The following books aim to be definitive references, either by publishing the Python documentation or by writing new reference-style material, and therefore should be useful throughout your Python programming career.

Most of these books will contain short, highly condensed introductions to Python, and if you're an experienced programmer these titles may be all you need. See the list of IntroductoryBooks if you'd prefer a book with more examples and a slower pace.

Python Phrasebook

• Brad Dayley
• ISBN: 0672329107
• Sams Publishing, 275 pages (November 2006)

Essential Code and Commands Python Phrasebook gives you the code phrases you need to quickly and effectively complete your programming projects in Python.

Concise and Accessible Easy to carry and easy to use—lets you ditch all those bulky books for one portable guide.

Flexible and Functional Packed with more than 100 customizable code snippets—so you can readily code functional Python in just about any situation.

Home Page

Review by James Pyles

The Python Language Reference Manual (version 3.2)

• Guido van Rossum, and Fred L. Drake, Jr. (Editor)
• ISBN: 1906966141
• Network Theory Ltd, 120 pages (Revised November 2006)

This is a printed edition of the official Python language reference manual by Guido van Rossum. For each copy sold $1 will be donated to the Python Software Foundation.

Home Page (includes electronic version)

Python Essential Reference

• David Beazley
• ISBN: 0672329786
• Addison-Wesley Professional; 717 pages (July, 2009)

The fourth edition that cover up to Python 2.6 language features and a variety of new modules added to the standard library; there are 17 pages on Python 3.0.

Note: a 5th edition which updates to Python 3.7 is in development with a hoped for publication date in late 2019.

The comments below apply to the 1st and 2nd editions.

A concise reference for Python 2.1, about as close as you can get to the K&R for Python. The first hundred pages are a complete but very compressed introduction to the language; the rest of the book is reference material on all of the standard library modules.

Home Page

The reviews below are for earlier editions of the book.

Review by Jonathan Corbet Review by Phil Hughes Review by AMK Review by Danny Yee

Simplifying Regular Expression Using Python

• [AbhishekSingh]

• ISBN: 1094777978
• April 2019, 79 pages

A concise reference book, awarded as one of the best regular expression books in the year 2020 and 2021, is written in a very friendly manner to teach and practice regular expression easily and efficiently. The codes and examples are written using Python 3.7.

Recommended By: bookauthority.org

Links:

publisher author

Python Pocket Reference, 5th Edition

• Mark Lutz
• ISBN: 1449357016
• O'Reilly Media, February 2014, 264 pages

A reference-only book, designed to serve as a companion to both Learning Python and Programming Python. This edition is updated to cover both Python 3.X and 2.X. It is specifically based on 3.4 and 2.7, but is applicable to other releases.

Links: author, publisher.

Python in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

• [AlexMartelli]

• ISBN: 144939292X
• O'Reilly Media, May 2017, 654 pages

A concise desktop reference for Python 3/5 and 2.7 (with mention of 3.6 features). Covers the language itself, built-in types and functions, the standard library, and crucial third-party extensions such as Numeric, Tkinter, twisted.internet, Cheetah. Also covers Extending and Embedding Python, with C, Java, and other languages and tools.

Publisher link

The reviews are for earlier editions of the book.

Review by Cameron Laird Review by Danny Yee Reader reviews at amazon.com Publisher's page, with a link to the sample chapter &c Publisher's page for the second edition, with a link to the sample chapter Slashdot discussion

Python 2.1 Bible

• Dave Brueck and Stephen Tanner
• ISBN: 0764548077
• Wiley, June 2001, 731 pages

Contains detailed descriptions with examples on a number of advanced topics such as networking, threading, XML, Tkinter, wxPython, image processing, embedding, NumPy, win32all, and others. Has a section for introducing Python, but really this is ideal for more advanced users.

Recommended by: MichaelChermside, Todd Mitchell

Note there are other unrelated books that go by some version of the title "Python Bible".

Python 3 Standard Library by Example

• Doug Hellman
• ISBN: 9780134291055
• Addison-Wesley Professional; June 11, 2017; 1456 pages

The meat of the book is a compendium of articles that were written by Doug over an extended period for the Python 3 Module of the Week website.

Links: author publisher

Design Patterns in Python: Common GOF (Gang of Four) Design Patterns implemented in Python

• Sean Bradley

• ASIN : B08XLJ8Z2J / B08Z282SBC

• Independently published (February 27, 2021); 238 pages

This book is about the 23 common GOF (Gang of Four) Design Patterns implemented in Python.

A Design Pattern is a description or template that can be repeatedly applied to a commonly recurring problem in software design.

You will find a familiarity with Design Patterns very useful when planning, discussing, developing, managing and documenting your applications from now on and into the future.

You will learn these Design Patterns.

Creational

• Factory
• Abstract Factory
• Builder
• Prototype
• Singleton

Structural

• Decorator
• Adapter
• Façade
• Bridge
• Composite
• Flyweight
• Proxy

Behavioural

• Command
• Chain of Responsibility
• Observer Pattern
• Interpreter
• Iterator
• Mediator
• Memento
• State
• Strategy
• Template
• Visitor

If you want a break from your computer and read from a book for a while, then this book is for you.

Links:

Design Patterns in Python : Paperback

Design Patterns in Python : Kindle

Sean Bradley : Author