Python

Notes about Python Constructs and Concepts


Last Updated: June 15, 2020 by Pepe Sandoval



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Python

Python Setup (Python Install & Package Install)

  • The requirements.txt is a file that is going to include any other libraries or packages that we want our application to use in Python.

Windows Install with .exe

Get .exe, execute it to install and run ensurepip

# powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "C:\install_python3.ps1"
Write-Output "Python3 Install log" > C:\INSTALL_PYTHON3.log

$python_version="3.8.0"
$python_install_path="C:\Python38"
$dir="C:\PYTHON_${python_version}_INSTALL"

function Install($app, $appArgs, $verb)
{
    Write-Output "Installing $app..."
    Write-Output "$app $appArgs $verb"

    $status = (Start-Process -FilePath "$app" -ArgumentList "$appArgs" -Wait -Verb $verb -PassThru).ExitCode
    if ($status -eq 0)
    {
        Write-Output "Install Passed!"
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Output "Install Failed!"
    }
}

# Copy Python version from Share and run installer
Install "$dir\python-${python_version}-amd64.exe" "/SILENT /quiet InstallAllUsers=1 DefaultAllUsersTargetDir=$python_install_path" "RunAs" >> C:\INSTALL_PYTHON3.log

# Install pip packages
cd $python_install_path
.\python.exe -m ensurepip >> C:\INSTALL_PYTHON3.log
.\python.exe -m pip install --no-index --find-links=$dir\.pypi3 -r $dir\requirements_py3_win.txt >> C:\INSTALL_PYTHON3.log

Linux Python Install for .tgz

Untar, Compile with configure, make altinstall and create symlink


PYTHON_VERSION=3.8.0
PYTHON_PREFIX=/usr/local
DIR="${HOME}/PYTHON_${PYTHON_VERSION}_INSTALL"
mkdir - p
# curl -O https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.8.0/Python-3.8.0.tgz

cd /root

# untar python .tgz
mkdir -p /root/tmp/
rm -rf /root/tmp/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION
tar -xzf ${DIR}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tgz -C /root/tmp/ > /root/INSTALL_PYTHON3.log 2>&1

# Configure and compile Python
echo "Compiling python3..." >> /root/INSTALL_PYTHON3.log 2>&1
echo "Compile & install Python 3 for more info see /root/INSTALL_PYTHON3.log"
cd /root/tmp/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION
./configure --prefix=$PYTHON_PREFIX --with-ensurepip=yes >> /root/INSTALL_PYTHON3.log 2>&1
sudo make altinstall >> /root/INSTALL_PYTHON3.log 2>&1

# Create a symlink to python3
if [ -h /usr/local/bin/python3 ]; then
    echo "Link exists, continuing python3 setup" >> /root/INSTALL_PYTHON3.log 2>&1
else
    sudo ln -s $PYTHON_PREFIX/bin/python${PYTHON_VERSION::-2} /usr/local/bin/python3
fi
echo "Compile python3 done." >> /root/INSTALL_PYTHON3.log 2>&1

# Install pip packages
cd /root
echo "Installing python3 packages" >> /root/INSTALL_PYTHON3.log 2>&1
/usr/local/bin/python3 -m pip install --no-index --find-links=${DIR}/.pypi3 -r ${DIR}/requirements_py3_lin.txt >> /root/INSTALL_PYTHON3.log 2>&1
echo "Compile and install python3 DONE!" >> /root/INSTALL_PYTHON3.log 2>&1

