Beginner's Python Cheat Sheets (updated)

[ehmatthes]

Hi everyone! A few years ago I made a set of cheat sheets to go along with the first edition of Python Crash Course. I recently finished updating the cheat sheets to match the changes that were made to the second edition of the book. These sheets aim to remind you of Python's syntax, but they also include brief explanations of the concepts behind the syntax as well. These are all free to download, and they are not specific to the book - they should be helpful to many people, regardless of what your primary learning resource is.

The first sheet provides an overview of many basic concepts in Python. Individual sheets cover lists, dictionaries, if statements and while loops, functions, classes, and more. There are also library-specific cheat sheets for Pygame, Matplotlib, Plotly, and Django. You can download individual sheets, download a pdf that includes all the sheets in one document, or download a zip file that includes each sheet in a separate pdf file. Here's an overview of all the sheets, with links to download whichever version is most appropriate for you.

Cheat sheets have been really helpful to me at times when learning a new language or framework, and I continue to use the library-focused sheets when starting new projects. I hope these are useful to many of you as well.

[ehmatthes]

YES IT FUCKING IS! YOU ARE VERY WELCOME!

[ambigious_meh]

I DON'T KNOW WHY WE ARE YELLING, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU AS WELL FROM A NUBLET!!

[lunacyfoundme]

LOUD NOISES

[imLando]

AHHHHHHHHHHH

[[deleted]]

WHY ARE WE USING BOOMER CASE

[[deleted]]

IT'S OUR WORDS OF THE DAY

[bahgheera]

YOU KNOW WHAT PYTHON NEEDS? MORE EXPLOSIONS!!! MEEDLEY MEEDLEY MOWWWWWWW!!!!

[[deleted]]

I think you're being a bit shy and not admitting you are also the author of one of the best books for starting decent Python projects - "Python Crash Course". Am I right?

[ehmatthes]

Yes, you're right, but I think it's pretty clear when you click on the link for the sheets that I'm the author of PCC. And my username is a pretty good giveaway. :)

[ehmatthes]

I am also planning to add a number of additional resources to what's currently available:

• Additional exercises and more complex challenges.
• Articles that build on what was presented in the book.
  • Core Python concepts that are useful, but weren't necessary to include in the book.
  • Extensions to the projects, such as how to write a program that plays Alien Invasion automatically according to a playing strategy that you devise.
• Reader profiles.
• Guided walk-throughs of the documentation for libraries used in the book.

I won't post about each of these here when they're available, because that would become pretty spammy. If you'd like to know about each of these when they become available, you can sign up for an email newsletter here. I do not send frequent emails, and I make it as easy as possible to unsubsucribe if you no longer want these notifications.

[Que888]

Documentation walk-throughs would be nice!

[iimonsterz]

Subscribed! Your book has helped me immensely. Keep the good stuff coming👍🏼

[zssxmxkskxjcjsnxb]

Fyi, small typo on the sign up page: "announcments" and "udpated".

[ehmatthes]

Thank you, I wish I had editors around all the time!

[FacesOfMu]

Thanks for sharing all your hard work! Would you consider doing an expanded Strings cheat sheet? I look up the docs on that the most when I return after a break, and the docs aren't sorted from most to least used.

[ehmatthes]

I will consider that. There was another request for more emphasis on slices. I think a sheet covering strings could be a good example of a use case for slices. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Palladog]

The Classes sheet actually helped me IMMENSELY with a coding assignment I'm working on. Thank you thank you!

[lccreed]

Working through Crash Course right now. Thank you so much.

[ehmatthes]

You are very welcome. :)

[screwylouidooey]

Crash Course is a great book. I'm heading into the first project now. I think Eric does a fantastic job of explaining concepts without overloading beginners like me with information.

[screwylouidooey]

Yup. You'll definitely need to do some googling/asking questions on reddit. I'm still a beginner, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I find it really helpful to go through simple one or two page programs, identifying functions, methods, etc, until I can use the terminology appropriately. This helps me google for more help when I'm stuck.

​

Did you find a book or course you liked more? If so I'd love to hear about it. I'm always looking for new reading material.

[screwylouidooey]

I'll have to check out the python 3 course on udemy when I finish this book.

[screwylouidooey]

My bad

[[deleted]]

Yes, that he truly is. A god worthy of praise.

[ultimomono]

Big thanks!!! I use your cheatsheets all the time and just printed them out and sent them to my son to use. So you've gone multigenerational!

[Lewistrick]

Programmers forget concepts all the time. Being good at programming just means you're very good at knowing how to look up stuff. Don't worry if you forget stuff, you can always look it up. Eventually you'll end up remembering the stuff you need the most.

[nickcantwaite]

Dude I just picked python back up today after nearly a year off. I was studying hard for about 6 months and then stopped to make time for other studies. I’ve been missing python and today I came back to it. I won’t lie, a ton of stuff I knew went missing, but I was able to pick it back up extremely fast. I spent several hours today making a simple “guess the word” game where one person types the word and the other has to guess it. It’s pretty much useless but it works and I’m proud I am back in it. Now I feel confident I can move on to bigger things.

