5. Miscellaneous Services

The modules described in this chapter provide miscellaneous services that are available in all Python versions. Here's an overview:

pydoc Documentation generator and online help system.

doctest A framework for verifying examples in docstrings.

unittest Unit testing framework for Python.

test Regression tests package containing the testing suite for Python.

test.test_support

math Mathematical functions (sin() etc.).

cmath Mathematical functions for complex numbers.

random Generate pseudo-random numbers with various common distributions.

whrandom Floating point pseudo-random number generator.

bisect Array bisection algorithms for binary searching.

heapq Heap queue algorithm (a.k.a. priority queue).

array Efficient arrays of uniformly typed numeric values.

sets Implementation of sets of unique elements.

itertools Functions creating iterators for efficient looping.

ConfigParser Configuration file parser.

fileinput Perl-like iteration over lines from multiple input streams, with ``save in place'' capability.

xreadlines Efficient iteration over the lines of a file.

calendar Functions for working with calendars, including some emulation of the Unix cal program.

cmd Build line-oriented command interpreters.

shlex Simple lexical analysis for Unix shell-like languages.

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`pydoc`		Documentation generator and online help system.
`doctest`		A framework for verifying examples in docstrings.
`unittest`		Unit testing framework for Python.
`test`		Regression tests package containing the testing suite for Python.
`test.test_support`
`math`		Mathematical functions (`sin()` etc.).
`cmath`		Mathematical functions for complex numbers.
`random`		Generate pseudo-random numbers with various common distributions.
`whrandom`		Floating point pseudo-random number generator.
`bisect`		Array bisection algorithms for binary searching.
`heapq`		Heap queue algorithm (a.k.a. priority queue).
`array`		Efficient arrays of uniformly typed numeric values.
`sets`		Implementation of sets of unique elements.
`itertools`		Functions creating iterators for efficient looping.
`ConfigParser`		Configuration file parser.
`fileinput`		Perl-like iteration over lines from multiple input streams, with ``save in place'' capability.
`xreadlines`		Efficient iteration over the lines of a file.
`calendar`		Functions for working with calendars, including some emulation of the Unix cal program.
`cmd`		Build line-oriented command interpreters.
`shlex`		Simple lexical analysis for Unix shell-like languages.