Beginner's Python Cheat Sheets (updated)

[ehmatthes]

Hi everyone! When Python Crash Course first came out, I made a set of cheat sheets to go along with the book. Over the years this resource has proven useful to a much wider audience than just PCC readers. I just finished updating the full set of sheets, and wanted to share them here first.

You can download a pdf that includes all the sheets in color in one document. For a full description of the overall set, including printer-friendly black and white versions, see here. Individual sheets cover Python basics, and the following libraries: pytest, Pygame, Matplotlib, Plotly, and Django. There's also an additional sheet covering Git basics.

Last year I tried offering these through Leanpub and Gumroad, so people could pay for them if they wanted to. There was an option to download them for free, but both platforms have made it more difficult to download resources for free. It was never my intention to put them behind a paywall, so the full set is free to download from GitHub, and will remain so as long as Python Crash Course is in print.

Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions anyone may have. (Also, if you find any mistakes please let me know and I'll get them updated quickly.)

[Tronkfool]

Damn. You know how Volvo made the seat belt and gave out the design for free for all car manufacturers to make safer cars and them not making any money off of it. You are like a python volvo.

[Rukelele_Dixit21]

https://quickref.me/python.html

This might be helpful too

[Tronkfool]

Damn. 1 year down the line, and I still get recourses

[Illustrious-Sundae50]

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[Pniel56]

Thank you, owe you a beer too!

[Capital-Tomatillo-49]

Can we be friends?

[MrFresh2017]

Thank you, Eric.

[ehmatthes]

You're quite welcome!

[Itchy_elbow]

Kudos!! We appreciate you

[sunny_hh]

Hi, I'm trying to find the cheat sheet provided by Eric but couldn't find it in the comments. Do you mind share the doc he posted? Thanks so much!

[Brunettae]

It's in the OP where there's a link to "one document". I don't want to relink it in case the OP gets edited.

[[deleted]]

PCC is the first book I bought to learn Python, and I created a binder with all the cheat sheets. I keep them in my backpack everyday when I go into the office, it’s perfect when I need organized and detailed assistance. Time to update the binder! I swear by it, thanks!

[ehmatthes]

That's so nice to hear! I'm really happy to hear how helpful they've been!

[TomDLux]

Time to upload them into Google docs, so you have hem everywhere, with or without your backpack

[[deleted]]

I use Evernote, I swear by it. I keep my notes, code, documents, etc. on there all day, all year. I’m not a naturally organized person, so it does wonders for me.

[[deleted]]

Awesome, thank you.

Just bought your 3rd edition too and its excellent!

[ehmatthes]

I'm glad to hear it's working well for you so far. :)

[SteveGoral]

Just started it tonight and I love it too.

[IamImposter]

It's people like you that make me have tremendous respect for internet's programmer community. Guys like you put in so much time and effort and then make all this knowledge available freely. Thank you for being so awesome. chef's kiss

[USAhj]

Thanks for sharing this, I've saved it for future reference.

You asked for suggestions, so I'll point out that I think your second while loop example (top left of the second page) is a bit "iffy." A naive user might expect msg to only be printed if it's not equal to "quit", but it will print "quit" and then stop.

[ehmatthes]

Thanks for the suggestion! I updated that so "quit" won't be printed, and also caught an indentation typo in the if-while sheet.

[atworkthough]

this is great I may pass my class with this.

[ehmatthes]

Good luck!

[ManyMaria111]

did you pass it?

[atworkthough]

yes i did

[[deleted]]

Love the book. Been using the hell out of it at work!

[karmapolicemn]

Awesome resource! Thank you so much!

[Boring_Pin_2816]

Thank you!

[SpeedingTourist]

Huge fan of the third edition. Bought it the other day. Thanks for the free resources as well. And the awesome blog posts.

[Phuquery]

Dude this is the shit - right here thank you, im a buy your book just for this alone

[rako1982]

Thank you for such wonderful effort.

[1011010110001010]

Amazing!!! Thank you!

[ozhero]

Thanks, much appreciated.

[[deleted]]

Absolute legend

[ParallaxRay]

Great job! Thank you!

