Exit codes in Python

0 and 1 are the exit codes.

exit(0) means a clean exit without any errors / problems

exit(1) means there was some issue / error / problem and that is why the program is exiting.

This is not Python specific and is pretty common. A non-zero exit code is treated as an abnormal exit, and at times, the error code indicates what the problem was. A zero error code means a successful exit.

This is useful for other programs, shell, caller etc. to know what happened with your program and proceed accordingly.

For the record, you can use POSIX standard exit codes defined here.

Example:

import sys, os

try:
    config()
except:
    sys.exit(os.EX_CONFIG) 
try:
    do_stuff()
except:
    sys.exit(os.EX_SOFTWARE)
sys.exit(os.EX_OK) # code 0, all ok

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Python: Quick script to create directory

Here is simple python code to smartly create a folder if it does not exisit

 

import os

def createFolder(directory):
    try:
        if not os.path.exists(directory):
            os.makedirs(directory)
    except OSError:
        print ('Error: Creating directory. ' +  directory)
        

# Example
createFolder('./data/')
# Creates a folder in the current directory called data

Python: printing on the same line (progress indicator)

In Java we have print which allow to print in same line
and println allow us to print on new line

But in python print always prints on new line, that makes it to difficult to print progress.

 

sys.stdout.write will print without return carriage

import sys
sys.stdout.write("progressing xxx")

Code running which needs to show progress
     sys.stdout.write(".")

Python: Check if all elements in a list are equal

# Pythonic ways of checking if all
# items in a list are equal:

>>> lst = ['a', 'a', 'a']

>>> len(set(lst)) == 1
True

>>> all(x == lst[0] for x in lst)
True

>>> lst.count(lst[0]) == len(lst)
True

# I ordered those from "most Pythonic" to "least Pythonic" 
# and  "least efficient" to "most efficient". 
# The len(set()) solution is idiomatic,  but constructing 
# a set is less efficient memory and speed-wise.

Python: list comprehensions

# Python's list comprehensions are awesome.

vals = [expression 
        for value in collection 
        if condition]

# This is equivalent to:

vals = []
for value in collection:
    if condition:
        vals.append(expression)

# Example:

>>> even_squares = [x * x for x in range(10) if not x % 2]
>>> even_squares
[0, 4, 16, 36, 64]

Python: Dict get with default value to void key not found error

# The get() method on dicts
# and its "default" argument

name_for_userid = {
    382: "Aseem",
    590: "Bob",
    951: "Dilbert",
}

def greeting(userid):
    return "Hi %s!" % name_for_userid.get(userid, "there")

>>> greeting(382)
"Hi Aseem!"

>>> greeting(333333)
"Hi there!"

Python: emulate switch/case statements by using dict with lambda functions

# Because Python has first-class functions they can # be used to emulate switch/case statements def dispatch_if(operator, x, y): if operator == 'add': return x + y elif operator == 'sub': return x - y elif operator == 'mul': return x * y elif operator == 'div': return x / y else: return None def dispatch_dict(operator, x, y): return { 'add': lambda: x + y, 'sub': lambda: x - y, 'mul': lambda: x * y, 'div': lambda: x / y, }.get(operator, lambda: None)() >>> dispatch_if('mul', 2, 8) 16 >>> dispatch_dict('mul', 2, 8) 16 >>> dispatch_if('unknown', 2, 8) None >>> dispatch_dict('unknown', 2, 8) None