Rodrigo πŸπŸš€ Profile picture
Oct 15, 2021 β€’ 9 tweets β€’ 3 min read β€’ Read on X
You can use Python 🐍 docstrings to provide usage examples of your functions!

That's useful to your users!

And did you know that you can use those examples to do small automatic tests on your functions? 😱

Let me break down how in a mini thread πŸ‘‡πŸ§΅ Image
First off, we define a simple function.

In this case, we just define a function to return the successor of an integer: Image
Then, we define a basic docstring for the function, in a single line.

However, we also add an example showing how using the function looks like.

Notice that the example looks like the REPL: Image
Now, we can turn that example into a small test as well!

We just need to import `doctest`, which is in the standard library.

We import it, and run `testmod`, to test the current "module": Image
If your code agrees with the examples you gave, no output is shown.

So, for the sake of demonstration, let's introduce a small bug in the code, with the wrong return value: Image
Now that there is a bug, the code no longer agrees with the example in the docstring!

When that is the case, we get some output saying something is wrong: Image
Pretty cool, right?!

This can be useful if you use it sparingly, with a couple of basic usage examples/small tests in your functions' docstrings.

For extensive testing of your code, I recommend using a testing framework!

By the way, which one do you use?
Was this thread useful? I hope so!

If you want to have some high-quality Python 🐍 content in your timeline, make sure to follow me @mathsppblog πŸ˜‰

Also, feel free to retweet the beginning of this thread to help your friends improve their Python πŸ’ͺ

I'm sorry, everyone.

A formatting issue kind of ruined the code. This is what I wanted to share:

Notice the REPL-like input with >>> and the (correct/expected) result in the next line. Image

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More from @mathsppblog

May 9
Hide private information in your Python code.

Suppose you want to print an email...

But you want to create that cool ro*****@mathspp.com effect.

This is pretty easy to achieve in Python!

All you need to do is use an f-string and use the appropriate format specifiers. Diagram showing how you can use f-strings and their format specification to redact private or sensitive information, like email addresses.  The code from the diagram:  def redact_email(email):     user, _, domain = email.partition("@")     return f"{user[:2]:*<{len(user)}}@{domain}"  print(redact_email("rodrigo@mathspp.com")) # ro*****@mathspp.com
πŸ‘‰ the first thing you do is use `str.partition` to grab the email β€œuser” and the domain.

We will redact only the user (but you could also redact the domain with the same process).

The `user[:2]` shows the first two characters.

That's the β€œro”.

But how do you get β€œro*****”?
πŸ‘‰ use an f-string and the width specifier.

You want to create a field as wide as β€œrodrigo”:

r o _ _ _ _ _

The length of this field is `len(user)`, so you use `{len(user)}` INSIDE the format spec.

This creates a field with the correct width.
Read 6 tweets
May 18, 2023
I know `print` is the first Python 🐍 function you learned! πŸš€

And yet, you don't know this about `print` πŸ‘‡ Image
What you know for sure is that `print` will take an object and it will print it on the screen.

That's the basic functionality it provides: Image
Maybe you don't know that `print` can actually print multiple things!

If you pass multiple arguments, they all get printed: Image
Read 11 tweets
May 17, 2023
I'll tell you the story of a person that had the wrong name…

And how to prevent that in Python 🐍 with properties πŸš€.

πŸ‘‡ Image
John Doe was a regular guy and when he was born, he was inserted into the government's database of people.

They created a new `Person` and added John's details: Image
John never liked his name Doe, though.

So Joe decided to change his name to Smith.

And so he did.

He updated his last name, but the government `Person` STILL had the wrong name! Image
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May 14, 2023
Opening a file to read/write is a common task in Python 🐍.

Here is how to do it right! πŸš€

πŸ‘‡ Image
Python has a built-in `open` that takes a file path and opens that file.

Then, you have to specify whether you want to open the file to read, write, or append.

But this isn't half of the story! Image
The default behaviour is to open the file to read/write text.

This works well with TXT or CSV files, for instance.

If you need to open a file to read its binary contents, you can add a `"b"` to the mode: Image
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May 13, 2023
The Python 🐍 built-in `round` is great. πŸš€

Here are some tips on it. πŸ‘‡ Image
The purpose of `round` is to… round numbers!

It rounds numbers to the closest integer.

These are some simple examples: Image
However, if the number ends in `.5`, what is the closest integer?

In that case, `round` will choose the even number.

This means it may round up or down πŸ€ͺ

(In school, I was taught to round `.5` up… 🀷) Image
Read 6 tweets
May 12, 2023
Error handling in Python 🐍 made simple. πŸš€

πŸ‘‡ Image
The keyword `try` is used before code that might fail.

So, if you know something can raise an error, you can write it inside a `try` statement: Image
Now that the code is inside a `try` statement, you need to tell Python what error you want to handle, and how.

That's when the keyword `except` comes in! Image
Read 7 tweets

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