Virtual environments venv in Python

  1. (Optional) Upgrade pip
    • Linux: python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
    • Windows: cd C:\ && C:\\Python38\python.exe -m pip install --upgrade pip
  2. Install virtualenv pip package (if not already installed with python)
    • Linux: python3 -m pip install virtualenv
    • Windows: cd C:\ && C:\\Python38\python.exe -m pip install virtualenv
  3. Create Virtual Environment:
    • Linux: cd /root/<folder where py3venv folder will be created> && python3 -m venv py3venv
    • Windows: cd C:\<folder where py3venv folder will be created> && C:\Python38\python.exe -m venv py3venv
  4. Activate venv and install packages
    • Linux:
        cd /root/py3venv && source bin/activate
        python -m pip install --no-index --find-links=/root/PYTHON_3.8.0_INSTALL/.pypi3 -r /root/PYTHON_3.8.0_INSTALL/requirements_py3_lin.txt
        
    • Windows:
        cd C:\py3venv\Scripts && activate.bat
        python -m pip install --no-index --find-links=C:\PYTHON_3.8.0_INSTALL\.pypi3 -r C:\PYTHON_3.8.0_INSTALL\requirements_py3_win.txt
        
  5. Stop/Deactivate venv
    • Linux: deactivate
    • Windows: cd C:\py3venv\Scripts && deactivate.bat
  6. Delete Virtual Environment
    • Linux: cd && rm -rf /root/py3venv
    • Windows: cd C:\ && RMDIR /S /Q C:\py3venv
  • Example creating venv and installing packages in Windows venv creation cmd

PyCharm and venv

  1. Make sure you have venv installed via pip (pip install virtualenv)

  2. Init a venv at the same level of your project directory with virtualenv venv --python=python3.8 venv creation Folders Struct

  3. In PyCharm create a new project set Location to be folder project and interpreter from venv folder created PyCharm New Project

It is recommended/safer to create a virtualenv for every project but you can also share a venv between multiple projects

Python Basics

  • The module for the built-in functions like print and input is builtins

  • ''' Triple quote allows you to create a multiline string

  • ord() takes a function accepts a string of length 1 and returns the Unicode integer equivalence, for common chacters like letters and number the value returned is the same as ASCII code since Unicode is just a more general standard

  • chr() take an integer representing unicode of the character and returns a string with that character

mult_str =  '''
 -------
 This is my  multi-line string
 -------
'''
print(mult_str)
print(ord('A'))   # return 65=0x41
print(chr(65))    # return 'A'
print(chr(0x41))  # return 'A'

f-strings

  • f-strings are supported only on newer versions of python (>3.6)
  • Allow you to embed variables inside strings using f and {} in strings
name =  "Pepe"
print(f"Hello, {name}")

Template strings

  • Use a template string that has {} that will be later replaced by using the .format() function
name =  "Pepe"
greeting = "Hello, {}. Today is {}"
day = "Monday"
with_name = greeting.format(name, day)
print(with_name)

Basic user Input the input() function

my_input = input("Give input")
print("You input: {}".format(my_input)

Collections: list, tuples, sets, dict

my_list = ["bob", "rolf", "anne"] my_tuple = ("bob", "rolf", "anne") my_set = {"bob", "rolf", "anne"}

  • for tuple parenthesis () are only needed when Python might be confused as to whether you wanna create a tuple, or these are values in another collection.
  • Tuples can be destructured into separate variables (e.x. x, y = (1, 2))
# destructuring in loop
people = [("Jose", 7, "eng"), ("Juan", 8, "spa"), ("Yin", 6 ,"jap")]
for name, age, language in people:
    print(f"{name} age {age}, speaks {language}")

# collector of first elements
*head, tail = [("Jose", 7, "eng"), ("Juan", 8, "spa"), ("Yin", 6 ,"jap")]
print(head)
# collector of last elements
head, *tail = [("Jose", 7, "eng"), ("Juan", 8, "spa"), ("Yin", 6 ,"jap")]
print(tail)
  • dict in python need keys to be hashable (for example strings or numbers)
  • Iterate over dictionary returns the keys, to iterate over key values use items() method (which return a 'list' of tuples, each tuple is being destructured into separate variables
students_attendance = {"Jose": 7, "Juan": 6, "Jesus": 9}
for student, attendance in students_attendance.items()
    print(f"{student} attendance: {attendance}")

slicing & indexing

  • Used to get a subset of an ordered collection like a list or tuple the phrase to remember is up to but not including
#           0    1    2    3
letters = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
print(letters[0:2], "equals", letters[:2])  # get [a,b]
print(letters[0:3], "equals", letters[:3])  # get [a,b,c]
print(letters[1:2])  # get [b]
print(letters[1:])   # get [b,c,d]

