New tricks

[agumonkey]

Tuples

tuple syntax

a = 1

# >>> a
# 1
# >>> a, 
# (1, )

unpacking iterable of length 1

a, = (1, )

unpacking with starred expression

a,*b,c = range(10)

# >>> a
# 0
# >>> b
# [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
# >>> c
# 9

a,*b,d,e,f = range(10)

# >>> (a,b,c,d,e,f)
# (0, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], 9, 7, 8, 9)

[obeleh]

loop over dicts that share (some) keys

dctA = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
dctB = {'b': 4, 'c': 5, 'd': 6}

for ky in set(dctA) & set(dctB):
    print ky

this one is much slower:

for ky in dctA:
    if ky in dctB:
        print ky

[obeleh]

lookup deep nested value in dicts

nested = {'a': {'b': {'c': {'d': 1}}}}

print nested.get('a', {}).get('b', {}).get('c', {}).get('d')
print nested.get('x', {}).get('y', {}).get('z', {}).get('0')

This is almost just as fast as completly testing whether the variable exists and IMO more readable.

[obeleh]

Copy lists

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
cpyA = list(a)
cpyB = a[:]

cpyB is faster

[obeleh]

Startswith

lst = range(10000)

def string_startswith():
    for _ in lst:
        'blasdfsf'.startswith('__')
        '__aqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqsdfsf'.startswith('__')

def string_eq_first_two():
    for _ in lst:
        'blasdfsf'[:2] == '__'
        '__aqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqsdfsf'[:2] == '__'

The second one is faster

[brennerm]

Hey agumonkey, thanks for your contribution. I added your last example to the collection. Your first two examples doesn't really show off a trick to me, that's why I didn't add them. Anyway, thanks for your support.

[brennerm]

Hey obeleh, thanks for your contribution. From your examples I added two to the collection. The remaining are good to know as well, but I'm not looking for code snippets, that concentrate on performance. Anyway, thanks for your support.

[agumonkey]

@brennerm

They sit between tricks and easy to overlook syntax. Here's another thing I only found recently:

slice operator accepts None

# useful to have a value to denote unknown lengths
#
# here with range pairs

ranges = [(0,6), (6,None)]
for beg,end in ranges:
    print('aabbccddeeff'[beg:end])

[brennerm]

@agumonkey Yeah you can use [0:None], but you can write it like this as well:

print('aabbccddeeff'[0:])

For me this is more readable.

[agumonkey]

@brennerm

It's unrelated, ability to pass a a value to [:] is rarely shown and very valuable. (see this example).

[bash-j]

Never seen this trick before so I played around a bit. Named formatting, more examples:

d = {'Jeff Smith': {'name': 'Jeff', 'age': 24}}
person = 'Jeff Smith'
print("My name is {name} and I'm {age} years old.".format(**d[person]))

Is it possible to do something like the following (which doesn't work)?

d = {'Jeff Smith': {'name': 'Jeff', 'age': {'years': 24, 'decades': 2.4}}}
person = 'Jeff Smith'
period = 'decades'
print("Hi my name is {name} and I'm {age[{0}]} {0} old.".format(period,**d[person]))

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
KeyError                                  Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-95-ff05fa5df228> in <module>()
      1 period = 'decades'
----> 2 print('Hi my name is {name} and I\'m {age[{0}]} {0} old.'.format(period,**d[p]))

KeyError: '{0}'

[brennerm]

@agumonkey Agree, I will add an array slicing example

[brennerm]

@bash-j I don't really understand what you' re trying to accomplish, cause your code doesn't make sense to me. What is your expected output?

[bash-j]

@brennerm I would like to pass the argument 'decades' as the dict key and description so it prints, 'Hi my name is Jeff and I'm 2.4 decades old.'

[agumonkey]

@brennerm

I think @bash-j wants to be able to use nested dicts, and asks if format has a syntax to address sub-elements.

[brennerm]

The way to access nested dicts is like this:

d = {'Jeff Smith': {'name': 'Jeff', 'age': {'years': 24, 'decades': 2.4}}}
"My name is {name} and I'm {age[decades]} decades old.".format(**d['Jeff Smith'])

But I suppose he wants to use the corresponding 'years' and 'decade' string as well.

