Hands-On Python for Beginners

The printed book

Hands-On Python for Beginners

Build Projects and Automate Everyday Tasks

By Nuruzzaman Faruqui, Levin Kuhlmann, Mahsa Salehi and Yun Zhao.

About the authors

Who it's for

Students, office workers, researchers, teachers, people changing careers, and anyone who wants to stop doing the same tedious task by hand every Friday afternoon. You don't need to be “technical”, and you don't need to have written code before. The book goes slowly, explains why things work, and builds real projects as it goes.

Get the book

The printed book has every explanation, story, project and recipe. This website shows you what its code does.

The printed book is coming soon. Check back here for the link.

What's inside

Front matter

  • Dedication

Part 0: Confidence Before Code

  • Chapter 0: How to Use This Book

Part 1: Getting Comfortable with Python

  • Chapter 1: Welcome to Python
  • Chapter 2: Setting Up Python the Easy Way
  • Chapter 3: Variables, Data Types, and Simple Programs

Part 2: Teaching Python to Think

  • Chapter 4: Making Decisions with Python
  • Chapter 5: Loops: Making Python Do Repetitive Work
  • Chapter 6: Working with Collections of Data

Part 3: Writing Cleaner and Smarter Python

  • Chapter 7: Functions: Reuse Without Copy-Paste
  • Chapter 8: Handling Errors and Bad Input Gracefully
  • Chapter 9: Working with Files and Folders
  • Chapter 10: Modules, Imports, and Project Structure

Part 4: Classes (Done the Right Way)

  • Chapter 11: Classes Without the Headache
  • Chapter 12: Inheritance and Composition (Used Carefully)
  • Chapter 13: Project: Personal Automation Toolkit

Part 5: Automation That Actually Saves Time

  • Chapter 14: Automating Files and Folders
  • Chapter 15: Working with CSV and Excel Files
  • Chapter 16: Finding Patterns in Text (Regular Expressions)
  • Chapter 17: PDFs and Documents
  • Chapter 18: Time, Scheduling, and Launching Programs

Part 6: Web and Modern Data

  • Chapter 19: Getting Data from the Internet
  • Chapter 20: JSON and Data Pipelines

Part 7: Debugging, Testing, and Professional Habits

  • Chapter 21: Debugging Like a Programmer
  • Chapter 22: Testing (Just Enough to Be Confident)
  • Chapter 23: Virtual Environments and Packages

Part 8: Capstone, Web, and Machine Learning

  • Chapter 24: Capstone: Everyday Automation Suite
  • Chapter 25: Build Your First Python Web App
  • Chapter 26: Your First Machine Learning Project (Without Fear)

Part 9: Everyday Automation Recipes

  • Chapter 27: Recipes for Email, Reminders and Reports
  • Chapter 28: Recipes for Photos, PDFs and Files
  • Chapter 29: Recipes for the Web and Your Desktop

Part 10: What Comes Next

  • Chapter 30: Where to Go Next (Now You’re Ready)

Appendices

  • Appendix A: Error Messages and What They Mean
  • Appendix B: Python Quick Reference
  • Appendix C: Setup and Troubleshooting

Back matter

  • Glossary
  • Index
  • About the Authors