Murach’s Python Programming (3rd Edition)

To present the essential Python skills in a manageable progression and at the right pace, this book is divided into 4 sections.

Section 1: Get your students off to a great start

Section 1 presents an 8-chapter course in Python programming that gets your students off to a solid start. By the end of chapter 2, they’ll have developed their first Python programs. These programs get input, process it, and display output. That’s so much more motivating (and fun!) than writing a “Hello World” program! This section is designed for beginners, but you can adapt the pace if your students have already taken an introductory programming course.

By the time your students finish chapter 4, they’ll be able to develop, test, and debug Python programs that are built entirely of modules and functions. They’ll also be able to use pseudocode to plan their control structures and programs, and to use hierarchy charts to plan the functions of their programs. Then, in chapter 5, they’ll learn advanced techniques for testing and debugging their programs, including how to create unit tests.

In chapters 6, 7, and 8, your students will learn how to use lists and tuples, how to use files for persistent data storage, and how to handle exceptions. This completes a section that by itself is an excellent first course in programming.

Section 2: More essential concepts and skills

The first 4 chapters in section 2 present more skills that every Python programmer should have. That includes how to work with numbers, strings, dates and times, and dictionaries. Then, the last chapter in this section presents algorithms and recursion.

All of the chapters in this section are optional. As a result, if you want, you can skip from section 1 to section 3. Then, you can come back to these chapters later, if you have time.

In addition, all of the chapters in this section are independent of one another. As a result, you can assign them in whatever sequence you prefer. This makes it easy for you to adapt this book to the time constraints and requirements of your course.

Section 3: Object-oriented programming

The 3 chapters in section 3 present essential skills for working with objects and designing an object-oriented program. These skills are the same in all modern programming languages. As a result, once your students master them in Python, they’ll be able to apply these skills to other languages.

Section 4: Database and GUI programming

The 2 chapters in section 4 introduce database programming and GUI programming. This brings all of the skills of sections 1 and 3 into the context of real-world programming. For instance, the last database program in chapter 17 is a 3-tier, object-oriented program, complete with functions, modules, and classes.

A first course in programming

This book is specifically designed for a first course in programming. We recommend students learn Python before other programming languages because of its simple syntax and full feature set. Once your students learn Python, they’ll be ready to learn a second language like Java, C++, or C#. They’ll also be ready to use their Python skills to go on to courses in data science, web development, games programming, or artificial intelligence.

A second course in programming

If you offer a second course in programming that goes beyond your introductory course, this book will work for that too. Thanks to its paired-pages format, it’s easy for your students to move quickly over familiar material and slow down to concentrate on any skills that are difficult for them. This helps them clarify foundational skills before moving on to more advanced skills like object-oriented programming, database programming, and GUI programming.

We’ve designed this book to help your students learn faster and better than ever. Here are a few of the ways it does that:

• This book presents the material in the right order, at the right pace. This allows your students to slowly and methodically build up skills and confidence in section 1. Then, they can pick up the pace once the foundation is in place.
• All the material is in our distinctive paired-pages format, where each topic is presented in a two-page spread: the examples and reference material are on the right-hand page with additional explanation and perspective on the left. It’s the ideal format for today’s fast-paced world full of eager students who want to read less, do more, and pick up information on demand!
• This book presents dozens of complete programs. In each chapter, the programs start simply to illustrate the new concepts and skills, but gradually become more complex to present the new skills in the context of real-world programming. These non-trivial programs are essential to effective learning.

All of the software recommended for this book can be downloaded from the internet for free and installed as described in appendix A (Windows) or B (macOS).

Python and IDLE

Installing Python also installs an integrated development environment called IDLE. Since this IDE makes it easy for students to get started with Python, your students just need to install Python to set up their computers for this course.

DB Browser for SQLite

Chapter 17 shows how to use Python to work with a relational database. If you include this chapter in your course, your students should install DB Browser for SQLite. This makes it easy for them to work with a SQLite database, a popular embedded database that this chapter uses to illustrate skills that apply to most databases.

This 3rd Edition has been thoroughly updated to Python 3.14. However, the table of contents for this book remains unchanged. As a result, if you used an earlier edition, you’ll find it easy to update your course to the 3rd Edition.

When we updated this book, we added coverage of useful Python features introduced between Python 3.9 and 3.14. We also added coverage of some features that have been around prior to Python 3.9 but have become more important in recent years. In addition, we used feedback from instructors to improve some other parts of the book. Here’s a quick summary of the changes:

• Chapter 3 adds coverage of the match/case statement. This can help create selection statements that are easier to read and have less code duplication than long if/elif statements.
• Chapter 5 adds coverage of unit tests. This is a critical skill for modern software development, especially if you’re using AI to generate code.
• Chapters 6, 12, and 15 add coverage of structural pattern matching. This allows you to perform different actions depending on the data and structure of lists, dictionaries, and objects.
• Chapter 14 improves our previous coverage of data classes. This makes it easier for your students to understand when and how to use data classes.
• Chapter 18 adds coverage of combo boxes, tree views, and event handling. This makes it possible for your students to create more interesting GUI programs.

"Today my whole class chimed in to tell me how much they love your Python book. I was shocked...it came out of nowhere. They told me it's the clearest textbook they have and wish all their textbooks used the same format."
- Elizabeth Drake, Professor/Programming & Analysis, Gainesville, Florida

“I've been a fan of Murach's approach to teaching programming concepts and practices for many years. Now they've finally published a book on Python, and they've done a wonderful job. The book explores a wide breadth of topics to get you competent in the language and the conventions used by the Python community. A valuable resource for coders of all levels.”
- Jason Salas, Developer

“Murach isn't a publisher I was familiar with so I was surprised when I started reading its Python book and found it to be of such high quality. The text is clear and the examples are interesting. I really like that you get to write mini-programs in almost all of the chapters and they almost always do something besides just printing out a string.”
- Mike Driscoll, Programmer, Mouse vs Python blog

“This is by far the best Python tutorial I have come across. Tried Udemy, Udacity, some other video and printed tutorials, but didn’t get the feel of it. Murach's side-by-side lecture & example really works for me. And the sample codes and exercises are valuable tutorials that any newbie will want to keep as reference materials. Really effective training style.”
- Posted at an online bookseller

“Best programming book on Python. You'll learn to love Murach's books. I learned Python and now I'm learning Java. I bought Murach's Java book even though we're using another one for class.”
- Posted online by a student

“YouTube is not the same, this is way better: This book is super detailed in the right ways to learn. I have bought about three different authors and this guy is the best if you’re new and want to learn! Thank you for being such a great teacher.”
- Posted at an online bookseller

“I found this to be a fantastic book for taking folk with no Python knowledge to a good firm grasp to develop their own projects, as well as folk with some knowledge who want to shore up the gaps.
     “Each chapter does a really great job succinctly explaining the concept, why you would use it, has relevant code, and great summary/exercises to reinforce the area. The code is clean, well formatted, and uses great naming conventions. The projects and examples are spot on.
     “As a moderate Python user, I definitely learned a few new tricks, and reduced some complexity in my code. I have no qualms recommending this book for folk looking to pick up Python and use it!”
- Jeremy Johnson, DreamInCode.net

“This is now my third text book for python, and it is the ONLY one that has made me feel comfortable solving and reading problems or code respectively. The paired pages approach is fantastic, and it is probably the reason that makes learning the syntax, rules, and conventions understandable for me. I really do appreciate the authors’ ability to bring the concepts to life with this approach.”
- Posted at an online bookseller

“Amazing book, I knew absolutely nothing about programming, now racing ahead of classes having used this book before I started schooling.”
- Posted at an online bookseller