[agumonkey]

@brennerm

Oh I see, accessing both key and value. I agree it's not a great idea. Better have ... 'age' : {'value' : 24, 'type' : 'years'} ... Anyway, I didn't remember the '{key[subkey]}' syntax.

Tried it with 2 level nested dicts :

d = {'name':'john', 'age': {'years' : 24, 'type': {'name': 'year(s)'}}}
'{name} is {age[years]} {age[type][name]}'.format(**d)

N level nested dicts works too : {root[sub][subsub][subsubsub]}.

[bash-j]

I thought that format would replace the {0} in age[{0}] with 'decades' first before attempting the dictionary look up.

I found that chaining two format functions together works:

print("Hi my name is {{name}} and I'm {{age[{0}]}} {0} old.".format('decades').format(**d['Jeff Smith']))

[kzinglzy]

Trick for socket.recv

coon = socket.connect(bind_address)
msgs = []

# normal way
while True:
    msg = coon.recv(1024)
    if recv:
        msgs.append(msg)
    else:  # when no msg come, break
         break

# hack way with iter and functools.partial
# this circle will auto break when msg is empty ''
for msg in iter(functools.partial(coon.recv, 1024), b'')):
    msgs.append(msg)

[kzinglzy]

property cache with Descriptor

   class PropertyCache(object):

    """ a decorator to cache property
    """

    def __init__(self, func):
        self.func = func

    def __get__(self, obj, cls):
        if not obj:
            return self
        value = self.func(obj)
        setattr(obj, self.func.__name__, value)
        return value

[tutoringsteve]

compound Boolean statements shortening trick:

Requiring two (or more) objects both be in a given set required as many "object in set ?" Boolean statements coupled by an and, repeating the same set name for each object. The resulting compound Boolean statement can be long especially when there are many objects and/or the set being tested has a long name. Normally you'd have to write:

if A in my_dictionary[key].adjacent_nodes and B in my_dictionary[key].adjacent_nodes:
    do_stuff()

I found that with python, you can easily eliminate all the redundant references to the same set in these compound Boolean statements:

if A and B in my_dictionary[key].adjacent_nodes: 
    do_stuff()

adding a check for another item in the same set would be just as easy, add minimal verbosity, and be more readable using the trick:

if A and B and not C in my_dictionary[key].adjacent_nodes

I basically tried it because trying code is so easy in python, and it worked, I was pleasantly surprised but this could easily be very common knowledge that I missed in my readings. Either way, thank you all for gathering this collection of tricks, many of which were new to me and their usefulness immediately apparent.

[dharmit]

A simple calculator created using operator module.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# Created with help of an answer on stackoverflow. Don't have the exact link.

import operator
ops = {
    "+": operator.add,
    "-": operator.sub,
    "/": operator.truediv,
    "*": operator.mul
}

x = input("Enter an operator [OPTIONS: +, -, *, /]: ")
y = int(input("Enter number: "))
z = int(input("Enter number: "))

print (ops[x](y, z))

[agumonkey]

@dharmit

Funny, conditionalfunctional.py inspired writing the similar thing, albeit not interactive, more an assembler POV:

import operator

ops = {
    'add': operator.add,
    'sub': operator.sub,
    'mul': operator.mul,
    'div': operator.truediv
}

def run(op, a, b):
    return ops.get(op, 1)(int(a), int(b))

for inst in [
        'add 1 2',
        'mul 3 4',
        'div 121 11',
        'sub 9 10'
]:
    v = run(*(inst.split()))
    print(v)

[illuz]

Using globals().update() to set global variables from a dict, instead of using for loop and exec().

#! /usr/bin/env python3
"""set global variables from dict"""

d = {'a': 1, 'b': 'var2', 'c': [1, 2, 3]}
globals().update(d)
print(a, b, c)

[illuz]

A simple way to remove duplicate items in a list.

#! /usr/bin/env python3
"""remove duplicate items from list"""

items = [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3]

newitems = list(set(items))
print(newitems)

[brennerm]

merged your pull request and added you to the CONTRIBUTORS ;)

[brennerm]

@tutoringsteve Thanks for your contribution!

[illuz]

Control white spaces in a string easily.

