20 Essential Python Tips You Need to Know

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Source: https://medium.com

Translation: Xiao Ma

The readability and simplicity of Python are two major reasons for its popularity. This article introduces 20 common Python tips to enhance code readability and save you a lot of time. The following tips will be very practical in your daily coding practice.

1. String Reversal

Reverse a string using Python slicing:

# Reversing a string using slicing

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

print(reversed_string)

# Output
# EDCBA

2. Capitalize the First Letter of Each Word

Using the title function:

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

3. Find Unique Elements in a String

Using the concept of sets to find unique elements in a string:

my_string = "aavvccccddddeee"

# converting the string to a set
temp_set = set(my_string)

# stitching set into a string using join
new_string = ''.join(temp_set)

print(new_string)

# output
# cdvae

4. Print a String and List n Times

You can use the multiplication symbol (*) to print a string or list multiple times:

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]

5. List Comprehension

# 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]

6. Swap Variables

a = 1
b = 2

a, b = b, a

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

7. Split String into List of Substrings

Using the .split() function:

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']

8. Combine Multiple Strings into One

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

9. Check if a String is a Palindrome

my_string = "abcba"

if my_string == my_string[::-1]:
    print("palindrome")
else:
    print("not palindrome")

# Output
# palindrome

10. Count Occurrences of Elements in a List

# finding frequency of each element in a list
from collections import Counter

my_list = ['a','a','b','b','b','c','d','d','d','d','d']
count = Counter(my_list) # defining a counter object

print(count) # Of all elements
# Counter({'d': 5, 'b': 3, 'a': 2, 'c': 1})

print(count['b']) # of individual element
# 3

print(count.most_common(1)) # most frequent element
# [('d', 5)]

11. Check if Two Strings are Anagrams

Anagrams mean that the frequency of each letter in two words is the same (case insensitive). Use the Counter class to check if two strings are anagrams.

from collections import Counter

str_1, str_2, str_3 = "acbde", "abced", "abcda"
cnt_1, cnt_2, cnt_3  = Counter(str_1), Counter(str_2), Counter(str_3)

if cnt_1 == cnt_2:
    print('1 and 2 anagram')
if cnt_1 == cnt_3:
    print('1 and 3 anagram')

# output
# 1 and 2 anagram

12. Use try-except-else Block for Exception Handling

Use exception handling to catch errors:

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")

# output
# division by zero
# Run this always

13. Use the enumerate Function to Get Key/Value Pairs

my_list = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']

for index, value in enumerate(my_list):
    print('{0}: {1}'.format(index, value))

# 0: a
# 1: b
# 2: c
# 3: d
# 4: e

14. Check the Memory Usage of an Object

import sys

num = 21

print(sys.getsizeof(num))

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

15. Merge Dictionaries

dict_1 = {'apple': 9, 'banana': 6}
dict_2 = {'banana': 4, 'orange': 8}

combined_dict = {**dict_1, **dict_2}

print(combined_dict)
# Output
# {'apple': 9, 'banana': 4, 'orange': 8}

16. Calculate the Time Taken to Execute a Piece of Code

Use the time class to calculate how long a piece of code takes to run:

import time

start_time = time.time()
# Code to check follows
for i in range(10**5):
    a, b = 1,2
    c = a+ b
# Code to check ends
end_time = time.time()
time_taken_in_micro = (end_time- start_time)*(10**6)

print(time_taken_in_micro)

# output
# 18770.217895507812

17. Flatten a List

from iteration_utilities import deepflatten

# if you only have one depth nested_list, use this
def flatten(l):
  return [item for sublist in l for item in sublist]

l = [[1,2,3],[3]]
print(flatten(l))
# [1, 2, 3, 3]

# if you don't know how deep the list is nested
l = [[1,2,3],[4,[5],[6,7]],[8,[9,[10]]]]

print(list(deepflatten(l, depth=3)))
# [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

18. List Sampling

import random

my_list = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']
num_samples = 2

samples = random.sample(my_list,num_samples)
print(samples)
# [ 'a', 'e'] this will have any 2 random values

19. Convert an Integer to a List of Digits

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]

20. Check for Uniqueness of List Elements

Check if each element in a list is unique:

def unique(l):
    if len(l)==len(set(l)):
        print("All elements are unique")
    else:
        print("List has duplicates")

unique([1,2,3,4])
# All elements are unique

unique([1,1,2,3])
# List has duplicates

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