Get a comprehensive, in-depth introduction to the core Python language with this hands-on book. Based on author Mark Lutz's popular training course, this updated fifth edition will help you quickly write efficient, high-quality code with Python. It's an ideal way to begin, whether you're new to programming or a professional developer versed in other languages.

Complete with quizzes, exercises, and helpful illustrations, this easy-to-follow, self-paced tutorial gets you started with both Python 2.7 and 3.3- the latest releases in the 3.X and 2.X lines-plus all other releases in common use today. You'll also learn some advanced language features that recently have become more common in Python code.

• Explore Python's major built-in object types such as numbers, lists, and dictionaries
• Create and process objects with Python statements, and learn Python's general syntax model
• Use functions to avoid code redundancy and package code for reuse
• Organize statements, functions, and other tools into larger components with modules
• Dive into classes: Python's object-oriented programming tool for structuring code
• Write large programs with Python's exception-handling model and development tools
• Learn advanced Python tools, including decorators, descriptors, metaclasses, and Unicode processing