Replace list() and dict() with literals

[atombrella]

Description

• from __future__ import print_function, unicode_literals, division is a thing of the past!
• dict() -> {} and list() -> [] are improvements both in terms of Pythonic code and speed: https://switowski.com/blog/dict-function-vs-literal-syntax/
• Removed the few u"string" markers I could find.

It's quite time-consuming to change instances of dict(a="hello", b="world") and I don't plan on doing that!

All SDK Contribution checklist:

• [X] The pull request does not introduce [breaking changes]
• [X] CHANGELOG is updated for new features, bug fixes or other significant changes.
• [X] I have read the contribution guidelines.

General Guidelines and Best Practices

• [X] Title of the pull request is clear and informative.
• [X] There are a small number of commits, each of which have an informative message. This means that previously merged commits do not appear in the history of the PR. For more information on cleaning up the commits in your PR, see this page.

Testing Guidelines

• [X] Pull request includes test coverage for the included changes.

[github-actions[bot]]

Thank you for your contribution @atombrella! We will review the pull request and get back to you soon.

[azure-sdk]

API change check

API changes are not detected in this pull request.

[atombrella]

I don't really understand the test failures, and why this PR cause failing builds.

Note that there are tons of https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime.utcnow in the code! They are also highlighted as warnings in the test runs.

[iscai-msft]

Thanks for opening this PR @atombrella!

Here is my analysis of the failing steps:

1. The code changes have not been formatted (see failing ci here). Follow steps here for formatting
2. I think the test failures might not be related to you. @annatisch it seems that cosmos is failing with service request errors, are you aware of any cosmos issue? Thanks!

[atombrella]

@iscai-msft Thank you!

1. The code changes have not been formatted (see failing ci here). Follow steps here for formatting

My newest commit was done using this commit.

azure-sdk-for-python/scripts/devops_tasks on  feature/dict_list_literal [!] via azure-sdk 
➜ tox run -e black -c ../../eng/tox/tox.ini -- .

It changed lines I didn't touch in this PR. Maybe it'd be better to reformat and add the git-commit hash as described in https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/working-with-files/using-files/viewing-a-file#ignore-commits-in-the-blame-view ? Actually, it seems a lot of the code base hasn't been reformatted according to black. At least black started formatting lots of files inside when I ran it inside the sdk-folder and then canceled it quickly.

[iscai-msft]

@atombrella i think some of the black formatting of files not originally touched by you have made their way into the PR, can you remove those? Thanks!

[atombrella]

@iscai-msft I deleted the commit. black then fails :/

I think the approach outlined in https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/working-with-files/using-files/viewing-a-file#ignore-commits-in-the-blame-view is a good solution for the failing black/formatting tests. black formats boatloads of lines I didn't touch in my changes.

Note that snippets similar (and identical) to this is also in various places of the code-base.

        # Consider this is real string
        try:
            if isinstance(data, unicode):  # type: ignore
                return data
        except NameError:
            return str(data)
        else:
            return str(data)

[iscai-msft]

@atombrella are you able to run the black command from within each of the sdks you're touching with your changes, instead of over the entire repo? Thank you so much again for doing this!

[atombrella]

I am not a fan of this! git blame will be useless after this :(

[iscai-msft]

I understand your frustration, it does look like black has been behaving weird in our pipelines. @scbedd is actually working on this in a separate pr (linked here). He should be almost done with this PR, once this is in, do you mind pulling and trying again to see if the black issues are fixed?

Thank you so much again for your contribution, and apologies for it not going super smoothly, but your work is greatly appreciated.

[iscai-msft]

talked with @scbedd offline and we'll handle re-running this PR ourselves once his fix is in. Thanks for your patience

[scbedd]

/azp run python - pullrequest

[azure-pipelines[bot]]

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

[scbedd]

Ok. Analyze is now clean after my changes to black.

The test failures on azure-cosmos are known. @iscai-msft please double-check my verification before signoff, but if you only see setup failures invoking azure-cosmos as part of python - pullrequest, then IMO this PR is ready to go in.

[iscai-msft]

yep this looks good. Thanks so much @scbedd and @atombrella for doing this awesome work! I'm going to approve and @atombrella you should be able to merge when you're ready. Please ping if cosmos ends up blocking your ability to merge

Thanks so much again @atombrella for all of your work and patience

[atombrella]

@iscai-msft @scbedd I do not have merge rights to the Azure organization.

[iscai-msft]

/check-enforcer validate

[github-actions[bot]]

For help using check enforcer, see https://aka.ms/azsdk/checkenforcer

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[iscai-msft]

/check-enforcer override

[iscai-msft]

ok merged it, thank you so much again for your contribution and your patience @atombrella. Thanks for working with us, it's been a pleasure on our part