#! /usr/bin/env python3
"""control the whitespaces in string"""

s = 'The Little Price'

# justify string to be at least width wide
# by adding whitespaces
width = 20
s1 = s.ljust(width)
s2 = s.rjust(width)
s3 = s.center(width)
print(s1)   # 'The Little Price    '
print(s2)   # '    The Little Price'
print(s3)   # '  The Little Price  '

# strip whitespaces in two sides of string
print(s3.lstrip())  # 'The Little Price  '
print(s3.rstrip())  # '  The Little Price'
print(s3.strip())   # 'The Little Price'

[brennerm]

@Kzinglzy Please add an example that shows how to use the descriptor.

[kzinglzy]

@brennerm

example for the property cache decriptor:

class TestClass:

    @cache_property
    def property_to_be_cached(self):
        print('compute')
        return 'result'

ts = TestClass()
print 'first time:\n', ts.property_to_be_cached
print 'second time:\n', ts.property_to_be_cached

and the output will be:

first time:
compute!!
result
second time:
result

which the func just compute once : )

actually, the result has store in the TestClass.__dict__

[brennerm]

@Kzinglzy Thanks!

[kzinglzy]

By the way, @brennerm , it's necessary to check @tutoringsteve 's code.

It seems to be a mistake instead a trick.

Because:

# Code A
if A in my_dictionary[key].adjacent_nodes and B in my_dictionary[key].adjacent_nodes:
    do_stuff()

can not equal to be this !!!!!!!!!!

# Code B
if A and B in my_dictionary[key].adjacent_nodes:
    do_stuff()

and in fact Code B is equals to

if (A) and (B in my_dictionary[key].adjacent_nodes):
    do_stuff()

which means it doesn't check A in the dictonary

so, when A is not empty, it's seems right. And when A is empty, it doesn't work.

Here is a simple example.

L = [0, 1, 2, 3]
if 0 in L and 1 in L:
    print 'good'
else:
    print 'bad'
# output: good

if 0 and 1 in L:
    print 'good'
else:
    print 'bad'
# output: bad

[brennerm]

@Kzinglzy Yeah it's already removed ;)

[kzinglzy]

time to sleep, and there is a suggestion about the quality of trick

I think there is too many simple code, which can't be a trick and is just a normal using

for example:

# copylist.py

#! /usr/bin/env python3
"""a fast way to copy a list"""
a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print(a[:])

Do you think it's really a trick ?... = _ =

If it was, and this library will become a guide only for the one new to Python. = =!

that is all . Thanks.

[tutoringsteve]

@Kzinglzy Oh yes you're right haha, I see what happened. Wow, I need to be much more careful. Sorry about that and thanks for catching that!

Also, I agree with pruning the trick list some of them did seem to be 'common' but of course that's difficult to answer. The goal I believe should be surprising/novel and useful. The list copy is one of the first things you learn in almost any python resource that talks about lists. It also should mention that it copies without aliasing, so that the copy is not another reference to the same list. If it's going to be that beginner friendly.

@brennerm I still need to be removed from the contributor list, as I have not.

[brennerm]

@Kzinglzy I agree that this repository should not evolve into a tutorial on how to use Python. The definition of what's a trick is currently only based on my opinion.

For sure there will be some examples that seem like normal usage to you, but contain additional value to others. For example the standard way of copying a list I used was

list([1, 2, 3])

Considering that

[1, 2, 3][:]

is less obvious and twice as fast makes it a trick to me.

Nevertheless I'm open for every feedback and appreciate your opinion.

[smiren]

#!/usr/bin/env python
"""
# We could make dict object more readable using json module

# Source
dic = {u'favorited': False, u'truncated': False, u'created_at': u'Mon Sep 24 03:35:21 +0000 2012', u'coordinates': None,
       u'entities': {u'user_mentions': [], u'hashtags': [{u'indices': [20, 34], u'text': u'freebandnames'}], u'urls': []},
       u'id_str': u'250075927172759552'}