Branching and Looping

is and in

  • is checks for objects to be the same thing in python so comparing to variables with same values with is will return false since they are stored in different places in memory, they are not exactly the same thing
x1 = [1, 2]
x2 = [1, 2]

print(x1==x2)
print(x1 is x2)
  • belonging in operator checks for element in collection
number =  7
while True:
    user_in = input("Play? (Y/n)")
    if user_in == "n":
        break

    user_number = input("Give me a number: ")
    if user_number == number:
        print("Guess!")
    elif user_number-number in (1, -1):
        print("Off by one")
    elif abs(user_number-number) > 1:
        print("Off by more than one")
    else:
        print("No guess")

range

  • It is actually a generator so if you want the list you can convert it and the thing to remember is that by default it starts at zero and goes up to the given value but not including it. You can also specify start, stop and step
for r in range(5):
    print(r)

for r in range(0, 10, 2):
    print(r)

print(list(range(0, 20, 4)))

Functions, arguments and parameters

  • You cannot use a function that is not fully defined just based on a promise of definition like in other languages
  • Shadowing a variable from outer scope by redefining the variable inside a function is valid python code (it can run) but is usually not recommended
  • On the function definition you have parameters (e.x indef add(x, y) x and y are parameters)
  • On function calls you have arguments (e.x in add(1, 2) 1 and 2 are arguments)
  • Each argument provides a value to one parameter
  • You can only do positional arguments first, then keyword/named arguments later

*args

  • when parameter is declared with a * for example *args it is equivalent to say args is a tuple where each element is a single parameter
  • Python allows the use of asterisk to collect arguments into one parameter and also the asterisk is used to destruct arguments
def multiply(*args):
    total = 1
    for arg in args:
        total *= arg
    return total

def add(x, y):
    return x + y

def apply(*args, operator):
    if operator == "*":
        return multiply(*args)
    elif operator == "+":
        return sum(arg)
    else:
        return -1
    return total

nums = [1, 2, 3, 4]
print(multiply(*nums))

xy = {"x": 2, "y": 3}
print(add(**xy))

print(apply(1,2,3,4, operator="*"))

**kwargs

  • when parameter is declared with a ** for example **kwargs it is equivalent to say kwargs is a dict with key:value pairs
def named(**kwargs):
    print(kwargs)

names  = {"jose": 29, "jesus": 30}
named(**names)

# Collect al positional arguments into args
# and all named arguments into kwargs
def both(*args, **kwargs):
    print(args)
    print(kwargs)

both(1,2, "jose", user_pass="pass", user_id=142)

First-class functions

  • A first-class function, refer to the concept that functions are just variables and you can pass them in as arguments to functions and use them in the same way you would use any other variable.
from operator import itemgetter

def search(sequence, expected, finder):
    for elem in sequence:
        if finder(elem) == expected:
            return elem
    raise RuntimeError(f"Could not find an element with {expected}")

friends = [
    {"name": "Rolf Smith", "age": 24},
    {"name": "Adam Wool", "age": 30},
    {"name": "Anne Pun", "age": 27},
]

print(search(friends, "Rolf Smith", itemgetter("name")))
# Equivalent with lambda functions
print(search(friends, "Bob Smith", lambda friend: friend["name"]))

OOP in Python

  • self always refer to the object/instance of the class

  • Methods that start with __ are special methods (a.k.a. magic methods or dunder methods) that are part of python objects and are called in certain situations, besides most things in python are objects so most of things have these

