Useful in many roles, from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and maintenance, Python is consistently ranked among today's most popular programming languages. The third edition of this practical book provides a quick reference to the language--including Python 3.5, 2.7, and highlights of 3.6--commonly used areas of its vast standard library, and some of the most useful third-party modules and packages.

Ideal for programmers with some Python experience, and those coming to Python from other programming languages, this book covers a wide range of application areas, including web and network programming, XML handling, database interactions, and high-speed numeric computing. Discover how Python provides a unique mix of elegance, simplicity, practicality, and sheer power.

This edition covers:

• Python syntax, Object-Oriented Python, standard library modules, and third-party Python packages
• Python's support for file and text operations, persistence and databases, concurrent execution, and numeric computations
• Networking basics, event-driven programming, and client-side network protocol modules
• Python extension modules, and tools for packaging and distributing extensions, modules, and applications