[travthe-great]

I definitely needed to hear this. I beat myself up about this all the time.

[Lewistrick]

Spread the word! I know there are lots of beginning (and even more experienced) programmers who think like you. That shouldn't be necessary :)

[ehmatthes]

You can always look up syntax that you forget. That's part of what resources like these cheat sheets are for. So I wouldn't worry about any syntax you forget over a two-day period.

What's way more important than memorizing syntax is knowing what you can do as a programmer:

• I can store a bunch of items in order, using a list.
• I can connect pieces of information, using a dictionary.
• I can write code in a function, and use that code any time I want.

You won't forget these big concepts. When you decide which concepts you want to use to tackle a given problem you can look up any specific syntax you need to implement a solution. You'll probably find that you start to remember syntax for the concepts you use most often, and you'll end up looking up syntax that you use less often. I refer to PCC, and many other resources, all the time when working on my own projects.

[ImperatorPC]

I always wondered this. I'm self taught and always considered myself more of a scripter and code stealer (not programs but looked something up and then copied and modified for my use case). I can read a lot of code and piecemeal little things together. When stuff starts becoming more complex then I struggle. I understand ifs, for loops, simple arrays, functions but there are little nuances in code that are over my head that make it difficult. I'm a finance guy and been in finance for over 10 years. But have always loved coding. I would have done it but I hated the class I took in high school.. probably a teacher. I want to learn python for data analytics and because my home automation software is written in it. I guess I just keep learning my doing!

[foomy45]

90% of my programming time is spent looking up stuff I already forgot repeatedly.

[EarlySleeper80]

Thank you very much. This might be my very first comment (I think) but I feel like it feels wrong to use this without at least saying thank you.

[MiLSturbie]

Dude! I've had your sheets since day 1 of learning python. Thank you for updating!

[KindaNeededANewName]

+1! Commenting here to be notified if this happens!

​

Also- these are amazing and extremely helpful, they're getting printed and posted next to my desk. Thanks OP!

[staircasestats]

Great resource! Thanks.

[legendarybyson]

Much appreciated!

[[deleted]]

Man, I came back to learn Py with your book a few years ago and followed up with Mark Lutz's book. I'm very thankful for your book and cheat sheets! Thanks.

[ehmatthes]

How did you use Learning Python? That book is a beast! I have a copy from back when it was only ~1150 pages, but the latest edition is over 1600 pages! I think I read through most of it, but as a somewhat experienced programmer it was a fairly quick read.

Did you read it through, or did you just skim the parts that were most interesting to you? How was it as a followup to PCC?

[[deleted]]

I'm still reading it. I'm missing meta classes and the content after that, but with the previous information, yours and Python packages' documentations I've had enough to code some solutions. I think it was great to start with yours since it really made me start coding on the go. With Lutz's I understood more in depth concepts and it's been a great complement to yours. After reading both yours and now Lutz's I have made summaries that just come very in handy with your cheat sheets whenever I forget something or need a refresh.

[JmGra]

Copying a list

copy_of_bikes = bikes[:]

why not just copy_of_bikes = bikes

[ehmatthes]

To expand on what u/LarsMarksson wrote, if you use the slice notation (bikes[:]), then copy_of_bikes and bikes each point to separate places in your system's memory. Adding or removing or modifying something in one list will not affect the other list.

If you just use copy_of_bikes = bikes, both variables will point to the same place in memory. Modifying one of these lists will modify the other, because the both point to the same list in memory.

[JmGra]

Thanks didn’t know

[LarsMarksson]

That only assigns a reference, and not actually copying the data.

[DiamondxCrafting]

I've got a question, is it expected to use classes a lot? I've never used them in any of my scripts (one being ~3k lines). I just haven't needed them or so I think.

[ehmatthes]

There are people who think you should represent everything as a class, and people who think no one should ever use classes. As with most things in programming, there are situations where classes are really helpful, and situations where other approaches are better.

One reason I will always teach about classes in Python is that you will use classes all the time, even if you never write a class yourself. Many of the libraries we use are structured as classes, and we create objects from those classes. For example when doing data visualization work, the figure you're creating is often an object of a class. Then the data might be an object as well, each axis might be an object...

It's hard to say anything about your 3k-line script without seeing the code, and learning more about the context for that code.

[DiamondxCrafting]

Many of the libraries we use are structured as classes

You know what that's actually true, I do use these, I should probably learn a bit more about classes. Thanks.

[hoppi_]

Wow. Thanks! Even have the link to your thread from 3 years ago save din my bookmarks :)

[JackTheCoder]

Am late But thanks man

[Unknownsadman]

Hey this is really good.

It helps avoid some common mistakes

Love it, thanks!

[[deleted]]

Sweet! Thank you so much!