  • __repr__ conventionally returns a str that can be used to tell the users of our class how to recreate the original object very easily. if you have __str__ usually takes precedence

  • Instance methods refer to all methods that user self (in other words methods that use the object as first parameters) therefore you need an object to call these type of methods. Used to modify object properties or change the state of the object

  • Class methods methods shared by all objects of the class, they get a class reference through the cls parameter. Often used as factories of objects to create object in a specific way

    • Variables defined in the class (not in the constructor) become class properties
  • Static methods methods also shared by all objects of the class but have no reference to the class or object, they are more like functions that live inside the class but don't use the class or object for anything. Helper methods for the class but that don't use r modify its properties

class Student:
    TYPES= ("PhD", "Masters")
    def __init__(self, name, type, grades):
        self.name = name
        self.type = type
        self.grades = grades
    def average(self):
        return sum(self.grades) / len(self.grades)
    def __repr__(self):
        return "".format(self.name, self.grades)
    def instance_method(self):
        print("Instance method of object: {}".format(self))
    @classmethod
    def class_method(cls):
        print("Class method of class: {}".format(cls))
    @staticmethod
    def static_method():
        print("Called static method: {}".format(cls))
    @classmethod
    def masters_student(cls, name, grades):
        # Identical to 'return Student(name=name, type=Student.TYPES[1], grades=grades)'
        return cls(name=name, type=cls.TYPES[1], grades=grades)
#    def __str__(self):
#        return "{}".format(self.name)

student = Student("Pepe", "Masters" , (89, 90, 93, 88, 97))
print(Student.average(student)) # Identical to student.average()
student.instance_method()
Student.class_method() # Identical to student.class_method() or Student.class_method(Student)
Student.static_method() # Identical to student.static_method()

student_mas = Student.masters("Jose", (89, 90, 93, 88, 97))

Constructor call and parent class methods

  • Constructor calls and calls to parent class methods can be different between python2 and python3
class Device:
    def __init__(self, name, connected_by):
        self.name = name
        self.connected_by = connected_by
        self.connected = True
    def __str__(self):
        return f"Device {self.name!r} ({self.connected_by})"
    def disconnect(self):
        self.connected = False

class Printer(Device):
    def __init__(self, name, connected_by, capacity):
        super(Printer, self).__init__(name, connected_by) # - Python2 and Python3+
        # super().__init__(name, connected_by)  # Python3+ only
        self.capacity = capacity
        self.remaining_pages = capacity
    def __str__(self):
        # return f"{super().__str__()} ({self.remaining_pages} pages remaining)" # Python3+ only
        return f"{super(Printer, self).__str__()} ({self.remaining_pages} pages remaining)" # Python2 and Python3+

printer = Printer("Printer", "USB", 5)
print(printer)

Type Hinting

  • Feature only available on versions of python >3.5 that helps specify and be explicit about the types of the parameters received as input and also the returned type. Syntax: def function_name(variable_name : <type>) -> <return type>
# Valid but not following type hinting convention
def list_average(sequence: list) -> float:
    return sum(sequence) / len(sequence)

# Using the types from `typing` module is the convetion
from typing import List
def list_avg(sequence: List) -> float:
    return sum(sequence) / len(sequence)

# Type hint in classes
class Book:
    def __init__(self, name: str, page_count: int):
        self.name = name
        self.page_count = page_count
    def __repr__(self) -> str:
        return f""
    @classmethod
    def hundred_pages_book(cls, name: str) -> "Book": # Specify Name of class as string to signal it returns a Book object for same class
        return cls(name=name, page_count=100)

class BookShelf:
    def __init__(self, books: List[Book]):
        self.books = books
    def __str__(self) -> str:
        return f"BookShelf with {len(self.books)} books: {self.books}"

book1 = Book("Don Quijote", 352)
book2 = Book("Pedro Paramo", 200)
book100 = Book.hundred_pages_book("My Bio")
my_shelf = BookShelf([book1, book2, book100])
print(my_shelf)

imports

  • __name__ global variable in python that changes depending on the file that it is executing. The file you run becomes __main__

