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2. Builtin Functions
ThePythoninterpreterhasanumberoffunctionsbuiltintoitthatarealwaysavailable.They
arelistedhereinalphabeticalorder.
Builtin
Functions
abs()

divmod()

input()

open()

staticmethod()

all()

enumerate()

int()

ord()

str()

any()

eval()

isinstance()

pow()

sum()

basestring()

execfile()

issubclass()

print()

super()

bin()

file()

iter()

property()

tuple()

bool()

filter()

len()

range()

type()

bytearray()

float()

list()

raw_input()

unichr()

callable()

format()

locals()

reduce()

unicode()

chr()

frozenset()

long()

reload()

vars()

classmethod()

getattr()

map()

repr()

xrange()

cmp()

globals()

max()

reversed()

zip()

compile()

hasattr()

memoryview()

round()

__import__()

complex()

hash()

min()

set()

apply()

delattr()

help()

next()

setattr()

buffer()

dict()

hex()

object()

slice()

coerce()

dir()

id()

oct()

sorted()

intern()

abs (x)
Returntheabsolutevalueofanumber.Theargumentmaybeaplainorlongintegeror
afloatingpointnumber.Iftheargumentisacomplexnumber,itsmagnitudeisreturned.
all (iterable)
Return True ifallelementsoftheiterablearetrue(oriftheiterableisempty).Equivalent
to:
defall(iterable):
forelementiniterable:
ifnotelement:
returnFalse
returnTrue

Newinversion2.5.
any (iterable)
Return True if any element of the iterable is true. If the iterable is empty, return False .
Equivalentto:
defany(iterable):
forelementiniterable:
ifelement:
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returnTrue
returnFalse

Newinversion2.5.
basestring ()
This abstract type is the superclass for str and unicode . It cannot be called or
instantiated,butitcanbeusedtotestwhetheranobjectisaninstanceof str or unicode .
isinstance(obj,basestring) isequivalentto isinstance(obj,(str,unicode)) .

Newinversion2.3.
bin (x)
Convertanintegernumbertoabinarystring.TheresultisavalidPythonexpression.If
x is not a Python int object, it has to define an __index__() method that returns an
integer.

Newinversion2.6.
class bool ([x])
ReturnaBooleanvalue,i.e.oneof True or False .xisconvertedusingthestandardtruth
testing procedure. If x is false or omitted, this returns False otherwise it returns True .
bool isalsoaclass,whichisasubclassof int .Class bool cannotbesubclassedfurther.
Itsonlyinstancesare False and True .
Newinversion2.2.1.
Changedinversion2.3:Ifnoargumentisgiven,thisfunctionreturns False .
class bytearray ([source[,encoding[,errors]]])
Returnanewarrayofbytes.The bytearray classisamutablesequenceofintegersin
the range 0 <= x < 256. It has most of the usual methods of mutable sequences,
describedinMutableSequenceTypes,aswellasmostmethodsthatthe str typehas,
seeStringMethods.
The optional source parameter can be used to initialize the array in a few different
ways:
If it is unicode, you must also give the encoding (and optionally, errors)
parameters bytearray() thenconvertstheunicodetobytesusing unicode.encode() .
Ifitisaninteger,thearraywillhavethatsizeandwillbeinitializedwithnullbytes.
Ifitisanobjectconformingtothebufferinterface,areadonlybufferoftheobject
willbeusedtoinitializethebytesarray.
Ifitisaniterable,itmustbeaniterableofintegersintherange 0<=x<256 ,which
areusedastheinitialcontentsofthearray.
Withoutanargument,anarrayofsize0iscreated.
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Newinversion2.6.
callable (object)
Return True iftheobjectargumentappearscallable, False ifnot.Ifthisreturnstrue,itis
stillpossiblethatacallfails,butifitisfalse,callingobjectwillneversucceed.Notethat
classes are callable (calling a class returns a new instance) class instances are
callableiftheyhavea __call__() method.
chr (i)
ReturnastringofonecharacterwhoseASCIIcodeistheintegeri.Forexample, chr(97)
returnsthestring 'a' .Thisistheinverseof ord() .Theargumentmustbeintherange
[0..255],inclusive ValueError willberaisedifiisoutsidethatrange.Seealso unichr() .
classmethod (function)
Returnaclassmethodforfunction.

A class method receives the class as implicit first argument, just like an instance
methodreceivestheinstance.Todeclareaclassmethod,usethisidiom:
classC(object):
@classmethod
deff(cls,arg1,arg2,...):
...

The @classmethod formisafunctiondecoratorseethedescriptionoffunctiondefinitions

inFunctiondefinitionsfordetails.
Itcanbecalledeitherontheclass(suchas C.f() )oronaninstance(suchas C().f() ).
The instance is ignored except for its class. If a class method is called for a derived
class,thederivedclassobjectispassedastheimpliedfirstargument.
Class methods are different than C++ or Java static methods. If you want those, see
staticmethod() inthissection.
For more information on class methods, consult the documentation on the standard
typehierarchyinThestandardtypehierarchy.
Newinversion2.2.
Changedinversion2.4:Functiondecoratorsyntaxadded.
cmp (x,y)
Comparethetwoobjectsxandyandreturnanintegeraccordingtotheoutcome.The
returnvalueisnegativeif x<y ,zeroif x==y andstrictlypositiveif x>y .
compile (source,filename,mode[,flags[,dont_inherit]])
Compile the source into a code or AST object. Code objects can be executed by an
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exec statementorevaluatedbyacallto eval() .sourcecaneitherbeaUnicodestring,a

Latin1 encoded string or an AST object. Refer to the ast module documentation for
informationonhowtoworkwithASTobjects.
Thefilenameargumentshouldgivethefilefromwhichthecodewasreadpasssome
recognizablevalueifitwasntreadfromafile( '<string>' iscommonlyused).
Themode argument specifies what kind of code must be compiled it can be 'exec' if
sourceconsistsofasequenceofstatements, 'eval' ifitconsistsofasingleexpression,
or 'single' ifitconsistsofasingleinteractivestatement(inthelattercase,expression
statementsthatevaluatetosomethingotherthan None willbeprinted).
The optional arguments flags and dont_inherit control which future statements (see
PEP236) affect the compilation of source. If neither is present (or both are zero) the
codeiscompiledwiththosefuturestatementsthatareineffectinthecodethatiscalling
compile() . If the flags argument is given and dont_inherit is not (or is zero) then the
future statements specified by the flags argument are used in addition to those that
wouldbeusedanyway.Ifdont_inheritisanonzerointegerthentheflagsargumentisit
thefuturestatementsineffectaroundthecalltocompileareignored.
FuturestatementsarespecifiedbybitswhichcanbebitwiseORedtogethertospecify
multiplestatements.Thebitfieldrequiredtospecifyagivenfeaturecanbefoundasthe
compiler_flag attributeonthe _Feature instanceinthe __future__ module.
This function raises SyntaxError if the compiled source is invalid, and TypeError if the
sourcecontainsnullbytes.
IfyouwanttoparsePythoncodeintoitsASTrepresentation,see ast.parse() .
Note: Whencompilingastringwithmultilinecodein 'single' or 'eval' mode,input
mustbeterminatedbyatleastonenewlinecharacter.Thisistofacilitatedetectionof
incompleteandcompletestatementsinthe code module.
Changedinversion2.3:Theflagsanddont_inheritargumentswereadded.
Changedinversion2.6:SupportforcompilingASTobjects.
Changedinversion2.7:AlloweduseofWindowsandMacnewlines.Alsoinputin 'exec'
modedoesnothavetoendinanewlineanymore.
class complex ([real[,imag]])
Returnacomplexnumberwiththevaluereal+imag*jorconvertastringornumbertoa
complex number. If the first parameter is a string, it will be interpreted as a complex
number and the function must be called without a second parameter. The second
parameter can never be a string. Each argument may be any numeric type (including
complex). If imag is omitted, it defaults to zero and the function serves as a numeric
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conversionfunctionlike int() , long() and float() .Ifbothargumentsareomitted,returns

