the scientific python ecosystem of open source libraries has grown substantially over the last years by late had long felt that the lack of centralized learning resources for data analysis and statistical applications was stumbling block for new python programmers engaged in such work key projects for data analysis (especially numpyipythonmatplotliband pandashad also matured enough that book written about them would likely not go out-of-date very quickly thusi mustered the nerve to embark on this writing project this is the book that wish existed when started using python for data analysis in hope you find it useful and are able to apply these tools productively in your work conventions used in this book the following typographical conventions are used in this bookitalic indicates new termsurlsemail addressesfilenamesand file extensions constant width used for program listingsas well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function namesdatabasesdata typesenvironment variablesstatementsand keywords constant width bold shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user constant width italic shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values determined by context this icon signifies tipsuggestionor general note xi www it-ebooks info