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  • Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 2nd Edition: Practical Programming for Total Beginners

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Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 2nd Edition: Practical Programming for Total Beginners 2nd Edition

by Al Sweigart (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars (3,483)
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Purchase options and add-ons

Learn how to code while you write programs that effortlessly perform useful feats of automation!

The second edition of this international fan favorite includes a brand-new chapter on input validation, Gmail and Google Sheets automations, tips for updating CSV files, and more.

If you've ever spent hours renaming files or updating spreadsheet cells, you know how tedious tasks like these can be. But what if you could have your computer do them for you? Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 2nd Edition teaches even the technically uninclined how to write programs that do in minutes what would take hours to do by hand—no prior coding experience required!

This new, fully revised edition of Al Sweigart’s bestselling Pythonic classic, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, covers all the basics of Python 3 while exploring its rich library of modules for performing specific tasks, like scraping data off the Web, filling out forms, renaming files, organizing folders, sending email responses, and merging, splitting, or encrypting PDFs. There’s also a brand-new chapter on input validation, tutorials on automating Gmail and Google Sheets, tips on automatically updating CSV files, and other recent feats of automations that improve your efficiency.

Detailed, step-by-step instructions walk you through each program, allowing you to create useful tools as you build out your programming skills, and updated practice projects at the end of each chapter challenge you to improve those programs and use your newfound skills to automate similar tasks. Boring tasks no longer have to take to get through—and neither does learning Python!
Read more
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  1. ISBN-10
    1593279922
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1593279929
  3. Edition
    2nd
  4. Publisher
    No Starch Press
  5. Publication date
    November 12, 2019
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.01 x 1.26 x 9.25 inches
  8. Print length
    592 pages
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Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 3rd Edition
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From the Publisher

Image
Python for Kids, 2nd Edition by Jason Briggs
Image
Python Crash Course, 3rd Edition by Eric Matthes
Image
Automate the Boring Stuff 2nd edition by Al Sweigart
Image
Dead Simple Python by Jason C McDonald
Image
Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python by Al Sweigart
Image
Object-Oriented Python by Irv Kalb
Customer Reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars 144
4.8 out of 5 stars 2,214
4.7 out of 5 stars 3,483
4.6 out of 5 stars 68
4.7 out of 5 stars 349
4.7 out of 5 stars 221
Price $18.27 $27.53 $24.73 $45.36 $19.55 $39.56
User experience level Beginner Beginner Beginner Beginners with prior programming experience Intermediate Intermediate
For readers who want A gentle, kid-friendly introduction to Python A fast-paced, thorough introduction to Python A practical guide to using Python for automating tedious tasks A thorough introduction to Python for existing programmers Bridges the gap between novice and professional Learn how to write powerful, efficient, and re-usable code.
Compatible with Python version Python 3 Python 3 Python 3 Python 3 Python 3.6 and higher Python 3
Special features Kid-friendly, full-color code and illustrations Covers Django, matplotlib and plotly, and pygame Covers working with files en masse, automating emails and texts, scraping the web, and more Covers syntax basics, functions, parallelism and debugging Covers decorators, generators, context managers, testing, and web development Covers modeling, pygame, inheritance, polymorphism, abstraction, and encapsulation
Page count 368 pages 552 pages 592 pages 752 pages 384 pages 416 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review

"With lessons on how to use Python to program Excel spreadsheets, crawl websites, parse PDFs and Word documents, send emails, and other productivity-boosting task automation, it's a stellar resource for office workers, academics, and administrators."
—Mashable

"I think many educational resources jump levels way too quickly. One of the best I ever used was Automate the Boring Stuff with Python - that book stayed at the right level the whole way!"
—Oscar Baruffa, @OscarBaruffa

Praise for the first edition of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python:

"The best part of programming is the triumph of seeing the machine do something useful. Automate the Boring Stuff with Python frames all of programming as these small triumphs; it makes the boring fun.”
—Hilary Mason, Founder of Fast Forward Labs and Data Scientist in Residence at Accel
“Do you need Automate the Boring Stuff with Python? Yes, if you want to enhance your workflow by using automation, this is an excellent place to start. Highly recommended.”
—Network World
 