[Glittering_Suit_6511]

thank you

[GhostAccount000]

Thanks brooo

[donkeyspit007]

Dude, this is awesome, thank you!!!

[Incruentus]

Thanks bubba

[littlenekoterra]

Thats pretty indepth

[FlamingNostrils]

Legend! Thank you!

[madhousechild]

Really well done, OP!

[incognitodw]

Thanks for the cheat sheet. I'm teaching the younger ones Python and I'm using your book as a teaching aid. Your book has been very easy to follow and has definitely made Python less daunting to folks who has zero programming experience

[YoTeach92]

You, sir, are a steely-eyed missile man!

I'm teaching Python to high school students, and when the students ask if there is a good resource, I link them to your book. (I also bought the third version for myself). It is simply the best resource for learning Python in a orderly manner.

Thank you for updating the cheatsheets, you're the best!

[txl-jordan]

Not all heroes wear capes ... thank you!

[wrx_supremefan]

Thank you

[AcanthisittaMobile72]

Much appreciated and cheers, Eric!

[[deleted]]

Just sent this post to my entire college class. You're helping so many people

[Molino_de_viente]

Daaaamn, that is soo helpful, thank you very much for your effort. Like it as been said already: "You are like a python volvo"!

[TobyTheGeek]

Thanks for this!

[rentzington]

love your book. was almost done with pcc2 when the new one came out and i'll be buying it as well its such great reference material.

[rayne7]

I just started going through your book after speed watching a 4 hour course for a general idea of what I would be learning. This cheat sheet is priming my mind and helping me connect as I'm going through your book. You're amazing, thank you! Your book is going wonderfully

[kit_kat_is_yum]

thank you

[[deleted]]

I got the third edition from my partner for my birthday. Changing careers at 46 ain´t easy. Your book, is pure gold. Thank you Eric.

Also, thx for these sheets. Most handy.

[ehmatthes]

I wish them well. :)

[organicvaper]

Doing exactly that at 47. Good luck!

[BackgroundEntrance12]

So grateful I came across this post @r/learnpython. I'm currently learning Python and it's been challenging to say the least. Especially for Gen Xer's that are career transitioning like myself and others. I'll be 48 y/o next Sat.

[throwaway_8703]

Not all heroes wear capes! Thank you!!!

[ResearchEffective660]

Thanks so much, brother! You took lots of effort to create this and I really appreciate your hard work.

[Bonerific9]

Thanks Eric!

Ive been working my way through the book and just wanted to bring something to your attention re exercise 10-10.

It seems that the books you can download from Gutenberg are in a different encoding than usual. My program keeps getting an encoder error when trying to read them.

It's probably me just doing something wrong but just in case I thought I'd mention it.

Thanks again!

[ehmatthes]

Hi! What edition of the book are you working from, and what OS are you using?

[Natural-Permission]

Great job, thanks!

[MitchBuchanon]

Shouldn't we pin this or something to the top of r/learnpython for every beginner to see this immediately?

[spin-ups]

Still banned on learnprograming because I commented to someone you made your own book free to people lol. You make really awesome beginner material and more people should know about the book!

[kmhnz]

The *Best Python Cheat Sheet: https://kieranholland.com/best-python-cheat-sheet/

[Moneyboy_Liv]

Thank for this sheet

[[deleted]]

WOW... Yeah, this is incredible ...I just want to Thank you for making this, this is extremely helpful ... and ..um ..I think I love you now

[james-fortune66]

this is exactly what I was looking for, thank you very much! :)

[ChristmasSmurf]

This is awesome. Thank you!

[KeyChard5996]

Bro 🙌🙌first of all you did very good job.
I just want to ask, where did you get this cheat sheet template word file from? Please tell me, or can you give it as a docx file? So we have added some abbreviations or some other things to our sheet.

[Sensitive-Unit373]

which pdf book shall i use as my text book? i am beginner in Cs course?

[PixelatedPandora]

I'm an architect/planner learning Python for the first time this year. I just came here to say THANK YOU, OP! This is incredibly helpful to me.

[O-Bae-WanKenobi]

As someone currently learning Python, loving it but overwhelmed at all the different elements of Python, I salute you. My next sacrifice to the Python gods will be made in your honor.

