All Questions
Tagged with programming-practices python
52
questions
28
votes
6answers
2k views
Turning a personal Python project into a releasable library
I'm an academic rather than a programmer, and I have many years' experience writing Python programs for my own use, to support my research. My latest project is likely to be useful to many others as ...
24
votes
3answers
12k views
Are exceptions for flow control best practice in Python?
I'm reading "Learning Python" and have come across the following:
User-defined exceptions can also signal nonerror conditions. For
instance, a search routine can be coded to raise an exception ...
16
votes
10answers
9k views
Preferring Python over C for Algorithmic Programming
I've been studying a bit of algorithms and have been looking at sites like SPOJ.pl TopCoder etc. I've seen that programmers prefer C or C++ usually for most algorithmic programming contests.
Now I'...
16
votes
5answers
7k views
Is monkeypatching considered good programming practice?
I've been under impression, that monkeypatching is more in quick and dirty hack category, rather than standard, good programming practice. While I'd used from time to time to fix minor issues with 3rd ...
12
votes
3answers
25k views
Is it a better practice pre-initialize attributes in a class, or to add them along the way?
I'm sorry if this is a ABSOLUTELY sophomoric question, but I'm curious what the best practices are out there, and I can't seem to find a good answer on Google.
In Python, I usually use an empty class ...
8
votes
3answers
2k views
how to programtically build a grid of interlocking but random sized squares
I want to create a two dimensional layout of rectangular shapes, a grid made up of random sized cubes. The cubed should fit together and have equal padding or margin (space between). Kind of like a ...
7
votes
3answers
5k views
Does it make sense to use string constants in Python instead of string literals as keys?
There is a dictionary in my class with informative, short string constants as keys that identify certain parts of the solution, like "velocity", "death_star_power_output". My colleague suggested that ...
6
votes
3answers
5k views
How to write tests for function that depends on a config file?
I have a function that uses information from a config file. How do I test the function? Ideally, I'd want to inject my own version of the config file and test from there, but I'm not using dependency ...
6
votes
1answer
4k views
Breaking a Large Python Project into Multiple Packages
I have a medium sized Python program (12 KLOC) organized as a single Python package with multiple subpackages:
proj/
setup.py
proj/
__init__.py
projfile1.py
subproj1/
...
6
votes
1answer
3k views
Signature-changing decorator: properly documenting additional argument
Let's say I have a custom decorator, and I want it to properly handle docstring of decorated function. Problem is: my decorator adds an argument.
from functools import wraps
def custom_decorator(f):...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Should I avoid using style like `for k, v in dict_sample.items()`?
Today I was viewing my colleague's code and I saw a function like this:
def manager_skill_tree_func(*args, **kwargs):
"""# manage_skill_tree: Initialize the manage skill tree
"""
...
5
votes
1answer
6k views
Is it pythonic to use properties to limit the mutability of class attributes (variables and methods)?
Some Explanation
I'm somewhat new to python and to programming (I've been at it for a little over a year). I just recently discovered python properties, and I've been using them to limit the ...
5
votes
1answer
4k views
Common imports between many scripts in Python project
I'm writing an automated installation script for a bunch of software, in Python. The purpose is for the script to fetch compressed files from a directory and install/configure each utility or ...
4
votes
1answer
240 views
Should code be written to stay consistent with the unidiomatic API style of a library?
I'm currently using the wxPython library to construct a GUI. One interesting aspect of the library I've noticed is that it uses CamelCase notation to write method names, as opposed to the snake_case ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
Sharing Docstrings between similar functions?
Assuming we have different classes with methods that possess the exact same description, however execute code a bit differently for the same return type.
class Foo:
"""This is the Foo class ...
4
votes
2answers
246 views
Design of multi-test function to validate a string
Assume that I wish to perform an action on a string (e.g., print the string) if, and only if, the string first passes several tests. The tests are diverse (and may even be complex functions themselves)...
3
votes
6answers
874 views
Is it a bad practice to write shell script with many if-else statment and for loops?