0j .
Note: Whenconvertingfromastring,thestringmustnotcontainwhitespacearound
thecentral + or operator.Forexample, complex('1+2j') isfine,but complex('1+2j')
raises ValueError .
ThecomplextypeisdescribedinNumericTypesint,float,long,complex.
delattr (object,name)
Thisisarelativeof setattr() .Theargumentsareanobjectandastring.Thestringmust
bethenameofoneoftheobjectsattributes.Thefunctiondeletesthenamedattribute,
provided the object allows it. For example, delattr(x, 'foobar') is equivalent to del
x.foobar .

class dict (**kwarg)

class dict (mapping,**kwarg)
class dict (iterable,**kwarg)
Createanewdictionary.The dict objectisthedictionaryclass.See dict andMapping
Typesdictfordocumentationaboutthisclass.
For other containers see the builtin
collections module.

list , set ,

and

tuple

classes, as well as the

dir ([object])
Without arguments, return the list of names in the current local scope. With an
argument,attempttoreturnalistofvalidattributesforthatobject.

Iftheobjecthasamethodnamed __dir__() ,thismethodwillbecalledandmustreturn

the list of attributes. This allows objects that implement a custom __getattr__() or
__getattribute__() functiontocustomizetheway dir() reportstheirattributes.
Iftheobjectdoesnotprovide __dir__() ,thefunctiontriesitsbesttogatherinformation
fromtheobjects __dict__ attribute,ifdefined,andfromitstypeobject.Theresultinglist
is not necessarily complete, and may be inaccurate when the object has a custom
__getattr__() .
The default dir() mechanism behaves differently with different types of objects, as it
attemptstoproducethemostrelevant,ratherthancomplete,information:
If the object is a module object, the list contains the names of the modules
attributes.
Iftheobjectisatypeorclassobject,thelistcontainsthenamesofitsattributes,
andrecursivelyoftheattributesofitsbases.
Otherwise,thelistcontainstheobjectsattributesnames,thenamesofitsclasss
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attributes,andrecursivelyoftheattributesofitsclasssbaseclasses.
Theresultinglistissortedalphabetically.Forexample:
>>>importstruct
>>>dir()#showthenamesinthemodulenamespace
['__builtins__','__doc__','__name__','struct']
>>>dir(struct)#showthenamesinthestructmodule
['Struct','__builtins__','__doc__','__file__','__name__',
'__package__','_clearcache','calcsize','error','pack','pack_into',
'unpack','unpack_from']
>>>classShape(object):
def__dir__(self):
return['area','perimeter','location']
>>>s=Shape()
>>>dir(s)
['area','perimeter','location']

>>>

Note: Because dir() issuppliedprimarilyasaconvenienceforuseataninteractive

prompt, it tries to supply an interesting set of names more than it tries to supply a
rigorouslyorconsistentlydefinedsetofnames,anditsdetailedbehaviormaychange
acrossreleases.Forexample,metaclassattributesarenotintheresultlistwhenthe
argumentisaclass.
divmod (a,b)
Taketwo(noncomplex)numbersasargumentsandreturnapairofnumbersconsisting
oftheirquotientandremainderwhenusinglongdivision.Withmixedoperandtypes,the
rulesforbinaryarithmeticoperatorsapply.Forplainandlongintegers,theresultisthe
sameas (a//b,a%b) .Forfloatingpointnumberstheresultis (q,a%b) ,whereqis
usually math.floor(a/b) butmaybe1lessthanthat.Inanycase q*b+a%b isvery
closetoa,if a%b isnonzeroithasthesamesignasb,and 0<=abs(a%b)<abs(b) .

Changedinversion2.3:Using divmod() withcomplexnumbersisdeprecated.

enumerate (sequence,start=0)
Returnanenumerateobject.sequencemustbeasequence,aniterator,orsomeother
objectwhichsupportsiteration.The next() methodoftheiteratorreturnedby enumerate()
returns a tuple containing a count (from start which defaults to 0) and the values
obtainedfromiteratingoversequence:
>>>seasons=['Spring','Summer','Fall','Winter']
>>>list(enumerate(seasons))
[(0,'Spring'),(1,'Summer'),(2,'Fall'),(3,'Winter')]
>>>list(enumerate(seasons,start=1))
[(1,'Spring'),(2,'Summer'),(3,'Fall'),(4,'Winter')]

>>>

Equivalentto:
defenumerate(sequence,start=0):
n=start
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foreleminsequence:
yieldn,elem
n+=1

Newinversion2.3.
Changedinversion2.6:Thestartparameterwasadded.
eval (expression[,globals[,locals]])
TheargumentsareaUnicodeorLatin1encodedstringandoptionalglobalsandlocals.
Ifprovided,globalsmustbeadictionary.Ifprovided,localscanbeanymappingobject.

Changedinversion2.4:formerlylocalswasrequiredtobeadictionary.
TheexpressionargumentisparsedandevaluatedasaPythonexpression(technically
speaking,aconditionlist)usingtheglobalsandlocalsdictionariesasglobalandlocal
namespace. If the globals dictionary is present and lacks __builtins__, the current
globalsarecopiedintoglobalsbeforeexpressionisparsed.Thismeansthatexpression
normallyhasfullaccesstothestandard __builtin__ moduleandrestrictedenvironments
arepropagated.Ifthelocalsdictionaryisomitteditdefaultstotheglobalsdictionary.If
both dictionaries are omitted, the expression is executed in the environment where
eval() iscalled.Thereturnvalueistheresultoftheevaluatedexpression.Syntaxerrors
arereportedasexceptions.Example:
>>>x=1
>>>printeval('x+1')
2

>>>

Thisfunctioncanalsobeusedtoexecutearbitrarycodeobjects(suchasthosecreated
by compile() ).Inthiscasepassacodeobjectinsteadofastring.Ifthecodeobjecthas
beencompiledwith 'exec' asthemodeargument, eval() sreturnvaluewillbe None .
Hints:dynamicexecutionofstatementsissupportedbythe exec statement.Execution
of statements from a file is supported by the execfile() function. The globals() and
locals() functions returns the current global and local dictionary, respectively, which
maybeusefultopassaroundforuseby eval() or execfile() .
See ast.literal_eval() for a function that can safely evaluate strings with expressions
containingonlyliterals.
execfile (filename[,globals[,locals]])
Thisfunctionissimilartothe exec statement,butparsesafileinsteadofastring.It is
differentfromthe import statementinthatitdoesnotusethemoduleadministrationit
readsthefileunconditionallyanddoesnotcreateanewmodule.[1]

The arguments are a file name and two optional dictionaries. The file is parsed and
evaluatedasasequenceofPythonstatements(similarlytoamodule)usingtheglobals
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andlocals dictionaries as global and local namespace. If provided, locals can be any
mapping object. Remember that at module level, globals and locals are the same
dictionary. If two separate objects are passed as globals and locals, the code will be
executedasifitwereembeddedinaclassdefinition.
Changedinversion2.4:formerlylocalswasrequiredtobeadictionary.
Ifthelocalsdictionaryisomitteditdefaultstotheglobalsdictionary.Ifbothdictionaries
areomitted,theexpressionisexecutedintheenvironmentwhere execfile() iscalled.
Thereturnvalueis None .
Note: Thedefaultlocalsactasdescribedforfunction locals() below:modifications
to the default locals dictionary should not be attempted. Pass an explicit locals
dictionary if you need to see effects of the code on locals after function execfile()
returns. execfile() cannotbeusedreliablytomodifyafunctionslocals.
file (name[,mode[,buffering]])
Constructor function for the file type, described further in section File Objects. The
constructorsargumentsarethesameasthoseofthe open() builtinfunctiondescribed
below.

