The Invent with Python Blog

Writings from the author of Automate the Boring Stuff.

Reading Guide to Automate the Boring Stuff, Second Edition, for Readers of the First Edition

Tue 31 December 2019    Al Sweigart

The second edition of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is now available online under a Creative Commons license. This book teaches programming to complete beginners with no previous experience. The first edition was published in 2015. This blog post outlines the new content in the second edition with links to the content online so that readers of the first edition can immediately find the new content.

You can also buy a print book from the publisher, No Starch Press, and receive PDF/Kindle/epub ebooks for free with purchase (something you won't get from Amazon).

There are many small edit throughout the book, but here are the new sections:

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Python Basics

  • No new sections.

Chapter 2 - Flow Control

Chapter 3 - Functions

Chapter 4 - Lists

Chapter 5 - Dictionaries and Structuring Data

Chapter 6 - Manipulating Strings

Chapter 7 - Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions

  • Date Detection - A practice project to use regex to make sure date strings are properly formatted.

Chapter 8 - Input Validation

Chapter 9 - Reading and Writing Files

Chapter 10 - Organizing Files

  • No new sections.

Chapter 11 - Debugging

  • Mu's Debugger - Since the second edition uses the Mu editor instead of IDLE, the debugging chapter covers Mu's debugger.

Chapter 12 - Web Scraping

Chapter 13 - Working with Excel Spreadsheets

  • No new sections.

Chapter 14 - Working with Google Sheets

Chapter 15 - Working with PDF and Word Documents

  • No new sections.

Chapter 16 - Working with CSV Files and JSON Data

  • No new sections.

Chapter 17 - Keeping Time, Scheduling Tasks, and Launching Programs

  • No new sections.

Chapter 18 - Sending Email and Text Messages

Chapter 19 - Manipulating Images

  • No new sections.

Chapter 20 - Controlling the Keyboard and Mouse with GUI Automation


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Sign up for my "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" online course with this discount link.

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