I am maintaing several data process shell scripts which are full of if-else statements and for loops . I try to make the scritps tidy and easy to debug.
When I read some suggestions about shell code ...
3
votes
1answer
249 views
Is it considered a bad practice to oversize an array so that negative indices behave well?
I have been practicing implementing some classic dynamic programming algorithms and was wondering if my implementation of the longest common subsequence search has a significant code smell.
In python,...
3
votes
3answers
679 views
conditional expressions, correct usage
I've recently become quite taken with conditional expressions in Python. Apparently some people consider it unpythonic and whether or not conditional/ternary expressions are even A Good Thing seems to ...
2
votes
1answer
225 views
How to balance 'efficient' vs 'clean' code? [closed]
I have been coding in python for a little over a year, and I have learned a lot and developed quite a few applications, in the process.
I do not program for my profession, I simply program ...
2
votes
3answers
1k views
Is it pythonic to replace a bash script with series of subprocess calls
I have a pretty simple bash script which consists of a bunch of one liners and some simple logic.
Its been recommended that I rip the bash script apart and rewrite it all in python using subprocess. ...
2
votes
2answers
276 views
Is it a good idea to install more libraries than you need? [closed]
I decided to try Anaconda, it seems that too many large companies are using it. I was amazed by the number of libraries included by default
installing: python-2.7.9-2 ...
installing: conda-3.10.0-...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
Final steps of wrapping up a Python script into a program
I finished building a Python script containing eight functions which download files, extracts them, manipulate and analyze their data and then produce graphs and export them into PNG files.
The ...
2
votes
1answer
171 views
return Trivial booleans?
I am writing a simple piece of code. Its a function that allowed the user to withdraw some money. There are some restrictions to this though.
The user can't withdraw more than the given withdraw ...
2
votes
1answer
110 views
Is it a good software engineering practice to store libraries as attributes of objects?
Suppose I initialize a library, say, in python object -
#filename: file_A
import file_
class A():
def __init__(self):
self.pd = file_.pd
self.np = file_.np
And suppose the ...
2
votes
2answers
282 views
Which programming idiom to choose for this open source library? [closed]
Which programming idiom is easier to use for beginner developers writing concrete file parsing classes?
I'm developing an open source library, which one of the main functionality is to parse plain ...
2
votes
2answers
10k views
Python - only one return per method? [duplicate]
I'm trying to sort out whether this is just a personal preference thing or whether it's actually bad practice to do this one way or another. I did try to reference PEP8 first, and I did not see an ...
1
vote
3answers
234 views
What is a good method/practice I can employ to keep identical code snippits in two places in sync? Also, help documenting functionals
If I could get some input on the design of this, I would be grateful as well.
Note that I'm programming in python.
There's a function F that takes lots of data, runs some analysis on it (taking ...
1
vote
2answers
896 views
Assigning dictionary values to variables before using them as function arguments
I find myself often having a function, for example authenticate:
authenticate(user, token):
# do authentication
and a dictionary created by reading a configuration file, like this:
conf['...
1
vote
2answers
704 views
How can I work on multiple programming languages at same time [duplicate]
It always happen to me that if I leave the stuff for 1-2 months I forget the stuff.
5 months back I had symfony project and I did that. At that time I was very much confident that I can do any ...
1
vote
1answer
2k views
Best practice for Python main function definition and program start/exit
What is best practice to define a main function and entry point for a script/module that may be used started as main, but not always?
Here's how I've been doing it in the past, similar to realpython:
...
1
vote
2answers
146 views
Observer reporting to multiple layers up from the bottom of hierarchy
There is a swarm of objects. When a new unit of certain kind appears on the frame, the swarm integrates this object by calling some add_new_unit method. Above the swarm is a controller abstraction, ...
1
vote
1answer
833 views
Is it OK to use name like `CLASS_CONSTANT` for class constant variables according to PEPs? [python]
On the code I'm viewing, I saw a class like this:
class User(ModelBase):
"""# User: docstring"""
COMBAT_RANK_KEY_PREFIX = 'combat_rank'
LEVEL_RANK_KEY_PREFIX = 'level_rank'
...
