Book Image

Python Object-Oriented Programming - Fourth Edition

By : Steven F. Lott, Dusty Phillips
2 (1)
Book Image

Python Object-Oriented Programming - Fourth Edition

2 (1)
By: Steven F. Lott, Dusty Phillips

Overview of this book

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a popular design paradigm in which data and behaviors are encapsulated in such a way that they can be manipulated together. Python Object-Oriented Programming, Fourth Edition dives deep into the various aspects of OOP, Python as an OOP language, common and advanced design patterns, and hands-on data manipulation and testing of more complex OOP systems. These concepts are consolidated by open-ended exercises, as well as a real-world case study at the end of every chapter, newly written for this edition. All example code is now compatible with Python 3.9+ syntax and has been updated with type hints for ease of learning. Steven and Dusty provide a comprehensive, illustrative tour of important OOP concepts, such as inheritance, composition, and polymorphism, and explain how they work together with Python’s classes and data structures to facilitate good design. In addition, the book also features an in-depth look at Python’s exception handling and how functional programming intersects with OOP. Two very powerful automated testing systems, unittest and pytest, are introduced. The final chapter provides a detailed discussion of Python's concurrent programming ecosystem. By the end of the book, you will have a thorough understanding of how to think about and apply object-oriented principles using Python syntax and be able to confidently create robust and reliable programs.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
15
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16
Index

Case study

In the previous chapters of the case study, we've been skirting an issue that arises frequently when working with complex data. Files have both a logical layout and a physical format. We've been laboring under a tacit assumption that our files are in CSV format, with a layout defined by the first line of the file. In Chapter 2, we touched on file loading. In Chapter 6, we revisited loading data and partitioning it into training and testing sets.

In both previous chapters, we trusted that the data would be in a CSV format. This isn't a great assumption to make. We need to look at the alternatives and elevate our assumptions into a design choice. We also need to build in the flexibility to make changes as the context for using our application evolves.

It's common to map complex objects to dictionaries, which have a tidy JSON representation. For this reason, the Classifier web application makes use of dictionaries. We can also parse CSV data...