When opening a file, its preferable to use open() instead of invoking this constructor
directly. file ismoresuitedtotypetesting(forexample,writing isinstance(f,file) ).
Newinversion2.2.
filter (function,iterable)
Constructalistfromthoseelementsofiterableforwhichfunctionreturnstrue.iterable
maybeeitherasequence,acontainerwhichsupportsiteration,oraniterator.Ifiterable
isastringoratuple,theresultalsohasthattypeotherwiseitisalwaysalist.Iffunction
is None ,theidentityfunctionisassumed,thatis,allelementsofiterablethatarefalseare
removed.

Note that

filter(function, iterable)

is equivalent to [item for item in iterable if

function(item)] iffunctionisnot None and [itemforiteminiterableifitem] iffunctionis
None .
See itertools.ifilter() and itertools.ifilterfalse() foriteratorversionsofthisfunction,
includingavariationthatfiltersforelementswherethefunctionreturnsfalse.
class float ([x])
Returnafloatingpointnumberconstructedfromanumberorstringx.
If the argument is a string, it must contain a possibly signed decimal or floating point
number,possiblyembeddedinwhitespace.Theargumentmayalsobe[+|]nanor[+|
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]inf.Otherwise,theargumentmaybeaplainorlongintegerorafloatingpointnumber,
and a floating point number with the same value (within Pythons floating point
precision)isreturned.Ifnoargumentisgiven,returns 0.0 .
Note: When passing in a string, values for NaN and Infinity may be returned,
dependingontheunderlyingClibrary.Floatacceptsthestringsnan,infandinffor
NaNandpositiveornegativeinfinity.Thecaseandaleading+areignoredaswellas
aleadingisignoredforNaN.FloatalwaysrepresentsNaNandinfinityasnan,infor
inf.
ThefloattypeisdescribedinNumericTypesint,float,long,complex.
format (value[,format_spec])
Convert a value to a formatted representation, as controlled by format_spec. The
interpretationofformat_spec will depend on the type of the value argument, however
there is a standard formatting syntax that is used by most builtin types: Format
SpecificationMiniLanguage.

Note: format(value,format_spec) merelycalls value.__format__(format_spec) .

Newinversion2.6.
class frozenset ([iterable])
Returnanew frozenset object,optionallywithelementstakenfromiterable. frozenset is
abuiltinclass.See frozenset andSetTypesset,frozensetfordocumentationabout
thisclass.
For other containers see the builtin set , list , tuple , and dict classes, as well as the
collections module.
Newinversion2.4.
getattr (object,name[,default])
Returnthevalueofthenamedattributeofobject.namemustbeastring.Ifthestringis
the name of one of the objects attributes, the result is the value of that attribute. For
example, getattr(x,'foobar') isequivalentto x.foobar .Ifthenamedattributedoesnot
exist,defaultisreturnedifprovided,otherwise AttributeError israised.
globals ()
Return a dictionary representing the current global symbol table. This is always the
dictionaryofthecurrentmodule(insideafunctionormethod,thisisthemodulewhereit
isdefined,notthemodulefromwhichitiscalled).
hasattr (object,name)
Theargumentsareanobjectandastring.Theresultis True ifthestringisthenameof
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oneoftheobjectsattributes, False ifnot.(Thisisimplementedbycalling getattr(object,

name) andseeingwhetheritraisesanexceptionornot.)
hash (object)
Returnthehashvalueoftheobject(ifithasone).Hashvaluesareintegers.Theyare
usedtoquicklycomparedictionarykeysduringadictionarylookup.Numericvaluesthat
compareequalhavethesamehashvalue(eveniftheyareofdifferenttypes,asisthe
casefor1and1.0).
help ([object])
Invoke the builtin help system. (This function is intended for interactive use.) If no
argument is given, the interactive help system starts on the interpreter console. If the
argument is a string, then the string is looked up as the name of a module, function,
class, method, keyword, or documentation topic, and a help page is printed on the
console. If the argument is any other kind of object, a help page on the object is
generated.

Thisfunctionisaddedtothebuiltinnamespacebythe site module.

Newinversion2.2.
hex (x)
Convertanintegernumber(ofanysize)toalowercasehexadecimalstringprefixedwith
0x,forexample:
>>>hex(255)
'0xff'
>>>hex(42)
'0x2a'
>>>hex(1L)
'0x1L'

>>>

If x is not a Python int or long object, it has to define an __index__() method that
returnsaninteger.
Seealso int() forconvertingahexadecimalstringtoanintegerusingabaseof16.
Note: Toobtainahexadecimalstringrepresentationforafloat,usethe float.hex()
method.
Changedinversion2.4:Formerlyonlyreturnedanunsignedliteral.
id (object)
Returntheidentityofanobject.Thisisaninteger(orlonginteger)whichisguaranteed
to be unique and constant for this object during its lifetime. Two objects with non
overlappinglifetimesmayhavethesame id() value.
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CPythonimplementationdetail:Thisistheaddressoftheobjectinmemory.

input ([prompt])
Equivalentto eval(raw_input(prompt)) .

This function does not catch user errors. If the input is not syntactically valid, a
SyntaxError will be raised. Other exceptions may be raised if there is an error during
evaluation.
If the readline module was loaded, then input() will use it to provide elaborate line
editingandhistoryfeatures.
Considerusingthe raw_input() functionforgeneralinputfromusers.
class int (x=0)
class int (x,base=10)
Return an integer object constructed from a number or string x, or return 0 if no
arguments are given. If x is a number, it can be a plain integer, a long integer, or a
floatingpointnumber.Ifxisfloatingpoint,theconversiontruncatestowardszero.Ifthe
argumentisoutsidetheintegerrange,thefunctionreturnsalongobjectinstead.
If x is not a number or if base is given, then x must be a string or Unicode object
representinganintegerliteralinradixbase.Optionally,theliteralcanbeprecededby +
or (withnospaceinbetween)andsurroundedbywhitespace.Abasenliteralconsists
ofthedigits0ton1,with a to z (or A to Z )havingvalues10to35.Thedefaultbaseis
10. The allowed values are 0 and 236. Base2, 8, and 16 literals can be optionally
prefixedwith 0b / 0B , 0o / 0O / 0 ,or 0x / 0X , as with integer literals in code. Base 0 means to
interpretthestringexactlyasanintegerliteral,sothattheactualbaseis2,8,10,or16.
TheintegertypeisdescribedinNumericTypesint,float,long,complex.
isinstance (object,classinfo)
Return true if the object argument is an instance of the classinfo argument, or of a
(direct,indirectorvirtual)subclassthereof.Alsoreturntrueifclassinfoisatypeobject
(newstyleclass)andobject is an object of that type or of a (direct, indirect or virtual)
subclass thereof. If object is not a class instance or an object of the given type, the
function always returns false. Ifclassinfo is neither a class object nor a type object, it
may be a tuple of class or type objects, or may recursively contain other such tuples
(other sequence types are not accepted). If classinfo is not a class, type, or tuple of
classes,types,andsuchtuples,a TypeError exceptionisraised.

