18/11/2021 08:01 3 Python Books I Read to Automate Some Boring Data Science Tasks | by Frank Andrade | Nov, 2021

Nov, 2021 | DataDrivenInvestor

You have 2 free member-only stories left this month. Sign up for Medium and get an extra one

3 Python Books I Read to Automate Some

Boring Data Science Tasks
Python automation for data collection, data wrangling, and more!

Frank Andrade Follow

Nov 15 · 4 min read

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Data science is not all about model building. Tasks like collecting, cleaning, and
transforming data take around 80% of a data scientist’s time. That is a lot of time!

https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/3-python-books-i-read-to-automate-some-boring-data-science-tasks-2a946601a827 1/6
18/11/2021 08:01 3 Python Books I Read to Automate Some Boring Data Science Tasks | by Frank Andrade | Nov, 2021 | DataDrivenInvestor

We can’t omit such tasks because they are crucial in a data science project, but we can
automate some subtasks to save time and invest this time in less monotonous activities.

In this article, I will show you 3 books that helped me automate data collection, speed
up cleaning and processing, learn some machine learning applications for automation,
and more!

1. Python Automation Cookbook: 75 Python automation ideas

Image from Amazon

This is a book for Python beginners that want to expand their knowledge by automating
everyday tasks. That said, you should at least know the basics of Python before reading
this book.

The book contains 75 Python automation ideas with applications in the areas of
marketing, sales, data science, and more. You will learn how to automate the web,
generate automatic spreadsheet reports with graphs, communicate with automatically
generated emails, get notifications via text message, and how to schedule tasks on your
computer.
https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/3-python-books-i-read-to-automate-some-boring-data-science-tasks-2a946601a827 2/6
18/11/2021 08:01 3 Python Books I Read to Automate Some Boring Data Science Tasks | by Frank Andrade | Nov, 2021 | DataDrivenInvestor

In the latest edition of this book, two new chapters were added: Cleaning & Processing
Data and Machine Learning for Automation. Both are great chapters for those who
want to automate data science tasks.

In Cleaning & Processing Data, you will learn how to batch process to speed up working
with large data. I liked this project idea because cleaning and processing data usually
takes a lot of a data scientists’ time.

On the other hand, the Machine Learning for Automation chapter shows how to use
Google’s Machine Learning APIs to extract text from images. At the end of the chapter,
you will create and train a model that detects which department an email should be
assigned using text as input.

2. Python for Excel: A Modern Environment for Automation and Data

Analysis

Image from Amazon

Microsoft Excel is probably the most popular tool used for data analysis; however, its
automation language, VBA, stopped evolving a long time ago. This is why some Excel
https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/3-python-books-i-read-to-automate-some-boring-data-science-tasks-2a946601a827 3/6
18/11/2021 08:01 3 Python Books I Read to Automate Some Boring Data Science Tasks | by Frank Andrade | Nov, 2021 | DataDrivenInvestor

users adopted Python to automate their everyday tasks.

In this book, the creator of xlwings (a package to automate Excel with Python) shows
how to integrate both Python and Excel efficiently. The book starts with some Python
core concepts and then teaches you all the stuff you need to learn for automation and
data analysis. You will learn how to use Pandas to clean and analyze data, learn xlwings
to build interactive Excel tools (using Python under the hood), and automate tedious
tasks like consolidating Excel workbooks and producing reports.

By the end of the book, you will replace VBA, Power Query, and Power Pivot with
Python.

3. Automate the Boring Stuff with Python

Image from Amazon

This is a book that I think even Python beginners might have heard of. In case the name
of the book doesn’t ring a bell, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python teaches how to
write programs that do in minutes what would take you hours to do by hand. Unlike

https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/3-python-books-i-read-to-automate-some-boring-data-science-tasks-2a946601a827 4/6
18/11/2021 08:01 3 Python Books I Read to Automate Some Boring Data Science Tasks | by Frank Andrade | Nov, 2021 | DataDrivenInvestor

some books listed in this article, this book doesn’t require any prior programming
experience.

The book starts with some Python basics and then explains how to automate tedious
tasks such as searching for text in a file, creating files, renaming files, searching the
web, downloading content from the web (also known as web scraping), and sending
email responses and text notifications.

The fact that Automate the Boring Stuff has a section that covers web scraping, makes
this book worth it for data scientists. This skill will allow you to build your own dataset
for your next data science project.

Also, I consider the automation projects essential for those who have to deal with lots of
repetitive tasks at work. If you’re quite familiar with the basics of Python, I would
recommend you skip Part I and pick a project that you find interesting in Part II. By
solving these real-world problems you will increase your knowledge of Python while
automating your life.

Join my email list with 3k+ people to get my Python for Data Science Cheat Sheet
I use in all my tutorials (Free PDF)

If you enjoy reading stories like these and want to support me as a writer, consider
signing up to become a Medium member. It’s $5 a month, giving you unlimited access
to thousands of Python guides and Data science articles. If you sign up using my link,
I’ll earn a small commission with no extra cost to you.

Join Medium with my referral link — Frank Andrade

As a Medium member, a portion of your membership fee goes to
writers you read, and you get full access to every story…
frank-andrade.medium.com

Never miss a new Python guide or Data science article I publish

https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/3-python-books-i-read-to-automate-some-boring-data-science-tasks-2a946601a827 5/6
18/11/2021 08:01 3 Python Books I Read to Automate Some Boring Data Science Tasks | by Frank Andrade | Nov, 2021 | DataDrivenInvestor

Get an email whenever I publish a new article.

Subscribe

Python Data Science Programming Books Machine Learning

About Write Help Legal

Get the Medium app

https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/3-python-books-i-read-to-automate-some-boring-data-science-tasks-2a946601a827 6/6