# Output
{
    "coordinates": null,
    "created_at": "Mon Sep 24 03:35:21 +0000 2012",
    "entities": {
        "hashtags": [
            {
                "indices": [
                    20,
                    34
                ],
                "text": "freebandnames"
            }
        ],
        "urls": [],
        "user_mentions": []
    },
    "favorited": false,
    "id_str": "250075927172759552",
    "truncated": false
}
"""
import json

dic = {
    u'favorited': False, u'truncated': False, u'created_at': u'Mon Sep 24 03:35:21 +0000 2012', u'coordinates': None,
    u'entities': {u'user_mentions': [], u'hashtags': [{u'indices': [20, 34], u'text': u'freebandnames'}], u'urls': []},
    u'id_str': u'250075927172759552'
}
print(json.dumps(dic, sort_keys=True, indent=4))

# often for fast debug prints I use it like this:
# import json; print(json.dumps(dic_object, sort_keys=True, indent=4))

[smiren]

This one isn't good enough:

#! /usr/bin/env python3
"""loop over dicts that share (some) keys"""

dctA = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
dctB = {'b': 4, 'c': 5, 'd': 6}

for ky in set(dctA) & set(dctB):
    print(ky)

Because in third python you could write simply:

for ky in dctA.keys() & dctB.keys():
    print(ky)
That is why in python3 keys()|values|items works like set too. In python2 for same purposes use should use view{keys,values,items}

[smiren]

@illuz, for which kind of tasks, we need this dangerous trick?

#! /usr/bin/env python3
"""set global variables from dict"""

d = {'a': 1, 'b': 'var2', 'c': [1, 2, 3]}
globals().update(d)
print(a, b, c)

[brennerm]

@smiren Not really sure what you mean with "view{keys,values,items}". Added your option for Python3 users

[brennerm]

@axiaoxin Updated README. Please only use the standard Python library.

[smiren]

@brennerm, It is notation from shell(bash): echo view{keys,values,items} -> viewkeys viewvalues viewitems In python2 dict has methods: viewkeys, viewvalues, viewitems. They can be used like sets

[isayme]

#! /usr/bin/env python
"""ternary operator in python"""

cond = True
rel = "YES" if cond else "NO"
print(rel)  # YES

cond = False
rel = "YES" if cond else "NO"
print(rel)  # NO

[brennerm]

Hey @isayme, this is already shown in conditionalassignment.py. Anyway thanks for your contribution :)

[isayme]

List some tricks, maybe help~

#! /usr/bin/env python

"""decorator"""
def wrap(func):
    def wrapper():
        return 'wrapper: ' + func()
    return wrapper

@wrap
def test():
    return 'hello world'

print(test())

"""clousre"""
def addBy(val):
    def func(inc):
        return val + inc

    return func

addFive = addBy(5)
print(addFive(4))

addThree = addBy(3)
print(addThree(7))    

"""lambda, """
square = lambda x : x**2
print(square(4))

"""yield generator"""
def gen():
    yield 'gen 1'
    yield 'gen 2'
    yield 'gen 3'
    yield 'gen 4'

g = gen()
for i in g:
    print i

"""list comprehension"""
arr = [x*2 for x in xrange(5)]
print(arr)

"""generator expression"""
arr = (x*3 for x in xrange(5))
print(arr)
for i in arr:
    print i

"""dictionary comprehension"""
arr = {'k'+str(x): 'v'+str(x*4) for x in xrange(5)}
print(arr)
print(arr.keys())
print(arr.values())

[st0le]

A less known feature is ` operator calls the obj. repr . (or repr(obj) )

Not sure if it's worth adding.

Edit: Github parses out `

[brennerm]

@st0le Could you give me an example how to use the `? I'm unable to find any information on this.

[brennerm]

@isayme Added your closure example in nested_functions.py. Thanks for your contribution :)

[st0le]

As I understand, the backticks were removed in Py3. But here's the gist, http://stackoverflow.com/a/20521892

[agumonkey]

complex unpacking

>>> [a],[b] = [[1],[2]]
>>> a,b
(1, 2)
>>> a
1
>>> b
2

even more complex unpacking

>>> [(c,*d,[*e]),f,*g] = [[1,2,3,4,[5,5,5]],6,7,8]
>>> (c,d,e,f,g)
(1, [2, 3, 4], [5, 5, 5], 6, [7, 8])

inspiration: https://twitter.com/renfredxh/status/586653125970386945