Changedinversion2.2:Supportforatupleoftypeinformationwasadded.
issubclass (class,classinfo)
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Return true if class is a subclass (direct, indirect or virtual) of classinfo. A class is

consideredasubclassofitself.classinfomaybeatupleofclassobjects,inwhichcase
every entry in classinfo will be checked. In any other case, a TypeError exception is
raised.
Changedinversion2.3:Supportforatupleoftypeinformationwasadded.
iter (o[,sentinel])
Returnaniteratorobject.Thefirstargumentisinterpretedverydifferentlydependingon
the presence of the second argument. Without a second argument, o must be a
collectionobjectwhichsupportstheiterationprotocol(the __iter__() method),oritmust
support the sequence protocol (the __getitem__() method with integer arguments
startingat 0 ).Ifitdoesnotsupporteitherofthoseprotocols, TypeError israised.Ifthe
second argument, sentinel, is given, then o must be a callable object. The iterator
createdinthiscasewillcallowithnoargumentsforeachcalltoits next() methodifthe
valuereturnedisequaltosentinel, StopIteration willberaised,otherwisethevaluewill
bereturned.

One useful application of the second form of iter() is to read lines of a file until a
certain line is reached. The following example reads a file until the readline() method
returnsanemptystring:
withopen('mydata.txt')asfp:
forlineiniter(fp.readline,''):
process_line(line)

Newinversion2.2.
len (s)
Returnthelength(thenumberofitems)ofanobject.Theargumentmaybeasequence
(suchasastring,bytes,tuple,list,orrange)oracollection(suchasadictionary,set,or
frozenset).

class list ([iterable])

Return a list whose items are the same and in the same order as iterables items.
iterable may be either a sequence, a container that supports iteration, or an iterator
object.Ifiterable is already a list, a copy is made and returned, similar to iterable[:] .
Forinstance, list('abc') returns ['a','b','c'] and list((1,2,3)) returns [1,2,3] .
Ifnoargumentisgiven,returnsanewemptylist, [] .
list is a mutable sequence type, as documented in Sequence Types str, unicode,

list,tuple,bytearray,buffer,xrange.Forothercontainersseethebuiltin dict , set ,and

tuple classes,andthe collections module.
locals ()
Update and return a dictionary representing the current local symbol table. Free
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variablesarereturnedby locals() when it is called in function blocks, but not in class

blocks.
Note: The contents of this dictionary should not be modified changes may not
affectthevaluesoflocalandfreevariablesusedbytheinterpreter.
class long (x=0)
class long (x,base=10)
Returnalongintegerobjectconstructedfromastringornumberx.Iftheargumentisa
string,itmustcontainapossiblysignednumberofarbitrarysize,possiblyembeddedin
whitespace.Thebase argumentisinterpretedinthesamewayasfor int() , and may
onlybegivenwhenxisastring.Otherwise,theargumentmaybeaplainorlonginteger
or a floating point number, and a long integer with the same value is returned.
Conversion of floating point numbers to integers truncates (towards zero). If no
argumentsaregiven,returns 0L .
ThelongtypeisdescribedinNumericTypesint,float,long,complex.
map (function,iterable,...)
Apply function to every item of iterable and return a list of the results. If additional
iterableargumentsarepassed,functionmusttakethatmanyargumentsandisapplied
to the items from all iterables in parallel. If one iterable is shorter than another it is
assumed to be extended with None items. If function is None , the identity function is
assumed if there are multiple arguments, map() returns a list consisting of tuples
containing the corresponding items from all iterables (a kind of transpose operation).
Theiterableargumentsmaybeasequenceoranyiterableobjecttheresultisalwaysa
list.
max (iterable[,key])
max (arg1,arg2,*args[,key])
Returnthelargestiteminaniterableorthelargestoftwoormorearguments.

Ifonepositionalargumentisprovided,iterablemustbeanonemptyiterable(suchasa
nonemptystring,tupleorlist).Thelargestitemintheiterableisreturned.Iftwoormore
positionalargumentsareprovided,thelargestofthepositionalargumentsisreturned.
Theoptionalkeyargumentspecifiesaoneargumentorderingfunctionlikethatusedfor
list.sort() . The key argument, if supplied, must be in keyword form (for example,
max(a,b,c,key=func) ).
Changedinversion2.5:Addedsupportfortheoptionalkeyargument.
memoryview (obj)
Returnamemoryviewobjectcreatedfromthegivenargument.Seememoryviewtype
formoreinformation.
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min (iterable[,key])
min (arg1,arg2,*args[,key])
Returnthesmallestiteminaniterableorthesmallestoftwoormorearguments.

Ifonepositionalargumentisprovided,iterablemustbeanonemptyiterable(suchasa
nonempty string, tuple or list). The smallest item in the iterable is returned. If two or
more positional arguments are provided, the smallest of the positional arguments is
returned.
Theoptionalkeyargumentspecifiesaoneargumentorderingfunctionlikethatusedfor
list.sort() . The key argument, if supplied, must be in keyword form (for example,
min(a,b,c,key=func) ).
Changedinversion2.5:Addedsupportfortheoptionalkeyargument.
next (iterator[,default])
Retrievethenextitemfromtheiteratorbycallingits next() method.Ifdefaultisgiven,it
isreturnediftheiteratorisexhausted,otherwise StopIteration israised.

Newinversion2.6.
class object
Return a new featureless object. object is a base for all new style classes. It has the
methodsthatarecommontoallinstancesofnewstyleclasses.
Newinversion2.2.
Changed in version 2.3: This function does not accept any arguments. Formerly, it
acceptedargumentsbutignoredthem.
oct (x)
Convertanintegernumber(ofanysize)toanoctalstring.TheresultisavalidPython
expression.

Changedinversion2.4:Formerlyonlyreturnedanunsignedliteral.
open (name[,mode[,buffering]])
Openafile,returninganobjectofthe file typedescribedinsectionFileObjects.Ifthe
file cannot be opened, IOError is raised. When opening a file, its preferable to use
open() insteadofinvokingthe file constructordirectly.

