”Tiny Python Projects is a gentle and amusing introduction to Python that will firm up key programming concepts while also making you giggle.”—Amanda Debler, Schaeffler

Key Features

Learn new programming concepts through 21-bitesize programs

Build an insult generator, a Tic-Tac-Toe AI, a talk-like-a-pirate program, and more

Discover testing techniques that will make you a better programmer

Code-along with free accompanying videos on YouTube

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

About The Book

The 21 fun-but-powerful activities in Tiny Python Projects teach Python fundamentals through puzzles and games. You’ll be engaged and entertained with every exercise, as you learn about text manipulation, basic algorithms, and lists and dictionaries, and other foundational programming skills. Gain confidence and experience while you create each satisfying project.

Instead of going quickly through a wide range of concepts, this book concentrates on the most useful skills, like text manipulation, data structures, collections, and program logic with projects that include a password creator, a word rhymer, and a Shakespearean insult generator. Author Ken Youens-Clark also teaches you good programming practice, including writing tests for your code as you go.

What You Will Learn

Write command-line Python programs

Manipulate Python data structures

Use and control randomness

Write and run tests for programs and functions

Download testing suites for each project

This Book Is Written For

For readers familiar with the basics of Python programming.

About The Author

Ken Youens-Clark is a Senior Scientific Programmer at the University of Arizona. He has an MS in Biosystems Engineering and has been programming for over 20 years.

Table of Contents

1 How to write and test a Python program

2 The crow’s nest: Working with strings

3 Going on a picnic: Working with lists

4 Jump the Five: Working with dictionaries

5 Howler: Working with files and STDOUT

6 Words count: Reading files and STDIN, iterating lists, formatting strings

7 Gashlycrumb: Looking items up in a dictionary

8 Apples and Bananas: Find and replace

9 Dial-a-Curse: Generating random insults from lists of words

10 Telephone: Randomly mutating strings

11 Bottles of Beer Song: Writing and testing functions

12 Ransom: Randomly capitalizing text

13 Twelve Days of Christmas: Algorithm design

14 Rhymer: Using regular expressions to create rhyming words

15 The Kentucky Friar: More regular expressions

16 The Scrambler: Randomly reordering the middles of words

17 Mad Libs: Using regular expressions

18 Gematria: Numeric encoding of text using ASCII values

19 Workout of the Day: Parsing CSV files, creating text table output

20 Password strength: Generating a secure and memorable password

21 Tic-Tac-Toe: Exploring state

22 Tic-Tac-Toe redux: An interactive version with type hints