Python 2.7 quick reference

Introduction: What is Python?

Python is a recent, general-purpose, high-level programming language. It is freely available and runs pretty much everywhere.

• This document is a reference guide, not a tutorial. If you are new to Python programming, see A Python programming tutorial.

• Complete documentation and free installs are available from the python.org homepage.

This document does not describe every single feature of Python 2.7. A few interesting features that 99% of Python users will never need, such as metaclasses, are not described here. Refer to the official documentation for the full feature set.

Python 2.7 and Python 3.x

At this writing, both Python 2.7 and Python 3.2 are officially maintained implementations. The 3.0 release marked the first release in the development of Python that a new version was incompatible with the old one.

If you are using 2. x releases of Python, there is no hurry to convert to the 3.x series. Release 2.7 is guaranteed to be around for many years. Furthermore, there are tools to help you automate much of the conversion process. Notes throughout this document will discuss specific features of 2.7 that are intended to ease the transition.