Python Reference Manual

Guido van Rossum
Dept. AA, CWI, P.O. Box 94079
1090 GB Amsterdam, The Netherlands
E-mail: guido@cwi.nl

13 October 1995
Release 1.3

Copyright © 1991-1995 by Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

All Rights Reserved

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the names of Stichting Mathematisch Centrum or CWI not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission.

STICHTING MATHEMATISCH CENTRUM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL STICHTING MATHEMATISCH CENTRUM BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

Abstract:

• Contents
• Introduction
  • Notation
• Lexical analysis
  • Line structure
    • Comments
    • Explicit line joining
    • Implicit line joining
    • Blank lines
    • Indentation
  • Other tokens
  • Identifiers
    • Keywords
  • Literals
    • String literals
    • Numeric literals
  • Operators
  • Delimiters
• Data model
  • Objects, values and types
  • The standard type hierarchy
  • Special method names
    • Special methods for any type
    • Special methods for attribute access
    • Special methods for sequence and mapping types
    • Special methods for sequence types
    • Special methods for numeric types
• Execution model
  • Code blocks, execution frames, and name spaces
  • Exceptions
• Expressions and conditions
  • Arithmetic conversions
  • Atoms
    • Identifiers (Names)
    • Literals
    • Parenthesized forms
    • List displays
    • Dictionary displays
    • String conversions
  • Primaries
    • Attribute references
    • Subscriptions
    • Slicings
    • Calls
  • Unary arithmetic operations
  • Binary arithmetic operations
  • Shifting operations
  • Binary bit-wise operations
  • Comparisons
  • Boolean operations
  • Expression lists and condition lists
  • Summary
• Simple statements
  • Expression statements
  • Assignment statements
  • The pass statement
  • The del statement
  • The print statement
  • The return statement
  • The raise statement
  • The break statement
  • The continue statement
  • The import statement
  • The global statement
  • The access statement
  • The exec statement
• Compound statements
  • The if statement
  • The while statement
  • The for statement
  • The try statement
  • Function definitions
  • Class definitions
• Top-level components
  • Complete Python programs
  • File input
  • Interactive input
  • Expression input
• Index
• About this document ...