Python Essentials For Dummies

Chapter 13

Libraries, Packages, and Modules

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding the standard library

Surveying Python packages

Seeing how to import Python modules

For the most part, all the chapters leading up to this one have focused on the core Python language, the elements of the language you’ll need no matter how you intend to use Python. But as you’ve seen, many programs start by importing one or more modules. Each module is essentially a collection of prewritten code, which you can use in your own code without having to reinvent that wheel. The granddaddy of all this prewritten specialized code is called the Python standard library.

Understanding the Python Standard Library

The Python standard library is basically all the stuff you get when you get the Python language, including all the Python data types such as string, integer, float, and Boolean. Every instance of these data types is an instance of a class defined in the standard library. For this reason, the terms type, instance, and object are often used interchangeably. An integer is a whole number; it’s also a data type in Python. But it exists because the standard library contains a class for integers, and every integer ...