Dmitry Zinoviev, Paul Gries, Jennifer Campbell и др. | Practical Programming. An Introduction to Computer Science Using Python 3.14. 4th Edition + Cpde (2026) [PDF, EPUB] [EN]

In this detailed introduction to Python and to computer programming, find out exactly what happens when your programs are executed. Work with numbers, text, sequences, and files using real-world examples. Create and use your own data types. Make your programs robust and reliable; develop an idiomatic programming style; download data from the web automatically. As you use the fundamental programming tools in this book, you’ll see how to document and organize your code so that you and other programmers can more easily read and understand it. This new edition takes advantage of Python 3.14’s new features, including f-strings, the walrus operator, and richer type annotations on parameters, return types, and variable declarations.
Most importantly, you’ll learn how to think like a professional programmer.
What You Need
You’ll need to download Python 3.14, available from https://python.org. With that download comes IDLE, the editor we use for writing and running Python programs. (If you use Linux, you may need to install Python 3.14 and IDLE separately.)

Acknowledgments
From Paul, Jennifer, and Jason:
From Dmitry:
Preface
1. What’s Programming?
Programs and Programming
What’s a Programming Language?
What’s a Bug?
The Difference Between Brackets, Braces, and Parentheses
Installing Python
2. Hello, Python
How Does a Computer Run a Python Program?
Expressions and Values: Arithmetic in Python
What Is a Type?
Variables and Computer Memory: Remembering Values
How Python Tells You Something Went Wrong
A Single Statement That Spans Multiple Lines
Describing Code
Making Code Readable
The Object of This Chapter
Exercises
3. Designing and Using Functions
Functions That Python Provides
Identities: How Python Keeps Track of Values
Defining Custom Functions
Using Local Variables for Temporary Storage
Tracing Function Calls in the Memory Model
Designing New Functions: A Recipe
Writing and Running a Program
Omitting a return Statement: None
Dealing with Situations That Your Code Doesn’t Handle
What Did You Call That?
Exercises
4. Working with Text
Creating Strings of Characters
Using Special Characters in Strings
Creating a Multiline String
Printing Information
Getting Information from the Keyboard
Formatted Strings
Quotes About Strings
Exercises
5. Making Choices
A Boolean Type
Choosing Which Statements to Execute
Nested if Statements
Memorizing Results of a Boolean Expression Evaluation
You Learned About Booleans: True or False?
Exercises
6. A Modular Approach to Program Organization
Importing Modules
Defining Your Modules
Testing Your Code Semiautomatically
Tips for Grouping Your Functions
Organizing Your Thoughts
Exercises
7. Using Methods
Modules, Classes, and Methods
Calling Methods
Exploring String Methods
What Are Those Underscores?
A Methodical Review
Exercises
8. Storing Collections of Data Using Lists
Storing and Accessing Data in Lists
Type Annotations for Lists
Modifying Lists
Operations on Lists
Slicing Lists
Aliasing: What’s in a Name?
List Methods
Working with a List of Lists
Splitting Strings
A Summary List
Exercises
9. Repeating Code Using Loops
Processing Items in a List
Processing Characters in Strings
Looping Over a Range of Numbers
Processing Lists Using Indices
Nesting Loops in Loops
Looping Until a Condition Is Reached
Repetition Based on User Input
Controlling Loops Using break and continue
Repeating What You’ve Learned
Exercises
10. Reading and Writing Files
What Kinds of Files Are There?
Opening a File
Techniques for Reading Files
Files over the Internet
Writing Files
Writing Example Calls Using StringIO
Writing Algorithms That Use the File-Reading Techniques
Multiline Records
Looking Ahead
Notes to File Away
Exercises
11. Storing Data Using Other Collection Types
Storing Data Using Sets
Storing Data Using Tuples
Storing Data Using Dictionaries
Inverting a Dictionary
Using the in Operator on Tuples, Sets, and Dictionaries
Comparing Collections
Creating New Type Annotations
A Collection of New Information
Exercises
12. Designing and Benchmarking Algorithms
Searching for the Two Smallest Values
Timing the Functions
At a Minimum, You Saw This
Exercises
13. Searching and Sorting
Searching a List
Binary Search
Sorting
More Efficient Sorting Algorithms
Merge Sort: A Faster Sorting Algorithm
Sorting Out What You Learned
Exercises
14. Object-Oriented Programming
Understanding a Problem Domain
Function isinstance, Class object, and Class Book
Writing a Method in Class Book
Plugging into Python Syntax: More Special Methods
A Little Bit of OO Theory
A Case Study: Molecules, Atoms, and PDB Files
Classifying What You’ve Learned
Exercises
15. Testing and Debugging
Why Do You Need to Test?
Case Study: Testing above_freezing
Case Study: Testing running_sum
Choosing Test Cases
Hunting Bugs
Bugs We’ve Put in Your Ear
Exercises
16. Mastering Iteration Tools
Core Idioms
Functional Programming
Built-In and Standard Library Helpers
Let’s Reiterate
Exercises
17. Handling Exceptions
Core Idioms
Accessing Exception Details
Common Built-in Exceptions
Raising and Chaining Exceptions
Defining Custom Exceptions
Exceptionally Important!
Exercises
Bibliography