  • Python will look for modules in sys.path, it is the import paths where Python will look in order to find files to import and sys.modules stores what is imported

    • The first path Python will look is where the python file you are executing exists (e.x. if you execute python C:\\code\\python\\snippets\mycode.py python will look in C:\\code\\python\\snippets\ because there is where mycode.py exists)
    • The second path Python will look is on the paths specified in the environment variable PYTHONPATH
  • Older versions of python require the __init__.py file to exists in a folder in order to be able to import files that are inside that folder

  • If a file does an import, python checks the sys.modules to see if that import is there, and if it is, then it's going to use that instead of trying to import again because when python imports a file it runs it, so Python keeps track of what has been imported to be able to use what has already ran.

# file mymodule.py
def add(*inputs):
    return sum(inputs)

print("mymodule.py:", __name__)
# file mycode.py
from mymodule import add # To import specific object
# import mymodule # imports everything and needs . to access objects

print("Add result:", add(7,2))
print("mycode.py:", __name__)

import sys
print("sys.path:", sys.path)
print("sys.modules:", sys.modules)

Relative imports


Recommendation

DO NOT user relative imports in python


Errors and Exceptions

  • Usually there are functions hat raise errors and other functions or pieces of code that handle exceptions with try-except blocks when needed
def divide(dividend, divisor):
    if divisor == 0:
        raise ZeroDivisionError("Divisor cannot be 0.")
    return dividend / divisor

grades = [90, 100, 85]

try:
    average = divide(sum(grades), len(grades))
except ZeroDivisionError:
    print("There are no grades yet in your list.")
else:
    # Doing something if no error is raised
    print(f"The average was {average}")
finally:
    # Always do this no matter what happen
    print("Finishing code")
Exception Type Cause of Error
AssertionError Raised when an assert statement fails.
AttributeError Raised when attribute assignment or reference fails.
EOFError Raised when the input() function hits end-of-file condition.
FloatingPointError Raised when a floating point operation fails.
GeneratorExit Raise when a generator's close() method is called.
ImportError Raised when the imported module is not found.
IndexError Raised when the index of a sequence is out of range.
KeyError Raised when a key is not found in a dictionary.
KeyboardInterrupt Raised when the user hits the interrupt key (Ctrl+C or Delete).
MemoryError Raised when an operation runs out of memory.
NameError Raised when a variable is not found in local or global scope.
NotImplementedError Raised by abstract methods.
OSError Raised when system operation causes system related error.
OverflowError Raised when the result of an arithmetic operation is too large to be represented.
ReferenceError Raised when a weak reference proxy is used to access a garbage collected referent.
RuntimeError Raised when an error does not fall under any other category.
StopIteration Raised by next() function to indicate that there is no further item to be returned by iterator.
SyntaxError Raised by parser when syntax error is encountered.
IndentationError Raised when there is incorrect indentation.
TabError Raised when indentation consists of inconsistent tabs and spaces.
SystemError Raised when interpreter detects internal error.
SystemExit Raised by sys.exit() function.
TypeError Raised when a function or operation is applied to an object of incorrect type.
UnboundLocalError Raised when a reference is made to a local variable in a function or method, but no value has been bound to that variable.
UnicodeError Raised when a Unicode-related encoding or decoding error occurs.
UnicodeEncodeError Raised when a Unicode-related error occurs during encoding.
UnicodeDecodeError Raised when a Unicode-related error occurs during decoding.
UnicodeTranslateError Raised when a Unicode-related error occurs during translating.
ValueError Raised when a function gets an argument of correct type but improper value.
ZeroDivisionError Raised when the second operand of division or modulo operation is zero.

