Chapter 1. Getting Started

As computer professionals, we deal with text data every day. Developers and programmers interact with XML and source code. System administrators have to process and understand logfiles. Managers need to understand and format financial data and reports. Web designers put in time, hand tuning and polishing up HTML content. Managing this broad range of formats can seem like a daunting task, but it's really not that difficult.

This book aims to introduce you, the programmer, to a variety of methods used to process these data formats. We'll look at approaches ranging from standard language functions through more complex third-party modules. Somewhere in there, we'll cover a utility that's just the right tool for your specific job. In the process, we hope to also cover some Python development best practices.