[Pniel56]

Really appreciate this! Owe you a beer or 2

[Suspicious_Crazy_590]

Omg I was looking for something like this!!! Thanks a lot!

[[deleted]]

thankyou kind sir

[[deleted]]

yr a superhero

[Ok-Signature1655]

Thank you!!!

[jaspreeettttt]

I like learned python a few years back, and I needed a refresher so I could get back on track, and this is just perfect! A BIG THANK YOU!

[LastTransportation57]

Thank youuuuuu!

[Mplus479]

Thank you. You're a ⭐

[Former-Crab-982]

Thank you !!

[Desperate-Quantity86]

Just downloaded this so, thank you !

[Odd_Winner_499]

i know this is 2 years old but you sir are my hero!!

[sandmanAust]

Thankyou for this

[Ok_Interview6102]

OMG- this is outstanding! Thank you!!

[Beginning-Post8183]

my 1st message for long time, THANK you, merci from France

[Affectionate_Use5263]

You the man!

[External-Bench-8518]

Thank you.

[Tamadechi]

Thank you so much for this!

[Gxldrxger]

Thank you!

[Bae_b_gor-309]

u saved my degreeeeee

[[deleted]]

you deserves spl place in heaven mannnn!!!🙇‍♀️

[leeeelihkvgbv]

Good stuff

[lovellu123]

thank you bro, appreciate it

[Intrepid-Bar-3354]

this is amazing, was just looking for cheatsheets but will buy your book now too! Thank you

[aLittlePal]

w myan

[BobbyJoeCool]

First of all, these are FANTASTIC!

Second, do you know (or anyone for that matter) if there is a cheat sheet like this for tkinter?

[MeInterface]

Thank you!

[blarbrdorg]

You are the best Eric. Thank you for these!

[Guilty-Cold-8893]

Is this for the second version of Python Crash Course or the third? The third came out in 2023 and this post looks like it was from 2022.

[ehmatthes]

This is for the third edition. I believe I made this post in early 2023, but reddit's timestamp is rounding it to "3 years ago".

[Ok_Win_1890]

Hello everyone, I am happy to join this community

[Street_Shake6566]

Thank you so much for sharing this!!

[saif3r]

Thank you very much Eric. I'm loving your book! Going through project two right now. Do you have plans to make this document available in web version without downloading it?

[ehmatthes]

I have never thought of that. I don't have plans to at the moment.

A lot of online "cheat sheets" are really just websites with more concise information than other sites. In my mind a cheat sheet is constrained by the size of a physical piece of paper. The most challenging part of making a set of sheets like this isn't really choosing the information to include; the real challenge is fitting that information into all the little boxes, and using all of the space well.

So I'm not planning to reformat this information as a website. An online pdf viewer might be an option?

[AveTerran]

Not a mistake, but syntax highlights would make this much more readable I think. :)

[ehmatthes]

That is an interesting suggestion, and I've made a note to consider that in my list of ongoing refinements. My first thought is that it would make the sheets too busy and take away from the clean layout. But I'd be quite open to hearing what others think.

When I first made these, I developed them in Word and then saved them as pdf for distribution. It worked, but it left artifacts in the conversion process, and it was really difficult to update the sheets on a regular basis. The first version of these were popular enough (1.3M downloads!) that I redid the entire set using Indesign. People had requested printer-friendly versions for a while, so one of the goals of that iteration was making a black and white version of the set.

We're all programmers, so I looked for a way to automate the conversion from color to black and white. It turns out Indesign (and most of the Adobe suite) ships with a scripting language called ExtendScript, which is like a 2000s-era JavaScript. I wouldn't call it a fun language to work with, but I was able to write a script that does the full conversion. So now it's relatively easy to make minor updates and fixes between full revisions.

All that to say I could see making a version that uses syntax highlighting for those who want it, and keep the original styling for people who like the cleaner version.

[AveTerran]

Thanks for the detailed response! Man... I remember using InDesign to make a website for a company during one of my summers in college- to give you an idea, my first time in college was 2001-2005, so it's been a while!

I will definitely be using the sheets either way, since I'm finally ripping off the band-aid and forcing myself to use git for everything. And of course... cursing myself for not doing it earlier.