“Valuable to have on your shelf...an extremely useful book.”
—Kids, Code, and Computer Science Magazine
 
"Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is perfect for anyone who has menial tasks they don't want to spend hours doing."
—GeekMom

"Whether you prefer working through a book, or learning by watching, or both together, Automate the Boring Stuff will have you productive in Python in no time."
—Serdar Yegulalp, InfoWorld

"If you seriously want to know how much Python helps with automation, my favorite place is the Automate Boring Stuff with Python book, a simply awesome book."
—Javin Paul, Hacker Noon

"This is certainly a much more engaging way to learn Python . . . it gets you all excited by the prospect of making cool little programs that will save you time."
—Andrew Lau, AndrewLauActuary.com

"I've found both the book and Udemy course of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python by Al Sweigart to be really helpful."
—Mark S, @Awful_Curious

"Best Python book you can buy today."
—Rodrigo Ribeiro, @mcapablanca

About the Author

Al Sweigart is a professional software developer who teaches programming to kids and adults. Sweigart has written several bestselling programming books for beginners, including Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, Cracking Codes with Python, and Coding with Minecraft (all from No Starch Press).

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ No Starch Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 12, 2019
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 2nd
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1593279922
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1593279929
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.43 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.01 x 1.26 x 9.25 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #51,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars (3,483)

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Al Sweigart

Al Sweigart

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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Al Sweigart is a software developer and tech book author living in Houston. He has written several programming books for beginners, including Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. His books are freely available under a Creative Commons license at his website https://inventwithpython.com.

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
3,483 global ratings
Sponsored

