This course combines engaging instructor-led presentations and useful demonstrations with valuable hands-on labs and engaging group activities. Throughout the course you'll learn how to:  

Working within in an engaging, hands-on learning environment, guided by our expert instructor, students will learn to:  

• Create working Python scripts following best practices 
• Use python data types appropriately 
• Read and write files with both text and binary data 
• Search and replace text with regular expressions 
• Get familiar with the standard library and its work-saving modules 
• Use lesser known but powerful Python data types 
• Create "real-world", professional Python applications 
• Work with dates, times, and calendars  
• Know when to use collections such as lists, dictionaries, and sets 
• Understand Pythonic features such as comprehensions and iterators 
• Write robust code using exception handling 
• Automate network administrative tasks across distributed clients using SSH, REST, and More 

If your team requires different topics, additional skills or a custom approach, our team will collaborate with you to adjust the course to focus on your specific learning objectives and goals. 

This introductory-level Python course is appropriate for advanced users, system administrators and web site administrators who want to use Python to support their server installations, as well as anyone else who wants to automate or simplify common tasks with the use of Python scripts. Students should have basic development experience in any programming language, along with a working, user-level knowledge of Unix/Linux, Mac, or Windows. 

Please note that this list of topics is based on our standard course offering, evolved from typical industry uses and trends. We'll work with you to tune this course and level of coverage to target the skills you need most. Topics, agenda and labs are subject to change, and may adjust during live delivery based on audience skill level, interests and participation. 

An Overview of Python  

• What is Python? 
• The Birth of Python. 
• About Interpreted Languages 
• Advantages of Python 
• Disadvantages of Python 
• How to get Python 
• Which version of Python? 
• The end of Python 2 
• Getting Help 
• One day on Dagobah 

The Python Environment 

• Starting Python 
• If the interpreter is not in your PATH 
• Using the interpreter 
• Trying out a few commands 
• Running Python scripts (explicit) 
• Running Python scripts (implicit) 
• Using pydoc 
• Python Editors and IDEs 

Getting Started 

• Using variables 
• Keywords and Builtins 
• Variable typing 
• Strings 
• Single-delimited string literals 
• Triple-delimited string literals 
• Raw string literals 
• Unicode characters 
• String operators and methods 
• String Methods 
• Numeric literals 
• Math operators and expressions 
• Converting among types 
• Writing to the screen 
• String Formatting 
• Legacy String Formatting 
• Command line parameters 
• Reading from the keyboard 

Flow Control 

• About flow control 
• What's with the white space? 
• if and elif 
• Conditional Expressions 
• Relational Operators 
• Boolean operators 
• while loops 
• Alternate ways to exit a loop 

Array types 

• About Array Types 
• Lists 
• Tuples 
• Indexing and slicing 
• Iterating through a sequence 
• Unpacking tuples 
• Nested sequences 
• Functions for all sequences 
• Using enumerate() 
• Operators and keywords for sequences 
• The range() function 
• List comprehensions 
• Generator Expressions 

Working with Files 

• Text file I/O 
• Opening a text file 
• The with block 
• Reading a text file 
• Writing to a text file 

Dictionaries 

• About dictionaries 
• When to use dictionaries? 
• Creating dictionaries 
• Getting dictionary values 
• Iterating through a dictionary 
• Reading file data into a dictionary 
• Counting with dictionaries 
• About sets 
• Creating Sets 
• Working with sets 

Functions 

• Defining a function 
• Returning values 
• Function parameters 
• Variable scope 

Sorting 

• Sorting Overview 
• The sorted() function 
• Custom sort keys 
• Lambda functions 
• Sorting nested data 
• Sorting dictionaries 
• Sorting in reverse 
• Sorting lists in place 

Errors and Exception Handling 

• Syntax errors 
• Exceptions 
• Handling exceptions with try 
• Handling multiple exceptions 
• Handling generic exceptions 
• Ignoring exceptions 
• Using else 
• Cleaning up with finally 

Using Modules 

• What is a module? 
• Creating Modules 
• The import statement 
• Where did __pycache__ come from? 
• Module search path 
• Packages 
• Example 
• Module Aliases 
• When the batteries aren’t included 

An Introduction to Python Classes 

• About O-O programming 
• Defining classes 
• Constructors 
• Instance methods 
• Properties 
• Class methods and data 
• Static Methods 
• Private methods 
• Inheritance 
• Untangling the nomenclature 

Regular Expressions 

• Regular Expressions 
• RE Syntax Overview 
• Finding matches 
• RE Objects 
• Compilation Flags 
• Groups 
• Special Groups 
• Replacing text 
• Replacing with a callback 
• Splitting a string 

Network Programming 

• Grabbing a web page 
• Consuming Web services 
• HTTP the easy way 
• sending e-mail 
• Email attachments 
• Remote Access 
• Copying files with Paramiko 

Sockets 

• Sockets 
• Socket options 
• Server concepts 
• Client concepts 
• Application protocols 
• Forking servers 

Multiprogramming 

• Multiprogramming 
• What Are Threads? 
• The Python Thread Manager 
• The threading Module 
• Threads for the impatient 
• Creating a thread class 
• Variable sharing 
• Using queues 
• Debugging threaded Programs 
• The multiprocessing module 
• Using pools 
• Alternatives to multiprogramming 

Efficient Scripting 

• Running external programs 
• Parsing arguments 
• Creating filters to read text files 
• Logging 

Serializing Data: XML, XPath, JSON, CSV 

• About XML 
• Normal Approaches to XML 
• Which module to use? 
• Getting Started With ElementTree 
• How ElementTree Works 
• Elements 
• Creating a New XML Document 
• Parsing An XML Document 
• Navigating the XML Document 
• Using XPath  
• About JSON  
• Reading JSON  
• Writing JSON  
• Customizing JSON  
• Reading CSV data  
• Nonstandard CSV  
• Using csv.DictReader  
• Writing CSV Data 

Addendum & Resources