro, me gusta el estilo y los ejemplos me resultan interesantes

Per chi non ha un'infarinatura di cosa siano i linguaggi di programmazione e di cosa sia il Python, è decisamente un must da cui partire!

Al Sweigart simplifies the technical stuff, so the reader can learn Python the easy way at the same time it's point the way to the more advanced technical stuff.

The book was received in good condition, all pages intact, no issues. I guess if you buy directly from the author's website, you get free access to the pdf and kindle version as well.

Interesting book, covers a wide range of topics however on the downside doesn't go deep on any aspects. Subscribing to the Udemy course on the book is also preferred, but it's not absolutely necessary .

Product quality is good,I'm giving 4 stars because the packaging could have been improved.had to clean it before use.font size and paper used is also good.

useless book.

Amazing resource. Easy to read and understand. Code that works. I would have paid twice as much just for the ezgmail module. Very practical applications.

Great book and very useful as a resource. Easy to follow.

I haven't read the book yet but I just impressed by the introduction given in the book. The material is good quality Satisfied with the product.

Excellent book

Received the book in perfect condition. Thanks.

Hello World

Item was as advertised.

This book is nice informative good programs and it has one program after end of every chapter that's very nice

Ben scritto e chiaro!

Nice...Had basics concepts to understand and can get used to with writing programs.

Es un "must" definitivamente. Muy buena lectura.

The book was damaged. It also seemed like a used one.

A must need for any beginners who want to master the language

Boníssim. Teoria i pràctica alhora.

Overall quality is good and includes almost all the basic topics.

I enjoy this book. It covers practical aspects clearly.

Bravo pour ce passage en revue de beaucoup d'aspects du langage Python (la notion de classes par exemple n'est toutefois pas abordée) dans une formulation claire avec une multitude d'exemples pour s'entrainer et développer son autonomie.

Book looks pretty amazing!