Customers say

Customers find this Python book excellent for beginners, particularly after completing the Python Crash Course, and appreciate its clear explanations and simple-to-follow projects. Moreover, the book is well-written and serves as a useful study guide, helping readers focus on key concepts. Additionally, they value its practical approach to automation, with one customer highlighting its comprehensive coverage of basic functions.
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57 customers mention content, 52 positive, 5 negative
Customers find the book's content amazing and appreciate its explanations, with one customer noting it makes the learning process enjoyable.
Great book! Really helpful, I’m learning much more than from the courses I took for python. Would definitely recommend to anyone!Read more
...Overall good book just wished it was better organized for the “beginner”Read more
This is a very good text book. Very easy to follow.Read more
...to my small collection of Python books, and I am sure it will be a very good book, because this is not my first book for the same author...Read more
46 customers mention practical, 44 positive, 2 negative
Customers find the book practical, serving as a useful study guide that helps them learn and focus on the right programming concepts.
...The book is well-written and helpful. There are myriad chapters on interesting and helpful topics.Read more
...The code examples and quizzes are very useful and practical, such as how to find information using Regular Expressions, send text messages with...Read more
...lot of ground and I was totally impressed and found it very fun and educational....Read more
This isn't my first Python book and I find it very useful to get down to the simply use of writing and understanding functional code....Read more
40 customers mention readability, 31 positive, 9 negative
Customers find the book very easy to understand, with simple-to-follow projects, and one customer notes that everything is laid out nicely.
The author does a great job of presenting the python language in an easy to read and approchable manner....Read more
...The material they present continues to be easy to understand with every new book I buy from them....Read more
...This book is very easy to understand. Al clearly explained how stuff work on different operating systems such as windows, Mac , and linux.Read more
Didn’t like the layout of information given. Complex, not simple, and the prose and voice was difficult to understand....Read more
24 customers mention suitable for beginners, 22 positive, 2 negative
Customers find the book suitable for beginners, with multiple reviews noting it's the best choice after Python Crash Course, and one customer mentioning it's particularly helpful for non-programmers.
Great for beginners, great overall overview. I am self-taught with Python and this book is the perfect guide for me whenever I get stuck....Read more
Al is simply the best Python instructor. Please do a new Pygame book.Read more
Great book for beginnersRead more
This book is intended for beginners, and really breaks down python in a very approachable manner....Read more
7 customers mention writing quality, 6 positive, 1 negative
Customers appreciate the writing quality of the book.
I bought this book to kill time during the Covid lockdown. It is well written and easy to follow but there is a problem with the digital version....Read more
...The book is well-written and helpful. There are myriad chapters on interesting and helpful topics.Read more
I really appreciate this book. It is very helpful and well written....Read more
Using this for class and i love how it's easy and well written outRead more
5 customers mention automation, 5 positive, 0 negative
Customers appreciate the book's automation content, with one mentioning it covers basic Python functions and provides sample programs, while another notes it increases accuracy through automation.
...for working on several projects to gain efficiencies and increase accuracy with automation!...Read more
This give a couple of program to use that you have to download first. It explains good....Read more
Literally my favorite book on the basic automation functions of Python....Read more
...knowing no programming to knowing how to do basic scripting and automation tasks. Very useful....Read more
5 customers mention projects, 5 positive, 0 negative
Customers appreciate the projects in the book, with one mentioning that programming is a creative activity.
...I was able to pick up Python in almost no time. Great examples, interesting projects, easy to read and understand.Read more
...Breaks down the projects to make them easier to understand what is going on, and has a decent pace, although there are spots where you need to read...Read more
...Programming is a creative activity. I am happy to create Python tools to help me automate boring and very boring tasks! I want to go further!...Read more
Plenty of interesting ideas in here....Read more
I am sure it will be a very good book
5 out of 5 stars
I am sure it will be a very good book
Add this book to my small collection of Python books, and I am sure it will be a very good book, because this is not my first book for the same author (Al Sweigart), I have one more else, +the author provides all his books for free reading in the net, +there is an Udemy video course for this book by him. Hoping good reading, practicing, time with this book.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Detroit Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars My sixth book from No Starch Press, not disappointed.
    Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2021
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I have six books from this company now, three on Linux and three on Python. All are excellent additions to any library. The material they present continues to be easy to understand with every new book I buy from them. Coding is NOT easy, there's a lot of stuff to learn and tons that you've got to commit to memory. These books make the process enjoyable, and they use practical examples that make it a lot easier to understand things like the flow of logic within statements.

    Allow me to give a little context: I started with computers in the 80's when I was a kid. BASIC was all I had access to, fun, but not a great start. My first PC came along and I learned DOS, despite the mostly crappy documentation. Linux came along at the end of the 90's and, while it was a great OS back then, documentation held it back on the desktop. Best I could do was get it to boot, so Windows was the only choice for a couple decades.

    Flash forward to the present, and I've ditched Windows completely, picked up a couple books (I don't yet own a book on Linux NOT published by No Starch) and I do better now with Linux than I ever did with Windows. Linux documentation quality is also light-years beyond what it was in the 90's, too. I spent a month on Mint and went straight to Arch. Things have changed THAT much.
    12 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Robin P.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introductory Python Programming Book
    Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2020
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I am working through this book and haven't finished it yet. I am a long term programmer having programmed for pay in Fortran for multiple jobs. I have been programming for over 30 years and learning an object oriented language requires a shift in perspective. So, I need little in algorithm development but details on the language features is important and capabilities to do the things that were simple in other languages is important to know how to do it in Python. This book is very complementary to the book Think Python, IMHO.