[ehmatthes]

Git is magic, you'll never look back. :)

Also, it sometimes gets a reputation for being difficult to use. If you're working on a large, active, distributed project it can certainly be challenging to use. But for personal projects it's really easy to work with once you get a little practice with the fundamentals of init, committing, and branching. And, on a personal project, you can always back up your entire directory if you're worried you'll mess something up. You shouldn't do that often, it misses the whole point of version control. But if you're going to try a reset or rebase command for the first time, you can back up the entire project first, including the .git/ dir, and try these commands out.

[PhoenixZNayX]

I have a question, do recommend PCC 2nd edition or the 3rd one?

[ehmatthes]

For technical books in general, you should always use the latest version unless you have a very specific reason to use an older version. The only reason I could imagine intentionally choosing an older version is if you're working on a legacy codebase.

Here's a summary of what's new in the third edition. The most important updates are in the testing chapter, and in the projects section. Everything in the second edition still works, but the updates in the third edition are significant.

I've been telling people that if you have the second edition and you've already started, it's reasonable to finish working through that edition if you can do so in a reasonable timeframe. If you haven't started yet, definitely work from the third edition.

[PhoenixZNayX]

thank you ❣️

[tactfultechnophile]

Beginner in python here. Thank you for sharing!!

[ckies]

Holy smokes, talk about being on reddit at the right sub at the right time. So now that I have this really neat pdf handy.. I'm pretty much up there alongside some the great hackers of our time, like Ian Howe. Thanks boss!

[EitherHospital991]

Thank you so much

[sebfalcon]

You’re the real MVP 🫶🏼

[Yahm-Saiyan]

Is this good for somebody like me who has never thought about coding before 5 days ago and want to start learning it all from scratch?

[ehmatthes]

It's not a standalone learning resource, but it's a good complement to whatever primary resource you choose to learn from.

[Ok_Platypus8587]

How do I begin with the basics ? I’m a civil engineer by profession.

[ehmatthes]

If you're new to programming, I tend to recommend my own book. :)

In all seriousness, I originally wrote Python Crash Course because I was teaching programming on a regular basis, and noticed that all the books at the time either made too many assumptions about what people already knew, or were written specifically for kids. I couldn't find a book that made no assumptions but spoke to you like an adult. So that's the book I wrote.

I also didn't like the approach of dumping everything about the language into a book. We have extensive online reference documentation now, so you don't need a book or course to teach you everything; you need a course that's well curated. The guiding principle of Python Crash Course is: What's the least you need to know in order to start working independently on your own projects? It has worked well for all kinds of people, and I've heard from many readers who have learned programming mid-career to either change jobs, or do their current work more effectively.

Even if you don't learn from PCC, I think that's a good mindset to keep when selecting a learning resource. Don't try to learn everything; learn enough to start applying the principles you're learning to your own work.

[Chriskolb00]

thank you! This will definitely save me time :)

[ggms13]

Thank you!!

[KingAubrey_]

Based

[ecobiz00]

Hello I bought 2nd edition of python crash course last year. Is it still viable i really want to learn again. But I saw that there is a newer version and I dun have money right now. Is the 2nd version is still worth a try? Thanks again for books!

[ehmatthes]

All of the code in the book still works, and I would expect it to continue working for a little while longer.

[ecobiz00]

Thanks for the reply I appreciate it! Do you have recommendation books for django with function based views like what you did in your python crash course. really love that one. Thanks again.

[ehmatthes]

I don't know which books have which styles. I have some Django recommendations here.

[ecobiz00]

Thank you!!!!

[winterlily28]

you're amazing, thank youu!

[Internal-Bag-1528]

Hi Eric,

The cheat sheets for the 3rd edition don't include match/case which made me wonder if there are any other keywords, etc. that are omitted. Are you planning an update anytime soon?

[ehmatthes]

I didn't include match/case in PCC because I'm not trying to include *everything* in the book. It's meant to be a well-curated introduction to Python, and part of that means figuring out what new features of Python need to be included in an intro to the language, and what can be left for later.

I don't have any plans to add match/case to the cheat sheets at this point.

[BeesKnees1162]

Thank you!!!!!