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Learn Python Programming

You're reading from   Learn Python Programming A comprehensive, up-to-date, and definitive guide to learning Python

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Product type Paperback
Published in Nov 2024
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781835882948
Length 616 pages
Edition 4th Edition
Languages
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Authors (2):
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Heinrich Kruger Heinrich Kruger
Author Profile Icon Heinrich Kruger
Heinrich Kruger
Fabrizio Romano Fabrizio Romano
Author Profile Icon Fabrizio Romano
Fabrizio Romano
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Toc

Table of Contents (20) Chapters Close

Preface A Gentle Introduction to Python FREE CHAPTER Built-In Data Types Conditionals and Iteration Functions, the Building Blocks of Code Comprehensions and Generators OOP, Decorators, and Iterators Exceptions and Context Managers Files and Data Persistence Cryptography and Tokens Testing Debugging and Profiling Introduction to Type Hinting Data Science in Brief Introduction to API Development CLI Applications Packaging Python Applications Programming Challenges Other Books You May Enjoy
Index

Generation behavior in built-ins

Generator-like behavior is quite common among the built-in types and functions. This is a major difference between Python 2 and Python 3. In Python 2, functions such as map(), zip(), and filter() returned lists instead of iterable objects. The idea behind this change is that if you need to make a list of those results, you can always wrap the call in a list() class. On the other hand, if you just need to iterate and want to keep the impact on memory as light as possible, you can use those functions safely. Another notable example is the range() function. In Python 2 it returned a list, and there was another function called xrange() that behaved like the range() function now behaves in Python 3.

The idea of functions and methods that return iterable objects is quite widespread. You can find it in the open() function, which is used to operate on file objects (we will see it in Chapter 8, Files and Data Persistence), but also in enumerate(), in the dictionary...

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