    I am working in Data Science and Machine Learning in particular and found that my ability to program in Python was lacking. So far this book has done a very good job familiarizing me with how to do certain critical things in Python. For Data Science having a section on web site data scraping is very important. I could just look how to do this. Also the data structures are much richer and varied. In Fortran you created any complexity in data structure yourself. I highly recommend this book for both new programmers and advanced programmers who need or want to learn Python.
    7 people found this helpful
    Helpful
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  • Levi Gonzales
    5.0 out of 5 stars Really made for total beginners but can be used by seasoned developers as well
    Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2020
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    As this book makes very clear from the start, you don’t have to be a programmer to using this book. I’m a professional software engineer that just needed to learn some python automation for work and personal projects. This book helped me get there but I can see how this book really was tailored toward those who are not experienced in programming as it breaks down each section into consumable bits that would seem a bit tedious to someone like me but would be perfectly helpful to someone without programming experience. I was able to skim the first few chapters that teach the language as I’m already versed in programming and was able to glean pythons syntax style pretty quickly. It’s a simple yet elegant language especially compared to others that I use daily. The part about this book that got me all excited was the web scraping section. As a web developer, I deal with web pages a lot and it would be nice to have some scripts that would auto fill forms and interact with the web pages for me as I’m making code changes on the day to day. It would really make my job—even as a developer—super easy, and it has.
    61 people found this helpful
    Helpful
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  • John
    4.0 out of 5 stars Overall great book but not so great for actual programming beginners
    Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2020
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    While this is indeed a great book to get started with python projects I won’t say it’s a great book for total beginners.

    The author often uses coding concepts at the beginning of the book that are not explained until a later chapter leaving some beginners feeling overwhelmed with his programming methods.

    I am not a beginner though so understanding the basics was easy for me. The projects are really good for beginners too. Though I would recommend starting with Python Crash Course 2nd edition which goes through the fundamentals in greater detail and is more organized in its teaching approach (it also comes with projects at the end of the fundamental chapters).

    Overall good book just wished it was better organized for the “beginner”
    33 people found this helpful
    Helpful
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  • Andre Cheung
    5.0 out of 5 stars Easy-to-read Python book with many practical code examples!
    Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is an easy-to-read and quick-to-apply Python book with many practical program examples. Thanks, Al!

    I didn't do any programming other than simple automation shell scripts after graduation. This summer, I wanted to help my interns build a new MVP (minimum viable product). I was keen to develop some automation tools to help my customers control their cameras. I am glad that I took action to learn and code in Python!

    I was lucky to find "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python"! The book cover is eye-catching. The preface is clear about what readers can achieve from the book. The code examples and quizzes are very useful and practical, such as how to find information using Regular Expressions, send text messages with Twilio, and draw text on images. I applied them to build my first Python-based MVP!

    Programming is a creative activity. I am happy to create Python tools to help me automate boring and very boring tasks! I want to go further! I continue my Python journey with "Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python"!
    13 people found this helpful
    Helpful
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  • D. Provenzano
    5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read
    Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2026
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I took a coding class using this as its textbook. I found it easy to read and easy to understand.
    Helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Johan
    4.0 out of 5 stars Introduktion till Python för alla dvs för icke programmerare
    Reviewed in Sweden on February 11, 2024
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Helt okey intro bok till Python.
    Report
  • Josep Maria
    5.0 out of 5 stars Teòric i pràctic.
    Reviewed in Spain on January 30, 2020
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Boníssim. Teoria i pràctica alhora.
    Report
  • Jonathan Piedra Soberanis
    5.0 out of 5 stars Me gustó el libro
    Reviewed in Mexico on March 5, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Elegí que fuera en inglés porque también me preparo para ello y aún así encontré el material muy explícito
    Report
  • Vinod.Kochi
    5.0 out of 5 stars Automate the boring stuff with Python 2nd edition.. Excellent quality Book..
    Reviewed in India on March 16, 2021
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Excellent Book for Python learners. Quality of the book is so good that being a thick book containing 500+ pages the printers having taken to bind the book in such a way the binding is not damaged and reading is so smooth.

    Author, Book Content, Quality of Book all I am giving 5*.

    But only suggestion to Amazon is to speed up delivery by improving the logistics maybe in certain departments related to certain products like books....
    It took 5+ days to get the book.

    Otherwise all good. Happy.

