About "Python Pocket Reference"

The book Python Pocket Reference—a quick-but-thorough reference resource—has been published in five editions. Each edition has incorporated updates in Python itself, as well its libraries, tools, and common practice. This site (or the publisher) hosts support pages for each edition of this book. Please select the relevant link in the first column of the table below:

Edition	Published	Python	Pages
Python Pocket Reference, 5th Edition	Jan-2014	3.4+2.7	260
Python Pocket Reference, 4th Edition	Sep-2009	3.1+2.6	210
Python Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition	Feb-2005	2.4	160
Python Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition	Nov-2001	2.2	130
Python Pocket Reference, 1st Edition	Nov-1998	1.5	80

This book is a reference-only but content-rich resource for both Python 3.X and 2.X. It covers the Python language as well as its commonly used libraries and tools, and provides quick reference to formal and complete details not given elsewhere. As such, this book is designed to work as a supplement, companion, and extension to other books—including the language-foundations tutorial Learning Python, as well as the follow-up applications tutorial Programming Python. Together, these 3 books provide a 3,500-page set of related Python documentation. For more on this book's scope, see also the 2024 update for this book's latest edition.

About Python Pocket Reference

Book Scope