The os
module provides dozens of functions for interacting with the
operating system:
>>> import os
>>> os.getcwd() # Return the current working directory
'C:\\Python26'
>>> os.chdir('/server/accesslogs') # Change current working directory
>>> os.system('mkdir today') # Run the command mkdir in the system shell
0
Be sure to use the import os
style instead of from os import *
. This
will keep os.open()
from shadowing the built-in open()
function which
operates much differently.
The built-in dir()
and help()
functions are useful as interactive
aids for working with large modules like os
:
>>> import os
>>> dir(os)
<returns a list of all module functions>
>>> help(os)
<returns an extensive manual page created from the module's docstrings>
For daily file and directory management tasks, the shutil
module provides
a higher level interface that is easier to use:
>>> import shutil
>>> shutil.copyfile('data.db', 'archive.db')
>>> shutil.move('/build/executables', 'installdir')
The glob
module provides a function for making file lists from directory
wildcard searches:
>>> import glob
>>> glob.glob('*.py')
['primes.py', 'random.py', 'quote.py']
Common utility scripts often need to process command line arguments. These
arguments are stored in the sys
module's argv attribute as a list. For
instance the following output results from running python demo.py one two
three
at the command line:
>>> import sys
>>> print sys.argv
['demo.py', 'one', 'two', 'three']
The getopt
module processes sys.argv using the conventions of the Unix
getopt()
function. More powerful and flexible command line processing is
provided by the argparse
module.
The sys
module also has attributes for stdin, stdout, and stderr.
The latter is useful for emitting warnings and error messages to make them
visible even when stdout has been redirected:
>>> sys.stderr.write('Warning, log file not found starting a new one\n')
Warning, log file not found starting a new one
The most direct way to terminate a script is to use sys.exit()
.
The re
module provides regular expression tools for advanced string
processing. For complex matching and manipulation, regular expressions offer
succinct, optimized solutions:
>>> import re
>>> re.findall(r'\bf[a-z]*', 'which foot or hand fell fastest')
['foot', 'fell', 'fastest']
>>> re.sub(r'(\b[a-z]+) \1', r'\1', 'cat in the the hat')
'cat in the hat'
When only simple capabilities are needed, string methods are preferred because they are easier to read and debug:
>>> 'tea for too'.replace('too', 'two')
'tea for two'
The math
module gives access to the underlying C library functions for
floating point math:
>>> import math
>>> math.cos(math.pi / 4.0)
0.70710678118654757
>>> math.log(1024, 2)
10.0
The random
module provides tools for making random selections:
>>> import random
>>> random.choice(['apple', 'pear', 'banana'])
'apple'
>>> random.sample(xrange(100), 10) # sampling without replacement
[30, 83, 16, 4, 8, 81, 41, 50, 18, 33]
>>> random.random() # random float
0.17970987693706186
>>> random.randrange(6) # random integer chosen from range(6)
4
There are a number of modules for accessing the internet and processing internet
protocols. Two of the simplest are urllib2
for retrieving data from URLs
and smtplib
for sending mail:
>>> import urllib2
>>> for line in urllib2.urlopen('http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/timer.pl'):
... if 'EST' in line or 'EDT' in line: # look for Eastern Time
... print line
<BR>Nov. 25, 09:43:32 PM EST
>>> import smtplib
>>> server = smtplib.SMTP('localhost')
>>> server.sendmail('soothsayer@example.org', 'jcaesar@example.org',
... """To: jcaesar@example.org
... From: soothsayer@example.org
...
... Beware the Ides of March.
... """)
>>> server.quit()
(Note that the second example needs a mailserver running on localhost.)
The datetime
module supplies classes for manipulating dates and times in
both simple and complex ways. While date and time arithmetic is supported, the
focus of the implementation is on efficient member extraction for output
formatting and manipulation. The module also supports objects that are timezone
aware.
>>> # dates are easily constructed and formatted
>>> from datetime import date
>>> now = date.today()
>>> now
datetime.date(2003, 12, 2)
>>> now.strftime("%m-%d-%y. %d %b %Y is a %A on the %d day of %B.")
'12-02-03. 02 Dec 2003 is a Tuesday on the 02 day of December.'
>>> # dates support calendar arithmetic
>>> birthday = date(1964, 7, 31)
>>> age = now - birthday
>>> age.days
14368
Common data archiving and compression formats are directly supported by modules
including: zlib
, gzip
, bz2
, zipfile
and
tarfile
.
>>> import zlib
>>> s = 'witch which has which witches wrist watch'
>>> len(s)
41
>>> t = zlib.compress(s)
>>> len(t)
37
>>> zlib.decompress(t)
'witch which has which witches wrist watch'
>>> zlib.crc32(s)
226805979
Some Python users develop a deep interest in knowing the relative performance of different approaches to the same problem. Python provides a measurement tool that answers those questions immediately.
For example, it may be tempting to use the tuple packing and unpacking feature
instead of the traditional approach to swapping arguments. The timeit
module quickly demonstrates a modest performance advantage:
>>> from timeit import Timer
>>> Timer('t=a; a=b; b=t', 'a=1; b=2').timeit()
0.57535828626024577
>>> Timer('a,b = b,a', 'a=1; b=2').timeit()
0.54962537085770791
In contrast to timeit
's fine level of granularity, the profile
and
pstats
modules provide tools for identifying time critical sections in
larger blocks of code.
One approach for developing high quality software is to write tests for each function as it is developed and to run those tests frequently during the development process.
The doctest
module provides a tool for scanning a module and validating
tests embedded in a program's docstrings. Test construction is as simple as
cutting-and-pasting a typical call along with its results into the docstring.
This improves the documentation by providing the user with an example and it
allows the doctest module to make sure the code remains true to the
documentation:
def average(values):
"""Computes the arithmetic mean of a list of numbers.
>>> print average([20, 30, 70])
40.0
"""
return sum(values, 0.0) / len(values)
import doctest
doctest.testmod() # automatically validate the embedded tests
The unittest
module is not as effortless as the doctest
module,
but it allows a more comprehensive set of tests to be maintained in a separate
file:
import unittest
class TestStatisticalFunctions(unittest.TestCase):
def test_average(self):
self.assertEqual(average([20, 30, 70]), 40.0)
self.assertEqual(round(average([1, 5, 7]), 1), 4.3)
with self.assertRaises(ZeroDivisionError):
average([])
with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
average(20, 30, 70)
unittest.main() # Calling from the command line invokes all tests
Python has a "batteries included" philosophy. This is best seen through the sophisticated and robust capabilities of its larger packages. For example:
- The
xmlrpclib
andSimpleXMLRPCServer
modules make implementing remote procedure calls into an almost trivial task. Despite the modules names, no direct knowledge or handling of XML is needed. - The
email
package is a library for managing email messages, including MIME and other RFC 2822-based message documents. Unlikesmtplib
andpoplib
which actually send and receive messages, the email package has a complete toolset for building or decoding complex message structures (including attachments) and for implementing internet encoding and header protocols. - The
xml.dom
andxml.sax
packages provide robust support for parsing this popular data interchange format. Likewise, thecsv
module supports direct reads and writes in a common database format. Together, these modules and packages greatly simplify data interchange between Python applications and other tools. - Internationalization is supported by a number of modules including
gettext
,locale
, and thecodecs
package.