    Thanks Amazon.
    Report
  • Sean
    5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book for moving from basic to intermediate Python skills
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2023
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Positive Python Logo
    Automate the boring stuff
    Automate The Boring Stuff With Python : Practical Programming for Total Beginners
    Sean Massey 5 Feb 2023
    Automate the boring stuff
    Categories: Book Review, Foundation, Intermediate, Skills
    If you’ve ever spent hours renaming files or updating hundreds of spreadsheet cells, you know how tedious tasks like these can be. But what if you could have your computer do them for you? In this fully revised second edition of the best-selling classic Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, you’ll learn how to use Python to write programs that do in minutes what would take you hours to do by hand—no prior programming experience required.…
    I’ve just finished the final challenge of the final chapter of Al Sweigart’s awesome Automate the Boring Stuff With Python. It has been an immensity enjoyable journey through Python’s basic and intermediate programming skills and I have learnt a great deal about how I will build my applications in Python.

    It covers the basics very quickly, Al is really upfront about this though and from my point of view it meant I could brush up some core skills before diving into what feels like some pretty advanced stuff really quickly. Each chapter follows a really clear structure; basic principals, example code typed into IDLE, build a sample project in your editor that Al provides, review, questions about the chapter, Al offers some challenges for you to do yourself. These are done in the style of the technical challenge on The great British Bake Off, by which I mean he offers a description of what app you need to bake, with some essential ingredients you should be using, but leaving plenty of space for you to bake your code, your way. Everything you need is in the book so you will never get lost.

    As the books travels through the chapters, some of these example projects combine skills learnt previously and really opened my eyes to the power that can quickly created by the combination of great foundational Python skills and the libraries available to me.

    Al’s writing style is conversational and direct, which I found very easy to follow and if you also follow him on Twitter you will see reflects his free-spirited Twitter personality. I’d love to meet him one day to see if it matches his actual personality…I’ll bet it does.

    A couple of things to think about while you are using this book;

    1. Al (quite deliberately) does not use full PEP8 styling in his code. For me this was not a problem at all, if anything it enhances the accessibility of the book. I found I used his styling when entering code into REPL, but when coding in the IDE I ‘translated’ to PEP8 as this helped me reinforce those skills for myself and also forced me to really understand how the projects work, which helped me when I wrote my own.
    2. There have been some changes to APIs and Libraries since the book was published, however the book’s website helps you through this and also has all the download files you need to complete the project, a feature I don’t see in many other books aimed at the same market.
    3. You will need to learn a bit about how your operating system manages paths/folders/files which can be a little esoteric. However, Al provides great guidance on this topic and for me this is an essential skill for any Python coder.
    4. At first the end of chapter challenges feel a little daunting….believe me if you complete them all (and all the knowledge you need is in the book) then you will improve your understanding of you will build your own applications more quickly then you can imagine!
    The areas covered in the book are;

    Part I: Python Programming Basics

    Chapter 1: Python Basics
    Chapter 2: Flow Control
    Chapter 3: Functions
    Chapter 4: Lists
    Chapter 5: Dictionaries and Structuring Data
    Chapter 6: Manipulating Strings

    Part II: Automating Tasks

    Chapter 7: Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions
    Chapter 8: Input Validation
    Chapter 9: Reading and Writing Files
    Chapter 10: Organizing Files
    Chapter 11: Debugging
    Chapter 12: Web Scraping
    Chapter 13: Working with Excel Spreadsheets
    Chapter 14: Working with Google Sheets
    Chapter 15: Working with PDF and Word Documents
    Chapter 16: Working with CSV Files and JSON Data
    Chapter 17: Keeping Time, Scheduling Tasks, and Launching Programs
    Chapter 18: Sending Email and Text Messages
    Chapter 19: Manipulating Images
    Chapter 20: Controlling the Keyboard and Mouse with GUI Automation

    Appendix A: Installing Third-Party Modules
    Appendix B: Running Programs
    Appendix C: Answers to the Practice Questions

    By the end of this book I could manage files, scrape websites, send SMS’s from Python, look for patterns in massive data sets, manage image files and much more. Thanks Al, I am ready to build my own apps now!
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