Highlights a bunch of different Python tricks and tips - from the stupid to the awesome (and a bit of both). See how to register a 'str'.decode('hail_mary') codec, call_functions[1, 2, 3] instead of call_functions(1, 2, 3), creating a "Clojure-like" threading syntax by overloading the pipe operator, create useful equality mocks by overloading the equality operator, ditch JSON for pySON and put together a tiny lisp based on Norvig's awesome article.

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2. # python has... oddities
import sys
print >>sys.stdout, 'hello world!'
# hello world!
from __builtin__ import int
# ... uh thanks?
from __builtin__ import True as False
# uh oh...
from __future__ import braces
# ... SyntaxError: not a chance

3. likes_art = True
# trivia: what am i?
where_to_go = likes_art and 'museum' or 'nascar'
# this is another way to do it...
where_to_go = ('nascar', 'museum')[bool(likes_art)]
# lazily now!
where_to_go = (lambda: 'nascar', lambda: 'museum')[bool(likes_art)]()
# greanevrf - gunax tbq sbe clguba >2.5!
# jure_g_tb = 'zhfrhz' vs yvxrf_neg ryfr 'anfpne'

4. likes_art = True
# trivia: what am i?
where_to_go = likes_art and 'museum' or 'nascar'
# this is another way to do it...
where_to_go = ('nascar', 'museum')[bool(likes_art)]
# lazily now!
where_to_go = (lambda: 'nascar', lambda: 'museum')[bool(likes_art)]()
# ternaries - thank god for python >2.5!
where_to_go = 'museum' if likes_art else 'nascar'

5. # str encoding
print 'hello world!'.encode('rot13')
# uryyb jbeyq!
print 'hello world!'.encode('rot13').decode('rot13')
# hello world!
print 'hello world!.'.encode('zlib')
# xx9cxcbHxcdxc9xc9W(xcf/xcaIQT(xc9xc8...
print 'hello world!'.encode('zlib').decode('zlib')
# hello world!

6. # registering custom str encoding
def register_codec(name, encode=None, decode=None):
import codecs
if not encode:
def encode(val):
raise Exception(name + ' does not support encoding')
if not decode:
def decode(val):
raise Exception(name + ' does not support decoding')
def codec(searched_name):
if searched_name != name:
return None
return codecs.CodecInfo(
name=name, encode=encode, decode=decode)
codecs.register(codec)

7. # custom "reverser" encoding
def reverser(val):
return val[::-1], len(val)
register_codec('reverser', encode=reverser, decode=reverser)
print 'hello world!'.encode('reverser')
# !dlrow olleh
print 'hello world!'.encode('reverser').decode('reverser')
# hello world!

8. # custom "hail mary" decoder
def hail_mary_decode(val):
import chardet
result = chardet.detect(val)
return val.decode(result['encoding']), len(val)
register_codec('hail_mary', decode=hail_mary_decode)
print 'xe3x82xabxe3x83xacxe3x83xb3xe3x83x80'.decode('utf-8')
#
print 'xe3x82xabxe3x83xacxe3x83xb3xe3x83x80'.decode('hail_mary')
#
print 'xa5xabxa5xecxa5xf3xa5xc0'.decode('euc_jp')
#
print 'xa5xabxa5xecxa5xf3xa5xc0'.decode('hail_mary')
#

9. # slicing / indexing / keying
print range(10)[0]
# 0
print range(10)[0:5]
# [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
print range(10)[::2]
# [0, 2, 4, 6, 8]
print range(10)[::-1]
# [9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0]
print dict(hello='world')['hello']
# world

10. # deep slicing / indexing / keying
class PassThrough(object):
def __getitem__(self, name):
# magic method to return syntax args directly
return name
pass_through = PassThrough()
print pass_through[1]
# 1
print pass_through[1, 2, 3]
# (1, 2, 3)
print pass_through['hello world!']
# hello world!

11. # slicing gets weird
print pass_through[:]
# slice(None, None, None)
print pass_through[...]
# Ellipsis
print pass_through[..., ..., ..., ...]
# (Ellipsis, Ellipsis, Ellipsis, Ellipsis)
print pass_through[..., :, ...]
# (Ellipsis, slice(None, None, None), Ellipsis)

12. # abusing slicing
class parens_be_gone(object):
# square brackets are better than parens
def __init__(self, func):
self.func = func
def __getitem__(self, args):
if not isinstance(args, tuple):
args = (args,)
return self.func(*args)
def __call__(self, *a, **kw):
raise Exception('We do not like (), try []?')

