Automate The Boring Stuff With Python by Al Sweigart is a great book that will show you how to perform a wide variety of tasks using Python. It is available in a free-to-read online edition, but is one of those books that you will likely want to have handy as a paper copy as it contains so much useful and interesting information.
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Performing practical tasks is a great way to learn any new skill. This hands-on approach provides focus, motivation, and experience from which abstract general principles can later be derived.
Some of the tasks you’ll learn how to automate while learning more about Python programming at the same time include:
- Working with Word Documents, PDFs and Excel spreadsheets
- Automating the keyboard and mouse
- Sending emails and texts
- Web scraping
- Automatically filling out online forms
In performing these tasks, you understanding of Python will automatically grow. You will get a sense of the kinds of things that are possible with Python, get ideas for you own projects, deepen your understanding and work with many powerful Python libraries such as
- requests
- beautifulsoup
- selenium
- PyPDF2
- python-docx
Several of the libraries used have become industry standards for professional developers as well as being very useful for learners and hobbyists.
Who Should Read Automate The Boring Stuff With Python?
Automate The Boring Stuff With Python will provide a wealth of learning for anyone who reads it. In particular it will be of interest to
- Python beginners
- Intermediate Python programmers
- People wanting to transition into a career in software development
- Office workers
- Students
- Administrators
- Anyone who wants to become more productive with their computer time
- Python hobbyists
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python Video Course on Udemy
The Automate the Boring Stuff with Python Video Course on Udemy is suitable for complete beginners as well as people wishing to deepen their knowledge of Python programming and use it to make their lives easier.
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Automate the Boring Stuff with Python Table of Contents
To give you an idea of what fun is in store for you if you read Automate the Boring Stuff with Python the table of contents is shown below.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 – Python Basics
Chapter 2 – Flow Control
Chapter 3 – Functions
Chapter 4 – Lists
Chapter 5 – Dictionaries and Structuring Data
Chapter 6 – Manipulating Strings
Chapter 7 – Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions
Chapter 8 – Input Validation
Chapter 9 – Reading and Writing Files
Chapter 10 – Organizing Files
Chapter 11 – Debugging
Chapter 12 – Web Scraping
Chapter 13 – Working with Excel Spreadsheets
Chapter 14 – Working with Google Spreadsheets
Chapter 15 – Working with PDF and Word Documents
Chapter 16 – Working with CSV Files and JSON Data
Chapter 17 – Keeping Time, Scheduling Tasks, and Launching Programs
Chapter 18 – Sending Email and Text Messages
Chapter 19 – Manipulating Images
Chapter 20 – Controlling the Keyboard and Mouse with GUI Automation
Appendix A – Installing Third-Party Modules
Appendix B – Running Programs
Appendix C – Answers to the Practice Questions
(Link to the older 1st edition.)
Additional Content
Download files used in the book
List of CSS Selector Tutorials
List of JSON APIs
List of Programming Practice Sites
List of Web Comics
Schedulers for Windows, Mac, and Linux
How to Do PyCon (or any tech conference)
The Verdict
Automate The Boring Stuff With Python is a great book that will deepen you understanding of Python programming and show you how to perform a wide variety of tasks using it.
You can get the free-to-read online edition of Automate The Boring Stuff With Python here.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.