Thefirsttwoargumentsarethesameasfor stdio s fopen() :nameisthefilenametobe

opened,andmodeisastringindicatinghowthefileistobeopened.
Themostcommonlyusedvaluesofmodeare 'r' forreading, 'w' forwriting(truncating
thefileifitalreadyexists),and 'a' forappending(whichonsomeUnixsystemsmeans
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thatall writes append to the end of the file regardless of the current seek position). If
modeisomitted,itdefaultsto 'r' .Thedefaultistousetextmode,whichmayconvert
'\n' characters to a platformspecific representation on writing and back on reading.
Thus,whenopeningabinaryfile,youshouldappend 'b' tothemodevaluetoopenthe
file in binary mode, which will improve portability. (Appending 'b' is useful even on
systems that dont treat binary and text files differently, where it serves as
documentation.)Seebelowformorepossiblevaluesofmode.
The optional buffering argument specifies the files desired buffer size: 0 means
unbuffered, 1 means line buffered, any other positive value means use a buffer of
(approximately) that size (in bytes). A negative buffering means to use the system
default,whichisusuallylinebufferedforttydevicesandfullybufferedforotherfiles.If
omitted,thesystemdefaultisused.[2]
Modes 'r+' , 'w+' and 'a+' openthefileforupdating(readingandwriting)notethat 'w+'
truncatesthefile.Append 'b' tothemodetoopenthefileinbinarymode,onsystems
that differentiate between binary and text files on systems that dont have this
distinction,addingthe 'b' hasnoeffect.
Inadditiontothestandard fopen() valuesmode may be 'U' or 'rU' .Python is usually
builtwithuniversalnewlinessupportsupplying 'U' opensthefileasatextfile,butlines
may be terminated by any of the following: the Unix endofline convention '\n' , the
Macintosh convention '\r' , or the Windows convention '\r\n' . All of these external
representations are seen as '\n' by the Python program. If Python is built without
universalnewlinessupportamodewith 'U' isthesameasnormaltextmode.Notethat
fileobjectssoopenedalsohaveanattributecalled newlines whichhasavalueof None (if
nonewlineshaveyetbeenseen), '\n' , '\r' , '\r\n' ,oratuplecontainingallthenewline
typesseen.
Pythonenforcesthatthemode,afterstripping 'U' ,beginswith 'r' , 'w' or 'a' .
Python provides many file handling modules including fileinput , os , os.path , tempfile ,
and shutil .
Changedinversion2.5:Restrictiononfirstletterofmodestringintroduced.
ord (c)
Givenastringoflengthone,returnanintegerrepresentingtheUnicodecodepointof
thecharacterwhentheargumentisaunicodeobject,orthevalueofthebytewhenthe
argumentisan8bitstring.Forexample, ord('a') returnstheinteger 97 , ord(u'\u2020')
returns 8224 . This is the inverse of chr() for 8bit strings and of unichr() for unicode
objects.IfaunicodeargumentisgivenandPythonwasbuiltwithUCS2Unicode,then
thecharacterscodepointmustbeintherange[0..65535]inclusiveotherwisethestring
lengthistwo,anda TypeError willberaised.

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pow (x,y[,z])
Returnx to the power yifz is present, return x to the power y, modulo z (computed
more efficiently than pow(x,y)% z ). The twoargument form pow(x, y) is equivalent to
usingthepoweroperator: x**y .

Theargumentsmusthavenumerictypes.Withmixedoperandtypes,thecoercionrules
forbinaryarithmeticoperators apply.For int and long int operands, the result has the
sametypeastheoperands(aftercoercion)unlessthesecondargumentisnegativein
that case, all arguments are converted to float and a float result is delivered. For
example, 10**2 returns 100 , but 10**2 returns 0.01 . (This last feature was added in
Python2.2.InPython2.1andbefore,ifbothargumentswereofintegertypesandthe
second argument was negative, an exception was raised.) If the second argument is
negative,thethirdargumentmustbeomitted.Ifzispresent,xandymustbeofinteger
types,andymustbenonnegative.(ThisrestrictionwasaddedinPython2.2.InPython
2.1 and before, floating 3argument pow() returned platformdependent results
dependingonfloatingpointroundingaccidents.)
print (*objects,sep='',end='\n',file=sys.stdout)
Printobjectstothestreamfile,separatedbysepandfollowedbyend.sep,endandfile,
ifpresent,mustbegivenaskeywordarguments.

All nonkeyword arguments are converted to strings like str() does and written to the
stream,separatedbysepandfollowedbyend.Bothsepandendmustbestringsthey
canalsobe None ,whichmeanstousethedefaultvalues.Ifnoobjectsaregiven, print()
willjustwriteend.
Thefileargumentmustbeanobjectwitha write(string) methodifitisnotpresentor
None , sys.stdout willbeused.Outputbufferingisdeterminedbyfile.Use file.flush() to
ensure,forinstance,immediateappearanceonascreen.
Note: This function is not normally available as a builtin since the name print is
recognized as the print statement. To disable the statement and use the print()
function,usethisfuturestatementatthetopofyourmodule:
from__future__importprint_function

Newinversion2.6.
class property ([fget[,fset[,fdel[,doc]]]])
Returnapropertyattributefornewstyleclasses(classesthatderivefrom object ).
fgetisafunctionforgettinganattributevalue.fsetisafunctionforsettinganattribute
value.fdelisafunctionfordeletinganattributevalue.Anddoccreatesadocstringfor
theattribute.
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Atypicaluseistodefineamanagedattribute x :
classC(object):
def__init__(self):
self._x=None
defgetx(self):
returnself._x
defsetx(self,value):
self._x=value
defdelx(self):
delself._x
x=property(getx,setx,delx,"I'mthe'x'property.")

IfcisaninstanceofC, c.x willinvokethegetter, c.x=value willinvokethesetterand

delc.x thedeleter.
Ifgiven,docwillbethedocstringofthepropertyattribute.Otherwise,thepropertywill
copyfgetsdocstring(ifitexists).Thismakesitpossibletocreatereadonlyproperties
easilyusing property() asadecorator:
classParrot(object):
def__init__(self):
self._voltage=100000
@property
defvoltage(self):
"""Getthecurrentvoltage."""
returnself._voltage

The @property decorator turns the voltage() method into a getter for a readonly
attribute with the same name, and it sets the docstring for voltage to Get the current
voltage.
A property object has getter , setter , and deleter methods usable as decorators that
create a copy of the property with the corresponding accessor function set to the
decoratedfunction.Thisisbestexplainedwithanexample:
classC(object):
def__init__(self):
self._x=None
@property
defx(self):
"""I'mthe'x'property."""
returnself._x
@x.setter
defx(self,value):
self._x=value
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@x.deleter
defx(self):
delself._x

This code is exactly equivalent to the first example. Be sure to give the additional
functionsthesamenameastheoriginalproperty( x inthiscase.)
Thereturnedpropertyobjectalsohastheattributes fget , fset ,and fdel corresponding
totheconstructorarguments.
Newinversion2.2.
Changedinversion2.5:Usefgetsdocstringifnodocgiven.
Changedinversion2.6:The getter , setter ,and deleter attributeswereadded.
range (stop)
range (start,stop[,step])
Thisisaversatilefunctiontocreatelistscontainingarithmeticprogressions.Itismost
oftenusedin for loops.Theargumentsmustbeplainintegers.Ifthestepargumentis
omitted, it defaults to 1 .Ifthestart argument is omitted, it defaults to 0 . The full form
returns a list of plain integers [start, start + step, start + 2 * step, ...] . If step is
positive, the last element is the largest start + i * step less than stop if step is
negative,thelastelementisthesmallest start+i*step greaterthanstop.stepmust
notbezero(orelse ValueError israised).Example:
>>>range(10)
[0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
>>>range(1,11)
[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
>>>range(0,30,5)
[0,5,10,15,20,25]
>>>range(0,10,3)
[0,3,6,9]
>>>range(0,10,1)
[0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
>>>range(0)
[]
>>>range(1,0)
[]

>>>

raw_input ([prompt])
If the prompt argument is present, it is written to standard output without a trailing
newline. The function then reads a line from input, converts it to a string (stripping a
trailingnewline),andreturnsthat.WhenEOFisread, EOFError israised.Example:
>>>s=raw_input('>')
>MontyPython'sFlyingCircus
>>>s
"MontyPython'sFlyingCircus"
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Ifthe readline modulewasloaded,then raw_input() willuseittoprovideelaborateline

editingandhistoryfeatures.
reduce (function,iterable[,initializer])
Applyfunctionoftwoargumentscumulativelytotheitemsofiterable,fromlefttoright,
soastoreducetheiterabletoasinglevalue.Forexample, reduce(lambdax,y:x+y,[1,
2,3,4,5]) calculates ((((1+2)+3)+4)+5) .Theleftargument,x,istheaccumulatedvalue
andtherightargument,y,istheupdatevaluefromtheiterable.Iftheoptionalinitializer
ispresent,itisplacedbeforetheitemsoftheiterableinthecalculation,andservesasa
default when the iterable is empty. If initializer is not given and iterable contains only
oneitem,thefirstitemisreturned.Roughlyequivalentto:
defreduce(function,iterable,initializer=None):
it=iter(iterable)
ifinitializerisNone:
try:
initializer=next(it)
exceptStopIteration:
raiseTypeError('reduce()ofemptysequencewithnoinitialvalue')
accum_value=initializer
forxinit:
accum_value=function(accum_value,x)
returnaccum_value

reload (module)
Reload a previously imported module. The argument must be a module object, so it
must have been successfully imported before. This is useful if you have edited the
modulesourcefileusinganexternaleditorandwanttotryoutthenewversionwithout
leavingthePythoninterpreter.Thereturnvalueisthemoduleobject(thesameasthe
moduleargument).

