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Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

Allen B. Downey

Version 1.1.21

• Preface
  • The strange history of this book
  • Acknowledgements
  • Contributor List
• The way of the program
  • The Python programming language
  • What is a program?
  • What is debugging?
  • Formal and natural languages
  • The first program
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Variables, expressions and statements
  • Values and types
  • Variables
  • Variable names and keywords
  • Statements
  • Operators and operands
  • Expressions
  • Order of operations
  • String operations
  • Comments
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Functions
  • Function calls
  • Type conversion functions
  • Math functions
  • Composition
  • Adding new functions
  • Definitions and uses
  • Flow of execution
  • Parameters and arguments
  • Variables and parameters are local
  • Stack diagrams
  • Fruitful functions and void functions
  • Why functions?
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Case study: interface design
  • TurtleWorld
  • Simple repetition
  • Exercises
  • Encapsulation
  • Generalization
  • Interface design
  • Refactoring
  • A development plan
  • docstring
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Conditionals and recursion
  • Modulus operator
  • Boolean expressions
  • Logical operators
  • Conditional execution
  • Alternative execution
  • Chained conditionals
  • Nested conditionals
  • Recursion
  • Stack diagrams for recursive functions
  • Infinite recursion
  • Keyboard input
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Fruitful functions
  • Return values
  • Incremental development
  • Composition
  • Boolean functions
  • More recursion
  • Leap of faith
  • One more example
  • Checking types
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Iteration
  • Multiple assignment
  • Updating variables
  • The while statement
  • break
  • Square roots
  • Algorithms
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Strings
  • A string is a sequence
  • len
  • Traversal with a for loop
  • String slices
  • Strings are immutable
  • Searching
  • Looping and counting
  • string methods
  • The in operator
  • String comparison
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Case study: word play
  • Reading word lists
  • Exercises
  • Search
  • Looping with indices
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Lists
  • A list is a sequence
  • Lists are mutable
  • Traversing a list
  • List operations
  • List slices
  • List methods
  • Map, filter and reduce
  • Deleting elements
  • Lists and strings
  • Objects and values
  • Aliasing
  • List arguments
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Dictionaries
  • Dictionary as a set of counters
  • Looping and dictionaries
  • Reverse lookup
  • Dictionaries and lists
  • Memos
  • Global variables
  • Long integers
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Tuples
  • Tuples are immutable
  • Tuple assignment
  • Tuples as return values
  • Variable-length argument tuples
  • Lists and tuples
  • Dictionaries and tuples
  • Comparing tuples
  • Sequences of sequences
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Case study: data structure selection
  • Word frequency analysis
  • Random numbers
  • Word histogram
  • Most common words
  • Optional parameters
  • Dictionary subtraction
  • Random words
  • Markov analysis
  • Data structures
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Files
  • Persistence
  • Reading and writing
  • Format operator
  • Filenames and paths
  • Catching exceptions
  • Databases
  • Pickling
  • Pipes
  • Writing modules
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Classes and objects
  • User-defined types
  • Attributes
  • Rectangles
  • Instances as return values
  • Objects are mutable
  • Copying
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Classes and functions
  • Time
  • Pure functions
  • Modifiers
  • Prototyping versus planning
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Classes and methods
  • Object-oriented features
  • Printing objects
  • Another example
  • A more complicated example
  • The init method
  • The __str__ method
  • Operator overloading
  • Type-based dispatch
  • Polymorphism
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Inheritance
  • Card objects
  • Class attributes
  • Comparing cards
  • Decks
  • Printing the deck
  • Add, remove, shuffle and sort
  • Inheritance
  • Class diagrams
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Case study: Tkinter
  • GUI
  • Buttons and callbacks
  • Canvas widgets
  • Coordinate sequences
  • More widgets
  • Packing widgets
  • Menus and Callables
  • Binding
  • Debugging
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Debugging
  • Syntax errors
  • Runtime errors
  • Semantic errors
• Index