1
vote
1answer
642 views
Data Transfer Between Loosely Coupled Modules of an Application
Let's say we have a rather large project written in Python using the Django framework that is made up of multiple modules (proper term in Django is a project made up of multiple apps, but for the sake ...
1
vote
1answer
1k views
Best Practices For Temporary Scripts (Python)
I am running two separate programs which are similar enough that they share a lot of code. I run these programs often and after I evaluate the output. This is a very fluid process and everytime is ...
1
vote
1answer
307 views
Pythonic version of Java interfaces
I fully acknowledge that Python and Java are different programming languages and should be used differently. That said, "Program to an interface, not to an implementation" is good language-agnostic ...
1
vote
2answers
184 views
What is the preferred object to store this type of data structure
I was in a conversation with someone who codes for me. He was frustrated with my approach to a particular problem. I am entirely self taught and very pragmatic - I am not a professional developer ...
0
votes
2answers
224 views
How to query database effectively with the same program millions times
I got a proprietary software (something like a DMS system) to process the documents in file system. The software provide very limited API to manipulate the contents of the documents in DMS but it ...
0
votes
2answers
145 views
Module with globals or Class with attributes?
Currently I'm working with a lot of modules where the original developers used global variables to control states and to exchange important information between functions, like so:
STATE_VAR = 0
def ...
0
votes
1answer
343 views
Can I explain Classes and Objects without the full stack of OOP concepts?
I've been teaching Python to someone that was new to programming; and so far, so good. Now, I'm about to teach Classes and Objects. However, I still think it's too soon for the whole OOP concept, plus ...
0
votes
1answer
371 views
Should I put the parameters in constructor or in method? (Python 3)
I have the following code:
def __init__(self, vocable_file_path, xsd_file_path, word_list_file_path):
self.vocable_file_path = vocable_file_path
self.xsd_file_path = xsd_file_path
self....
0
votes
1answer
707 views
Python case statement? [duplicate]
I made a simple Python script that takes user input in order to generate a series of mathematical responses. In one part I did this:
while True:
And iterated through the loop until I used an if ...
0
votes
0answers
20 views
Python flask app creating log files from pods
I have a flask app which reads logs from my kubernetes based on the environment product name and product type.
I m creating the log files dynamically when a request arrives. If i choose a static ...
0
votes
1answer
843 views
Instantiate a class from a config file. Where should the parse function go?
I have a class in python that is instantiated from the values of a (json) config file. I was wondering what is the best practise to do that (if there is a best practise and is not just a matter of ...
-1
votes
1answer
273 views
What is the programming paradigm when I just use functions in a file to organize my program?
I'm programming a telegram bot with Python and, for a number of reasons, there are no classes in the whole project, just several functions correlated to the the file where they are located. E.g., my ...
-1
votes
2answers
8k views
Algorithm for scheduling shifts
I am trying to write a program to help scheduling shifts for the employees of a small business. There are 28 shifts that needs to be assigned to 28 employees (so this means that each person gets a ...
-1
votes
2answers
119 views
How to decide if a global variable is used inside or outside a function in Python?
In Python variables that are created outside of a function are known as global variables. However to create a global variable inside a function (a local variable), you can use the global keyword.
My ...
-1
votes
1answer
306 views
Function returning dynamic value [closed]
Imagine you have a chain of functions calls, in which each function is taking the previous function's output as input for the next calculation in the chain.
Make an assumption that you are leading ...
-1
votes
1answer
86 views
Can I use python 3.5.2 on my machine for development if the client is 3.4?
Here is the situation, I wish to use the last programming language of ruby, python and some more on my development machine, but the server where it will be is not last version of that programming ...
-4
votes
4answers
1k views
Creating one function for multiple purposes vs multiple functions for one purpose each [closed]
I have one function that is used to compute distances of an object in 3 different ways.
Is one of the following two methods considered better practice:
Creating 3 different functions, one each for ...