When reload(module) isexecuted:

Python modules code is recompiled and the modulelevel code reexecuted,
defining a new set of objects which are bound to names in the modules
dictionary.The init functionofextensionmodulesisnotcalledasecondtime.
As with all other objects in Python the old objects are only reclaimed after their
referencecountsdroptozero.
Thenamesinthemodulenamespaceareupdatedtopointtoanyneworchanged
objects.
Other references to the old objects (such as names external to the module) are
notreboundtorefertothenewobjectsandmustbeupdatedineachnamespace
wheretheyoccurifthatisdesired.
Thereareanumberofothercaveats:
Ifamoduleissyntacticallycorrectbutitsinitializationfails,thefirst import statementfor
itdoesnotbinditsnamelocally,butdoesstorea(partiallyinitialized)moduleobjectin
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sys.modules .Toreloadthemoduleyoumustfirst import itagain(thiswillbindthename

tothepartiallyinitializedmoduleobject)beforeyoucan reload() it.

Whenamoduleisreloaded,itsdictionary(containingthemodulesglobalvariables)is
retained.Redefinitionsofnameswilloverridetheolddefinitions,sothisisgenerallynot
aproblem.Ifthenewversionofamoduledoesnotdefineanamethatwasdefinedby
the old version, the old definition remains. This feature can be used to the modules
advantageifitmaintainsaglobaltableorcacheofobjectswitha try statementitcan
testforthetablespresenceandskipitsinitializationifdesired:
try:
cache
exceptNameError:
cache={}

It is legal though generally not very useful to reload builtin or dynamically loaded
modules, except for sys , __main__ and __builtin__ . In many cases, however, extension
modules are not designed to be initialized more than once, and may fail in arbitrary
wayswhenreloaded.
Ifamoduleimportsobjectsfromanothermoduleusing from ... import ...,calling reload()
fortheothermoduledoesnotredefinetheobjectsimportedfromitonewayaround
this is to reexecute the from statement, another is to use import and qualified names
(module.*name*)instead.
Ifamoduleinstantiatesinstancesofaclass,reloadingthemodulethatdefinestheclass
doesnotaffectthemethoddefinitionsoftheinstancestheycontinuetousetheold
classdefinition.Thesameistrueforderivedclasses.
repr (object)
Return a string containing a printable representation of an object. This is the same
value yielded by conversions (reverse quotes). It is sometimes useful to be able to
accessthisoperationasanordinaryfunction.Formanytypes,thisfunctionmakesan
attempttoreturnastringthatwouldyieldanobjectwiththesamevaluewhenpassedto
eval() ,otherwisetherepresentationisastringenclosedinanglebracketsthatcontains
the name of the type of the object together with additional information often including
thenameandaddressoftheobject.Aclasscancontrolwhatthisfunctionreturnsforits
instancesbydefininga __repr__() method.
reversed (seq)
Returnareverseiterator.seqmustbeanobjectwhichhasa __reversed__() methodor
supports the sequence protocol (the __len__() method and the __getitem__() method
withintegerargumentsstartingat 0 ).

Newinversion2.4.
Changedinversion2.6:Addedthepossibilitytowriteacustom __reversed__() method.
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round (number[,ndigits])
Returnthefloatingpointvaluenumberroundedtondigitsdigitsafterthedecimalpoint.
Ifndigitsisomitted,itdefaultstozero.Theresultisafloatingpointnumber.Valuesare
rounded to the closest multiple of 10 to the power minus ndigits if two multiples are
equally close, rounding is done away from 0 (so, for example, round(0.5) is 1.0 and
round(0.5) is 1.0 ).

Note: Thebehaviorof round() forfloatscanbesurprising:forexample, round(2.675,

2) gives 2.67 insteadoftheexpected 2.68 .Thisisnotabug:itsaresultofthefact
thatmostdecimalfractionscantberepresentedexactlyasafloat.SeeFloatingPoint
Arithmetic:IssuesandLimitationsformoreinformation.
class set ([iterable])
Return a new set object, optionally with elements taken from iterable. set is a builtin
class.See set andSetTypesset,frozensetfordocumentationaboutthisclass.
Forothercontainersseethebuiltin frozenset , list , tuple ,and dict classes,aswellas
the collections module.
Newinversion2.4.
setattr (object,name,value)
This is the counterpart of getattr() . The arguments are an object, a string and an
arbitrary value. The string may name an existing attribute or a new attribute. The
function assigns the value to the attribute, provided the object allows it. For example,
setattr(x,'foobar',123) isequivalentto x.foobar=123 .

class slice (stop)

class slice (start,stop[,step])
Return a slice object representing the set of indices specified by range(start, stop,
step) .Thestartandstep arguments default to None .Slice objects have readonly data
attributes start , stop and step which merely return the argument values (or their
default).TheyhavenootherexplicitfunctionalityhowevertheyareusedbyNumerical
Python and other third party extensions. Slice objects are also generated when
extended indexing syntax is used. Forexample: a[start:stop:step] or a[start:stop, i] .
See itertools.islice() foranalternateversionthatreturnsaniterator.
sorted (iterable[,cmp[,key[,reverse]]])
Returnanewsortedlistfromtheitemsiniterable.

Theoptionalargumentscmp,key,andreversehavethesamemeaningasthoseforthe
list.sort() method(describedinsectionMutableSequenceTypes).
cmp specifies a custom comparison function of two arguments (iterable elements)
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whichshouldreturnanegative,zeroorpositivenumberdependingonwhetherthefirst
argument is considered smaller than, equal to, or larger than the second argument:
cmp=lambdax,y:cmp(x.lower(),y.lower()) .Thedefaultvalueis None .
keyspecifiesafunctionofoneargumentthatisusedtoextractacomparisonkeyfrom
each list element: key=str.lower . The default value is None (compare the elements
directly).
reverse is a boolean value. If set to True , then the list elements are sorted as if each
comparisonwerereversed.
Ingeneral,thekeyandreverseconversionprocessesaremuchfasterthanspecifying
anequivalentcmp function. This is because cmp is called multiple times for each list
element while key and reverse touch each element only once. Use
functools.cmp_to_key() toconvertanoldstylecmpfunctiontoakeyfunction.
Thebuiltin sorted() functionisguaranteedtobestable.Asortisstableifitguarantees
not to change the relative order of elements that compare equal this is helpful for
sortinginmultiplepasses(forexample,sortbydepartment,thenbysalarygrade).
Forsortingexamplesandabriefsortingtutorial,seeSortingHOWTO.
Newinversion2.4.
staticmethod (function)
Returnastaticmethodforfunction.

Astaticmethoddoesnotreceiveanimplicitfirstargument.Todeclareastaticmethod,
usethisidiom:
classC(object):
@staticmethod
deff(arg1,arg2,...):
...

