Most useful Python modules from the standard library? [closed]

Answer 1

It is hard to live without timeit

>>> # Python shell usage
... import timeit
>>> tt = timeit.Timer("foo = 'time this'", "print 'setup with this arg'")
>>> tt.timeit(number=1000)
setup with this arg
0.00021100044250488281
>>>

[mpenning@Bucksnort ~]$ # Bash shell usage
[mpenning@Bucksnort ~]$ # 5 runs with 1000 samples each.
[mpenning@Bucksnort ~]$ python -m timeit -n 1000 -r 5 -s "print 'setup w/ this arg'" \
    "foo = 'time this'"
setup w/ this arg
setup w/ this arg
setup w/ this arg
setup w/ this arg
setup w/ this arg
1000 loops, best of 5: 0.173 usec per loop
[mpenning@Bucksnort ~]$

Answer 2

Aside from those you mentioned, I found subprocess and sqlite3 modules particularly useful. But I would certainly advice to students to take a look at the list of standard library modules themselves. Also, from modules outside of standard library, I would mention numpy (or numarray) and pyparsing.

Answer 3

I would add urllib2 to the list.

Answer 4

For science student, a rarely heard but powerful module 'networkx' will be valuable. But they need to install it first. This module is well documented: http://networkx.lanl.gov/index.html

Answer 5

Have a look at PyMOTW (Python Module Of The Week). Although it is not strictly stdlib, it's a great resource of obvious and not so obvious gems of the python stdlib. What's more, it also serves as excellent documentation of the introduced modules.

Answer 6

os and os.path: because those are the core modules which anyone will require to write platform independent code in python and students can switch from shell script to python script after learning os and os.path.