Custom Error/Exception classes

  • To create a custom exception class we usually just inherit from the most relevant built-in error class and rename it to something meaningful for your application
class TooManyPagesReadError(ValueError):
    pass

class Book:
    def __init__(self, name: str, page_count: int):
        self.name = name
        self.page_count = page_count
        self.pages_read = 0
    def __repr__(self):
        return f""
    def read(self, pages: int):
        if self.pages_read + pages > self.page_count:
            raise TooManyPagesReadError(f"You tried to read {self.ages_read + pages} pages, but this book only has {self.page_count} pages.")
        self.pages_read += pages
        print(f"You have now read {self.pages_read} pages out of {self.page_count}")

book1 = Book("Harry Potter", 320)
book1.read(300)
book1.read(50)

__main__ in Python

  • It will not run the main function if it imported as a module.

  • When Python runs the "source file" as the main program, it sets the special variable __name__ to have a value of "__main__" that's the reason the if statement evaluated to True only when you run the source file as the main program

def main():
    print("hello world!")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

enums

  • An enumeration is a set of symbolic names (members) bound to unique, constant values that can be iterated
from enum import Enum
from enum import IntEnum

class AnimalEnum(Enum):
    HORSE = 1
    COW = 2
    CHICKEN = 3
    DOG = 4
    def __str__(self):
        return str(self.name.lower()) + "=" + str(self.value)

for animal in AnimalEnum:
        print('str: {} Name: {}  Value: {}'.format(animal, animal.name, animal.value))

class EnumStatus(IntEnum):
    OK = 0
    RETRY_ERROR = 1
    NO_SERVICE_ERROR = 2
    NOT_SUPPORTED_ERROR = 3
    INVALID_INPUT_ERROR = 4
    OPERATION_ERROR = 5
    AUTH_ERROR = 6
    NO_DATA = 7
    LIMIT_ERROR = 8
    SERVICE_ERROR = 9

    def __str__(self):
        return str(self.name.upper())



lamba functions

  • Anonymous function or function that does not have a name, it is used only to return values, exclusively used to operate on inputs and return outputs
  • Define it with lambda keyword then a coma-separated list of parameters a colon (:) then the return value (E.x. lambda x, y: x + y)
## lamba equivalent definition
add = lambda x, y: x + y
ret_add = (lambda x, y: x + y)(5,7)

map

  • map is used when you want to execute/apply function to every element of a collection
  • map returns a map object (which is iterable) that is why is common to convert it to a list
sequence = [1, 2, 3, 4]
doubled = list(map(lambda x: x * 2, sequence))

# equivalent with list comprehension
doubled_c = [x * 2 for x in sequence]

filter

  • Filters an iterable/collection returning only the elements for which the function passed as parameter returns True. E.x. filter(function, iterable)
sequence = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
even = list(filter(lambda x: x % 2 == 0, sequence))

# equivalent with list comprehension
even_c = [x for x in sequence if x % 2 == 0]

any and all

  • any and all are two built-in functions provided in python used for successive and/or operations
    • any returns or of all elements returning True when one or more elements is True
    • all returns and of all elements returning True when all elements are True

users = [{"id": "Hugo", "status": "offline"}, {"id": "Paco", "status": "online"}, {"id": "Luis", "status": "online"}  ]

# Check at least one user is online, two are online so prints: True
print(any(map(lambda u: u["status"] == "online", users)))

# Check all are offline, they are not so prints: False
print(all(map(lambda u: u["status"] == "offline", users)))

list comprehension

  • Create new list on the fly from existing lists
  • Equivalent to create loop that iterates and append to a list. You iterate over a list putting the variable that changes every cycle in the new list modified by some operation. Process:
    1. Create a list (doubled = [])
    2. Put what you want to add to the list (num * 2)
    3. Put the for loop (for num in numbers:)
numbers = [1, 3, 5]
# Basic list comprehension
doubled = [num * 2 for num in numbers]
# Equivalent in traditional code
for num in numbers:
    doubled. append(num * 2)
  • If you want to append based on a conditional, you add the conditional at the end after the for statement
## 'in' and list comprehension
friends = ["Juan", "Daniel", "Rob", "Sam", "Jesus"]
start_s = [f for f in friends if f.startswith("J")]

