Table of Contents
Preface ........................................................................................................ vii
1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 1
1.1. Programs, data, and mathematical objects ..................................... 1
1.2. A first look at Python .................................................................... 3
1.3. A little mathematical terminology ................................................ 10
2. An overview of Python ........................................................................... 17
2.1. Introduction ................................................................................. 17
2.2. Values, types, and names ............................................................. 18
2.3. Integers ........................................................................................ 19
2.4. Floating-point numbers ................................................................ 23
2.5. Strings .......................................................................................... 25
3. Python programs .................................................................................... 29
3.1. Statements ................................................................................... 29
3.2. Conditionals ................................................................................ 31
3.3. Iterations ..................................................................................... 35
4. Python functions ..................................................................................... 41
4.1. Function definitions ..................................................................... 41
4.2. Recursive functions ...................................................................... 43
4.3. Functions as values ...................................................................... 45
4.4. Lambda expressions ..................................................................... 48
5. Tuples ..................................................................................................... 51
5.1. Ordered pairs and n-tuples .......................................................... 51
5.2. Tuples in Python .......................................................................... 52
5.3. Files and databases ...................................................................... 54
6. Sequences ............................................................................................... 57
6.1. Properties of sequences ................................................................ 57
6.2. Monoids ...................................................................................... 59
6.3. Sequences in Python ..................................................................... 64
6.4. Higher-order sequence functions .................................................. 67
6.5. Comprehensions .......................................................................... 73
6.6. Parallel processing ....................................................................... 74
7. Streams ................................................................................................... 83
7.1. Dynamically-generated sequences ................................................ 83
7.2. Generator functions ..................................................................... 85
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