list of commonly used Python libraries and their short descriptions grouped by category for easy understanding:
General Purpose & Utilities
| Library |
Use |
| os |
Interact with the operating system (files, directories). |
| sys |
Access system-specific parameters and functions. |
| datetime |
Handle dates and times. |
| re |
Perform regular expressions and pattern matching. |
| math |
Perform basic mathematical functions. |
| random |
Generate random numbers. |
| statistics |
Basic statistics (mean, median, mode, etc). |
| time |
Time access and conversions. |
| json |
Parse and write JSON data. |
| collections |
Specialized container datatypes like Counter, deque. |
| itertools |
Tools for iterating over data efficiently. |
Data Analysis & Scientific Computing
| Library |
Use |
| NumPy |
Fast numerical computations with arrays and matrices. |
| Pandas |
Data manipulation and analysis using DataFrames. |
| SciPy |
Scientific and technical computing (integrals, optimization). |
| Statsmodels |
Statistical models, hypothesis tests, and data exploration. |
Data Visualization
| Library |
Use |
| Matplotlib |
2D plotting and graphing. |
| Seaborn |
Statistical data visualization built on Matplotlib. |
| Plotly |
Interactive, browser-based plots and dashboards. |
| Bokeh |
Interactive and real-time plotting in the browser. |
Machine Learning & AI
| Library |
Use |
| Scikit-learn |
Simple and efficient ML algorithms. |
| TensorFlow |
Deep learning and neural networks (Google). |
| Keras |
High-level API for building neural networks (uses TensorFlow). |
| PyTorch |
Deep learning and AI research (by Facebook). |
| XGBoost |
Gradient boosting framework for decision trees. |
| LightGBM |
Fast gradient boosting by Microsoft. |
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
| Library |
Use |
| NLTK |
NLP tasks like tokenization, stemming, parsing. |
| spaCy |
Industrial-strength NLP processing. |
| TextBlob |
Simplified text processing and sentiment analysis. |
| Gensim |
Topic modeling and document similarity. |
| transformers |
Pretrained NLP models from HuggingFace. |
Web Development
| Library |
Use |
| Flask |
Lightweight web framework. |
| Django |
Full-featured web framework. |
| FastAPI |
High-performance web API development. |
| Requests |
Send HTTP requests easily. |
| BeautifulSoup |
Web scraping and HTML parsing. |
| Selenium |
Browser automation and testing. |
Database
| Library |
Use |
| sqlite3 |
Built-in SQLite database interface. |
| SQLAlchemy |
SQL toolkit and ORM. |
| PyMongo |
Interact with MongoDB. |
| psycopg2 |
PostgreSQL adapter. |
| Peewee |
Lightweight ORM. |
GUI Development
| Library |
Use |
| Tkinter |
Built-in GUI toolkit. |
| PyQt / PySide |
Rich UI desktop applications. |
| Kivy |
Multi-platform GUI development (mobile, desktop). |
File Handling & Automation
| Library |
Use |
| shutil |
File operations (copy, move, delete). |
| glob |
File name pattern matching. |
| openpyxl |
Read/write Excel files (XLSX). |
| csv |
Read/write CSV files. |
| PyPDF2 |
Read and write PDF files. |
Security & Encryption
| Library |
Use |
| hashlib |
Secure hash algorithms (SHA, MD5). |
| cryptography |
Encrypt and decrypt messages. |
| jwt (PyJWT) |
JSON Web Token encoding/decoding. |
Package & Environment Management
| Library |
Use |
| pip |
Python package installer. |
| venv |
Create isolated Python environments. |
| setuptools |
Build and distribute Python packages. |
Testing & Debugging
| Library |
Use |
| unittest |
Built-in unit testing framework. |
| pytest |
Powerful test framework. |
| logging |
Logging messages and events. |
| pdb |
Interactive debugger. |
Others / Specialized
| Library |
Use |
| OpenCV |
Image and video processing. |
| Pillow (PIL) |
Image editing. |
| pygame |
Game development. |
| schedule |
Task scheduling. |
| multiprocessing |
Run parallel tasks. |
| threading |
Run concurrent tasks. |