dict comprehension

  • Create new dict on the fly from existing lists
  • provide a key:value pair you want to append instead of just a value like in list comprehension
users = [("Jose", 27, "password"), ("Juan", 28, "juan123"), ("Yin", 26 ,"yinyan0")]
user_data_mapping = {user[0]: user for user in users}
user_pass_mapping = {username: password for username, age, password in users}

Decorators

  • Decorators are functions that allows to easily modify other functions without changing the actual code of those functions

  • Decorated functions are no longer registered as functions in python

  • A decorator function

    1. Always take a function as parameter,
    2. Defines a function inside it that accepts unlimited parameters (use *args and **kwargs), this function will end up replacing the decorated function
    3. In the defined function it calls the function passed as parameter (cause of this call is that we need same parameters)
    4. Add the at operator (@) to the function we want to decorate/modify, this will create the function by first passing it through the decorator
      • the @ is equivalent to passing explicitly the function through the decorator to create it (e.x. get_admin_password = make_secure(get_admin_password))
import functools
# 1. Take function as parameter (this is the decorator)
def make_secure(func):
# 2. Defines a function inside and call 'func' this will replace 'func'
    #@functools.wraps(func)
    def secure_function(*args, **kwargs):
        if user["access_level"] == "admin":
            # 3. calls the function passed as parameter
            return func(*args, **kwargs)
        else:
            return f"No admin permissions for user: {user['username']}."
    return secure_function

# 4. add the `@` to the function we want to decorate
@make_secure
def get_admin_password(user):
    return "1234"

user = {"username": "pepe", "access_level": "guest"}
print(get_admin_password(user=user))
print(get_admin_password.__name__) # This prints 'secure_function' if not used with  @functools.wraps

Decorators with parameters

  • For this you need to define a function that returns a decorator
import functools
user = {"username": "anna", "access_level": "user"}

def make_secure(access_level):
    def decorator(func):
        @functools.wraps(func)
        def secure_function(*args, **kwargs):
            if user["access_level"] == access_level:
                return func(*args, **kwargs)
            else:
                return f"No {access_level} permissions for {user['username']}."
        return secure_function
    return decorator

@make_secure("admin")
def get_admin_password():
    return "admin: 1234"

@make_secure("user")
def get_dashboard_password():
    return "user: user_pass123"

print(get_admin_password())
print(get_dashboard_password())

Mutability

  • A Mutable object is an object that we you can change its properties

  • Most objects in Python are mutable unless there are specifically no ways of changing the properties of the object itself which make the immutable (e.x. tuples, strings, integers, floats and Booleans)

  • Mutable default parameters are evaluated when the function is defined not when the function is called, so if you plan to modify a parameter inside a function or assign it to an attribute DON'T use default parameters

from typing import List, Optional

class Student:
    ## Good option
    #def __init__(self, name: str, grades: Optional[List[int]] = None):
    # Using mutable default parameters is bad in this case due to 'self.grades' assignment
    def __init__(self, name: str, grades: List[int] = []):
        self.name = name
        self.grades = grades
        ## Good option
        # self.grades = grades or []  # New list created if one isn't passed
    def take_exam(self, result):
        self.grades.append(result)

# Run this to see the consequences of mutable default params
bob = Student("Bob")
rolf = Student("Rolf")
bob.take_exam(90)
print(bob.grades)
print(rolf.grades)

json

  • json.dumps takes a dict as input and returns/dumps a string
  • json.dump takes a file pointer and a dict which will be saved to the file
  • json.loads takes a string or json object and returns a python dict

Threading

TODO

Logging

TODO

Sub-Process

TODO

Open, read, write and dump files

TODO

regex

TODO

References

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