The @staticmethod form is a function decorator see the description of function

definitionsinFunctiondefinitionsfordetails.
Itcanbecalledeitherontheclass(suchas C.f() )oronaninstance(suchas C().f() ).
Theinstanceisignoredexceptforitsclass.
Static methods in Python are similar to those found in Java or C++. Also see
classmethod() foravariantthatisusefulforcreatingalternateclassconstructors.
For more information on static methods, consult the documentation on the standard
typehierarchyinThestandardtypehierarchy.
Newinversion2.2.
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Changedinversion2.4:Functiondecoratorsyntaxadded.
class str (object='')
Returnastringcontaininganicelyprintablerepresentationofanobject.Forstrings,this
returns the string itself. The difference with repr(object) is that str(object) does not
always attempt to return a string that is acceptable to eval() its goal is to return a
printablestring.Ifnoargumentisgiven,returnstheemptystring, '' .
For more information on strings see Sequence Types str, unicode, list, tuple,
bytearray, buffer, xrange which describes sequence functionality (strings are
sequences), and also the stringspecific methods described in the String Methods
section.Tooutputformattedstringsusetemplatestringsorthe % operatordescribedin
the String Formatting Operations section. In addition see the String Services section.
Seealso unicode() .
sum (iterable[,start])
Sums start and the items of an iterable from left to right and returns the total. start
defaults to 0 . The iterables items are normally numbers, and the start value is not
allowedtobeastring.

For some use cases, there are good alternatives to sum() . The preferred, fast way to
concatenateasequenceofstringsisbycalling ''.join(sequence) .To add floating point
values with extended precision, see math.fsum() . To concatenate a series of iterables,
considerusing itertools.chain() .
Newinversion2.3.
super (type[,objectortype])
Returnaproxyobjectthat delegatesmethodcallstoa parent orsiblingclassof type.
Thisisusefulforaccessinginheritedmethodsthathavebeenoverriddeninaclass.The
searchorderissameasthatusedby getattr() exceptthatthetypeitselfisskipped.

The __mro__ attributeofthetypeliststhemethodresolutionsearchorderusedbyboth

getattr() and super() . The attribute is dynamic and can change whenever the
inheritancehierarchyisupdated.
Ifthesecondargumentisomitted,thesuperobjectreturnedisunbound.Ifthesecond
argumentisanobject, isinstance(obj,type) mustbetrue.If the secondargumentisa
type, issubclass(type2,type) mustbetrue(thisisusefulforclassmethods).
Note: super() onlyworksfornewstyleclasses.
Therearetwotypicalusecasesforsuper.Inaclasshierarchywithsingleinheritance,
super can be used to refer to parent classes without naming them explicitly, thus
makingthecodemoremaintainable.Thisusecloselyparallelstheuseofsuperinother
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programminglanguages.
The second use case is to support cooperative multiple inheritance in a dynamic
executionenvironment.ThisusecaseisuniquetoPythonandisnotfoundinstatically
compiled languages or languages that only support single inheritance. This makes it
possibletoimplementdiamonddiagramswheremultiplebaseclassesimplementthe
samemethod.Gooddesigndictatesthatthismethodhavethesamecallingsignaturein
every case (because the order of calls is determined at runtime, because that order
adapts to changes in the class hierarchy, and because that order can include sibling
classesthatareunknownpriortoruntime).
Forbothusecases,atypicalsuperclasscalllookslikethis:
classC(B):
defmethod(self,arg):
super(C,self).method(arg)

Note that super() is implemented as part of the binding process for explicit dotted
attributelookupssuchas super().__getitem__(name) .Itdoessobyimplementingitsown
__getattribute__() method for searching classes in a predictable order that supports
cooperative multiple inheritance. Accordingly, super() is undefined for implicit lookups
usingstatementsoroperatorssuchas super()[name] .
Also note that super() is not limited to use inside methods. The two argument form
specifiestheargumentsexactlyandmakestheappropriatereferences.
For practical suggestions on how to design cooperative classes using
guidetousingsuper().

super() ,

see

Newinversion2.2.
tuple ([iterable])
Return a tuple whose items are the same and in the same order as iterables items.
iterablemaybeasequence,acontainerthatsupportsiteration,oraniteratorobject.If
iterable is already a tuple, it is returned unchanged. For instance, tuple('abc') returns
('a','b','c') and tuple([1,2,3]) returns (1,2,3) .Ifnoargumentisgiven,returnsa
newemptytuple, () .
tuple

is an immutable sequence type, as documented in Sequence Types str,

unicode,list,tuple,bytearray,buffer,xrange.Forothercontainersseethebuiltin dict ,
list ,and set classes,andthe collections module.
class type (object)
class type (name,bases,dict)
Withoneargument,returnthetypeofanobject.Thereturnvalueisatypeobject.The
isinstance() builtinfunctionisrecommendedfortestingthetypeofanobject.
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With three arguments, return a new type object. This is essentially a dynamic form of
the class statement. The name string is the class name and becomes the __name__
attribute the bases tuple itemizes the base classes and becomes the __bases__
attributeandthedictdictionaryisthenamespacecontainingdefinitionsforclassbody
and becomes the __dict__ attribute. For example, the following two statements create
identical type objects:
>>>classX(object):
...a=1
...
>>>X=type('X',(object,),dict(a=1))

>>>

Newinversion2.2.
unichr (i)
Return the Unicode string of one character whose Unicode code is the integer i. For
example, unichr(97) returns the string u'a' . This is the inverse of ord() for Unicode
strings.ThevalidrangefortheargumentdependshowPythonwasconfigureditmay
beeitherUCS2[0..0xFFFF]orUCS4[0..0x10FFFF]. ValueError israisedotherwise.For
ASCIIand8bitstringssee chr() .

Newinversion2.0.
unicode (object='')
unicode (object[,encoding[,errors]])
ReturntheUnicodestringversionofobjectusingoneofthefollowingmodes:

Ifencodingand/orerrorsaregiven, unicode() willdecodetheobjectwhichcaneitherbe

an 8bit string or a character buffer using the codec for encoding. The encoding
parameter is a string giving the name of an encoding if the encoding is not known,
LookupError is raised. Error handling is done according to errors this specifies the
treatmentofcharacterswhichareinvalidintheinputencoding.Iferrorsis 'strict' (the
default),a ValueError israisedonerrors,whileavalueof 'ignore' causeserrorstobe
silently ignored, and a value of 'replace' causes the official Unicode replacement
character, U+FFFD ,tobeusedtoreplaceinputcharacterswhichcannotbedecoded.See
alsothe codecs module.
Ifnooptionalparametersaregiven, unicode() willmimicthebehaviourof str() except
that it returns Unicode strings instead of 8bit strings. More precisely, if object is a
Unicode string or subclass it will return that Unicode string without any additional
decodingapplied.
For objects which provide a __unicode__() method, it will call this method without
arguments to create a Unicode string. For all other objects, the 8bit string version or
representationisrequestedandthenconvertedtoaUnicodestringusingthecodecfor
thedefaultencodingin 'strict' mode.
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For more information on Unicode strings see Sequence Types str, unicode, list,
tuple,bytearray,buffer,xrangewhichdescribessequencefunctionality(Unicodestrings
are sequences), and also the stringspecific methods described in the String Methods
section.Tooutputformattedstringsusetemplatestringsorthe % operatordescribedin
the String Formatting Operations section. In addition see the String Services section.
Seealso str() .
Newinversion2.0.
Changedinversion2.2:Supportfor __unicode__() added.
vars ([object])
Return the __dict__ attribute for a module, class, instance, or any other object with a
__dict__ attribute.