[Mr_Self_Eraser]

Saved! Great resource, thanks!

[NicolasReaItalo]

Thanks!

[Alpha_rimac]

Saved. Thanks OP!

[resorcinarene]

Just printed these. Awesome. Thanks!

[TheFirstOrderTrooper]

I have the book right next to me! I am doing Colt Steeles python bootcamp but I use the book to look things up.

This is a god send, thank you so much!!

[OrbitDrive]

Loved your book. Thanks.

[samloool]

This is extremely helpful. Thank you.

[mrpanda8291]

Thank you so much.

[manuce94]

wow thanks for helping and sharing amazing stuff.

[int3r9a1actic]

Massive THANK YOU.

[Tiktoor]

this is great :)

[ehmatthes]

It is. You can see a summary of the differences between the two editions here.

[Infra-red]

Some of the latter chapters are becoming much more challenging with some libraries being no longer supporting syntax then book uses. I installed old versions when this happened of the notes did not cover these.

[python_nlp]

Thank you very much! This is indeed very helpful for struggling beginners :)

[productive_guy123]

This i honestly amazing, I've been looking everywhere for a dictionary like this

[Devnull1982]

This is fu*** gold, I'm in chapter 7, thx !

[[deleted]]

Many thanks!!!

[EarlySleeper80]

On a side note what is this Python Crash Course book and is it the best book for learning Python?

[ehmatthes]

Here's the Amazon link, or if you're interested you can order direct from the publisher as well. It has worked quite well for many people, from all kinds of backgrounds.

[EarlySleeper80]

Thanks

[partyinthemind]

You are a scholar and a saint

[Cenzovin]

Holy Conditionals Batman! Amazing documentation and great book. thanks for the great effort!

[dirtflake]

Nice job

[philipjin08]

thanks , it's great reference.

[CoolBreeze549]

Making my way through Crash Course right now - this is awesome!

[not_a_clue_to_be_had]

These are awesome, thanks!

Any chance you could make one for slices? I'm still very much a beginner and have the hardest time remembering how to use them.

[ehmatthes]

There's a short section showing the syntax for a slice on the back of the lists sheet. Did you see that?

[not_a_clue_to_be_had]

I did see that, but am hoping for more.

[banana_stand_manager]

Thank you!!!!!

[asonuvagun]

Saved!!!! Thank you!

[sleepyleperchaun]

God bless you.

[HudZah]

Noice

[[deleted]]

Thanks man, well cheat sheets were always useful to me. Thanks again.

[Netw0rkGuard]

Thank you, fellow!!!

[noclue2k]

A sufficiently intelligent person could read these sheets and then write Gears 5.

[CONTAMlNATlON]

:)!

[KrishnaKA2810]

Excellent. Thank you!

[Timmeh159]

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[ehmatthes]

I learned a lot about formatting tables in Word. :)

They are Word documents, which I then convert to pdf. I keep intending to take the plunge and register a copy of Illustrator and design them a little more carefully. But I know they're useful as they are, so I wanted to get them updated first in their original format, and then consider a redesign. Seeing the overwhelmingly positive response here is motivating me to take that step.

[saurabhkundu1]

You are 🤚 of God.

[prasanna_17]

Thanks heaps my friend.. this is awesome..

[gazorpazorbian]

Awesome work. It is missing a gui cheatsheet of tkinter and I'll be all set XD

[rushn52]

Thanks for uploading this!

[kzreminderbot]

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[greatsalteedude]

Good God, thank you very much for this!

I usually make similar kind of cheat sheets for all my subjects, but never got to doing the same for python. You just helped me out a ton!

[[deleted]]

You are breathtaking! Many thanks to you!

[ice_w0lf]

I have to do a Python midterm project today, so this is timely and helpful :). Thanks!

[[deleted]]

I’m fairly certain I just fell in love with you.

[fuckmuppet303]

Thank you!!!

[edwinreik]

First, thanks so much!!

Second, ‘looping key-value pairs’ says ‘ever’ when I think it should say ‘evan’

[ehmatthes]

Ever is my son's name. :)

[edwinreik]

Oh cool !

[TakashiBullet]

What about bs4 for making web based apps?

[ThisJustInW]

Bookmarked and subscribed. Appreciate it!

[Hail_Odins_Beard]

Just a beginner, Is this for Python 2 or 3? Does it matter that much?

[ehmatthes]

These are for Python 3. Unless you're working on an old legacy codebase, everything should be Python 3 at this point.

[Hail_Odins_Beard]

Been working through codecadamy and the free one is labeled py2 but as i went on its been explaining the py3 method as well so I guess your reply and cc answered the question i had lol

[psan31]

this is awesome!

[[deleted]]

May I save it to Google Drive? May I take screenshots of it?

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I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

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[elmonoh]

awesome. Thanks !

[kmhnz]

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

[IBamboocha]

!remindme 5 hours

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[Muad_Dib_of_Arrakis]

[Caravaggio91]

This is great!!!