Text Processing in Python

Text Processing in Python describes techniques for manipulation of text using the

Python programming language. At the broadest level, text processing is simply

taking textual information and doing something with it. This might be

restructuring or reformatting it, extracting smaller bits of information from it,

or performing calculations that depend on the text. Text processing is arguably

what most programmers spend most of their time doing. Because Python is

clear, expressive, and object-oriented it is a perfect language for doing text

processing, even better than Perl. As the amount of data everywhere continues

to increase, this is more and more of a challenge for programmers. This book is

not a tutorial on Python. It has two other goals: helping the programmer get

the job done pragmatically and efficiently; and giving the reader an

understanding - both theoretically and conceptually - of why what works works

and what doesn't work doesn't work. Mertz provides practical pointers and tips

that emphasize efficent, flexible, and maintainable approaches to the textprocessing

tasks that working programmers face daily.

David Mertz came to writing about programming via the unlikely route of first being a humanities professor. Along the way, he was a senior software developer, and now runs his own development company, Gnosis Software ("We know stuff!"). David writes regular columns and articles for IBM developerWorks, Intel Developer Network, O'Reilly ONLamp, and other publications.