10 useful Python Snippets every developer Should Learn

Python is a no-BS programming language. Readability and simplicity of design are two of the biggest reasons for its immense popularity.

The following snippets/tricks will help for Everyday Problems you face while coding in Python.

The following snippet reverses a string using the Python slicing operation.

    # Reversing a string using slicing

    my_string = "ABCDE"
    reversed_string = my_string[::-1]

    print(reversed_string)

    # Output
    # EDCBA
                

The following snippet can be used to convert a string to title case. This is done using the title() method of the string class.

    my_string = "my name is chaitanya baweja"

    # using the title() function of string class
    new_string = my_string.title()

    print(new_string)

    # Output
    # My Name Is Chaitanya Baweja
                

You can use multiplication (*) with strings or lists. This allows us to multiply them as many times as we like.

    n = 3 # number of repetitions

    my_string = "abcd"
    my_list = [1,2,3]

    print(my_string*n)
    # abcdabcdabcd

    print(my_list*n)
    # [1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3]
                

List comprehension provides us with an elegant way of creating lists based on other lists.

The following snippet creates a new list by multiplying each element of the old list by two.

    # Multiplying each element in a list by 2

    original_list = [1,2,3,4]

    new_list = [2*x for x in original_list]

    print(new_list)
    # [2,4,6,8]
                

Python makes it quite simple to swap values between two variables without using another variable.

    a = 1
    b = 2

    a, b = b, a

    print(a) # 2
    print(b) # 1
                

We can split a string into a list of substrings using the .split() method in the string class. You can also pass as an argument the separator on which you wish to split.

    string_1 = "My name is Chaitanya Baweja"
    string_2 = "sample/ string 2"

    # default separator ' '
    print(string_1.split())
    # ['My', 'name', 'is', 'Chaitanya', 'Baweja']

    # defining separator as '/'
    print(string_2.split('/'))
    # ['sample', ' string 2']
                

The join() method combines a list of strings passed as an argument into a single string. In our case, we separate them using the comma separator.

    list_of_strings = ['My', 'name', 'is', 'Chaitanya', 'Baweja']

    # Using join with the comma separator
    print(','.join(list_of_strings))

    # Output
    # My,name,is,Chaitanya,Baweja
                

Error handling in Python can be done easily using the try/except block. Adding an else statement to this block might be useful. It’s run when there is no exception raised in the try block.

If you need to run something irrespective of exception, use finally.

    a, b = 1,0

    try:
        print(a/b)
        # exception raised when b is 0
    except ZeroDivisionError:
        print("division by zero")
    else:
        print("no exceptions raised")
    finally:
        print("Run this always")
                

The following script can be used to check the memory usage of an object.

    import sys

    num = 21

    print(sys.getsizeof(num))

    # In Python 2, 24
    # In Python 3, 28
                

The following snippet will convert an integer into a list of digits.

    num = 123456

    # using map
    list_of_digits = list(map(int, str(num)))

    print(list_of_digits)
    # [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

    # using list comprehension
    list_of_digits = [int(x) for x in str(num)]

    print(list_of_digits)
    # [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

    # Even simpler approach
    list_of_digits = list(str(num))

    print(list_of_digits)
    # [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
                

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