Objects such as modules and instances have an updateable __dict__ attribute

however, other objects may have write restrictions on their __dict__ attributes (for
example,newstyleclassesuseadictproxytopreventdirectdictionaryupdates).
Withoutanargument, vars() actslike locals() .Note,thelocalsdictionaryisonlyuseful
forreadssinceupdatestothelocalsdictionaryareignored.
xrange (stop)
xrange (start,stop[,step])
Thisfunctionisverysimilarto range() ,butreturnsanxrangeobjectinsteadofalist.This
is an opaque sequence type which yields the same values as the corresponding list,
withoutactuallystoringthemallsimultaneously.Theadvantageof xrange() over range()
is minimal (since xrange() still has to create the values when asked for them) except
when a very large range is used on a memorystarved machine or when all of the
ranges elements are never used (such as when the loop is usually terminated with
break ).Formoreinformationonxrangeobjects,seeXRangeTypeandSequenceTypes
str,unicode,list,tuple,bytearray,buffer,xrange.

CPython implementation detail: xrange() is intended to be simple and fast.

Implementations may impose restrictions to achieve this. The C implementation of
Python restricts all arguments to native C longs (short Python integers), and also
requiresthatthenumberofelementsfitinanativeClong.Ifalargerrangeisneeded,
an alternate version can be crafted using the itertools module: islice(count(start,
step),(stopstart+step1+2*(step<0))//step) .

zip ([iterable,...])
Thisfunctionreturnsalistoftuples,wheretheithtuplecontainstheithelementfrom
eachoftheargumentsequencesoriterables.Thereturnedlististruncatedinlengthto
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the length of the shortest argument sequence. When there are multiple arguments
whichareallofthesamelength, zip() issimilarto map() withaninitialargumentof None .
With a single sequence argument, it returns a list of 1tuples. With no arguments, it
returnsanemptylist.
Thelefttorightevaluationorderoftheiterablesisguaranteed.Thismakespossiblean
idiomforclusteringadataseriesintonlengthgroupsusing zip(*[iter(s)]*n) .
zip() inconjunctionwiththe * operatorcanbeusedtounzipalist:

>>>x=[1,2,3]
>>>y=[4,5,6]
>>>zipped=zip(x,y)
>>>zipped
[(1,4),(2,5),(3,6)]
>>>x2,y2=zip(*zipped)
>>>x==list(x2)andy==list(y2)
True

>>>

Newinversion2.0.
Changed in version 2.4: Formerly, zip() required at least one argument and
raiseda TypeError insteadofreturninganemptylist.

zip()

__import__ (name[,globals[,locals[,fromlist[,level]]]])

Note: This is an advanced function that is not needed in everyday Python

programming,unlike importlib.import_module() .
This function is invoked by the import statement. It can be replaced (by importing the
__builtin__ module and assigning to __builtin__.__import__ ) in order to change
semantics of the import statement, but nowadays it is usually simpler to use import
hooks(seePEP302).Directuseof __import__() israre,exceptincaseswhereyouwant
toimportamodulewhosenameisonlyknownatruntime.
Thefunctionimportsthemodulename,potentiallyusingthegivenglobalsandlocalsto
determinehowtointerpretthenameinapackagecontext.Thefromlistgivesthenames
ofobjectsorsubmodulesthatshouldbeimportedfromthemodulegivenbyname.The
standard implementation does not use its locals argument at all, and uses its globals
onlytodeterminethepackagecontextofthe import statement.
level specifies whether to use absolute or relative imports. The default is 1 which
indicates both absolute and relative imports will be attempted. 0 means only perform
absoluteimports.Positive values for level indicate the number of parent directories to
searchrelativetothedirectoryofthemodulecalling __import__() .
Whenthename variable is of the form package.module , normally, the toplevel package
(the name up till the first dot) is returned, not the module named by name. However,
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whenanonemptyfromlistargumentisgiven,themodulenamedbynameisreturned.
For example, the statement import spam results in bytecode resembling the following
code:
spam=__import__('spam',globals(),locals(),[],1)

Thestatement importspam.ham resultsinthiscall:

spam=__import__('spam.ham',globals(),locals(),[],1)

Notehow __import__() returnsthetoplevelmoduleherebecausethisistheobjectthatis

boundtoanamebythe import statement.
Ontheotherhand,thestatement fromspam.hamimporteggs,sausageassaus resultsin
_temp=__import__('spam.ham',globals(),locals(),['eggs','sausage'],1)
eggs=_temp.eggs
saus=_temp.sausage

Here,the spam.ham moduleisreturnedfrom __import__() .Fromthisobject,thenamesto

importareretrievedandassignedtotheirrespectivenames.
If you simply want to import a module (potentially within a package) by name, use
importlib.import_module() .
Changedinversion2.5:Thelevelparameterwasadded.
Changedinversion2.5:Keywordsupportforparameterswasadded.

3. Nonessential Builtin Functions

There are several builtin functions that are no longer essential to learn, know or use in
modern Python programming. They have been kept here to maintain backwards
compatibilitywithprogramswrittenforolderversionsofPython.
Pythonprogrammers,trainers,studentsandbookwritersshouldfeelfreetobypassthese
functionswithoutconcernsaboutmissingsomethingimportant.
apply (function,args[,keywords])
Thefunctionargumentmustbeacallableobject(auserdefinedorbuiltinfunctionor
method,oraclassobject)andtheargsargumentmustbeasequence.Thefunctionis
calledwithargsastheargumentlistthenumberofargumentsisthelengthofthetuple.
If the optional keywords argument is present, it must be a dictionary whose keys are
strings. It specifies keyword arguments to be added to the end of the argument list.
Calling apply() is different from just calling function(args) , since in that case there is
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always exactly one argument. The use of

**keywords) .

apply()

is equivalent to

function(*args,

Deprecated since version 2.3: Use function(*args, **keywords) instead of

apply(function,args,keywords) (seeUnpackingArgumentLists).
buffer (object[,offset[,size]])
Theobjectargumentmustbeanobjectthatsupportsthebuffercallinterface(suchas
strings, arrays, and buffers). A new buffer object will be created which references the
objectargument.Thebufferobjectwillbeaslicefromthebeginningofobject(orfrom
the specified offset). The slice will extend to the end of object (or will have a length
givenbythesizeargument).
coerce (x,y)
Returnatupleconsistingofthetwonumericargumentsconvertedtoacommontype,
usingthesamerulesasusedbyarithmeticoperations.Ifcoercionisnotpossible,raise
TypeError .
intern (string)
Enter string in the table of interned strings and return the interned string which is
stringitselforacopy.Interningstringsisusefultogainalittleperformanceondictionary
lookupifthekeysinadictionaryareinterned,andthelookupkeyisinterned,thekey
comparisons (after hashing) can be done by a pointer compare instead of a string
compare. Normally, the names used in Python programs are automatically interned,
and the dictionaries used to hold module, class or instance attributes have interned
keys.

Changedinversion2.3:Internedstringsarenotimmortal(liketheyusedtobeinPython
2.2 and before) you must keep a reference to the return value of intern() around to
benefitfromit.
Footnotes
[1] Itisusedrelativelyrarelysodoesnotwarrantbeingmadeintoastatement.
[2] Specifyingabuffersizecurrentlyhasnoeffectonsystemsthatdonthave setvbuf() .
Theinterfacetospecifythebuffersizeisnotdoneusingamethodthatcalls setvbuf() ,
becausethatmaydumpcorewhencalledafteranyI/Ohasbeenperformed,and
theresnoreliablewaytodeterminewhetherthisisthecase.
[3] Inthecurrentimplementation,localvariablebindingscannotnormallybeaffectedthis
way,butvariablesretrievedfromotherscopes(suchasmodules)canbe.Thismay
change.

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