13. # activate slice abuse
@parens_be_gone
def sum_nums(*args):
return sum(args)
@parens_be_gone
def shout_it(name):
return 'HELLO {}!'.format(name.upper())
print sum_nums[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
# 15
print shout_it['bryan']
# HELLO WORLD!

14. # magic methods
class Roughly(object):
def __init__(self, num):
self.num = num
def __invert__(self):
return '%d ± 10%' % self.num
print ~Roughly(5)
# 5 ± 10%

15. # magic methods continued
class DoublePlus(object):
def __init__(self, plusses=0):
self.plusses = plusses
def __pos__(self):
return DoublePlus(self.plusses + 1)
def __repr__(self):
return '%d plusses' % self.plusses
print ++DoublePlus()
# 2 plusses

16. # complementary magic methods for operators
class Man(object):
def __add__(self, right_other):
if right_other == 'Dog':
return 'best buds'
return self
def __radd__(self, left_other):
if left_other == 'Dog':
return 'bestest buds'
return self
print Man() + 'Dog'
# best buds
print 'Dog' + Man()
# bestest buds

17. # magic methods to act like you aren't using python
class pipe(object):
def __init__(self, func):
self.func = func
def __ror__(self, other):
return self.func(other)
def __call__(self, *a, **kw):
return pipe(lambda x: self.func(x, *a, **kw))

18. # magic methods to act like you aren't using python continued
@pipe
def _map(iterable, func):
return [func(i) for i in iterable]
@pipe
def _filter(iterable, func):
return [i for i in iterable if func(i)]
print (range(10)
| _map(lambda i: i * 3)
| _filter(lambda i: i % 2 == 0)
| _map(str))
# ['0', '6', '12', '18', '24']

19. # magic methods for elegant DSLs
class RegexEquals(object):
def __init__(self, regex):
import re
self.regex = re.compile(regex)
def __eq__(self, other):
return bool(self.regex.match(other))
class TypeEquals(object):
def __init__(self, *tipes):
self.tipes = tipes
def __eq__(self, other):
return isinstance(other, self.tipes)

20. # magic methods for elegant DSLs continued
URL = RegexEquals(r'(https?|ftp)://[^s/$.?#].[^s]*')
NUM = RegexEquals(r'd+')
INT = TypeEquals(int, long)
print 'larry' == URL
# False
print 'http://zapier.com/' == URL
# True
print '123' == NUM
# True
print {'url': 'http://zapier.com/', 'visits': 4} == {'url': URL, 'visits': INT}
# True

21. # magic methods for abuse
class DidYouMean(object):
def __getattr__(self, name):
if name.startswith('__'):
raise AttributeError('No magic did you mean.')
from difflib import SequenceMatcher
scored_attrs = [
(SequenceMatcher(None, name, attr).ratio(), attr)
for attr in dir(self) if not attr.startswith('__')
]
sorted_attrs = sorted([
(score, attr) for score, attr in scored_attrs if score > 0.5
], reverse=True)
best_name = next(iter(sorted_attrs), (None, None))[1]
if not best_name:
raise AttributeError('No "matching" `%s` attribute' % name)
return getattr(self, best_name)

22. # activate magic methods abuse
class SomeModel(DidYouMean):
first_name = 'bryan'
last_name = 'helmig'
person = SomeModel()
print person.first_name
# bryan
print person.furst_name
# bryan
print person.address
# .. AttributeError: No "matching" `address` attribute

23. # magic methods for evil
class specialint(int):
def __add__(self, right_other):
if self == 1 and right_other == 1:
return 3
return super(specialint, self).__add__(right_other)
print specialint(1) + 1
# 3
__builtins__.int = specialint
print int(1) + 1
# 3
print 1 + 1
# 2
# literals get coerced way before builtins are referenced... ¯_( )_/¯
# https://benkurtovic.com/2015/01/28/python-object-replacement.html
# http://blaag.haard.se/Using-the-AST-to-hack-constants-into-Python/

24. # ast / parser
import parser
tree = parser.expr('(a + 1) or {1: "test"}').tolist()
print tree
# [258, [327, [312, [313, [314, [315, [316, [317, [318, [7, '('] ..
# [ ... [3, '"test"'], [27, '}']], [4, ''], ...]
def recurse(val):
import token
if isinstance(val, int):
return token.tok_name.get(val, val)
elif isinstance(val, list):
return [recurse(v) for v in val]
return val
print recurse(tree)
# [258, [327, [312, [313, [314, [315, [316, [317, [318, [7, '('] ..
# [ ... ['STRING', '"test"'], ['RBRACE', '}']], ['NEWLINE', ''], ...]

25. # ast tools can be repurposed and practical
def pyson(val):
# JSON is lame. Eval is lame.
import ast
return ast.literal_eval(val)
print pyson('"hello world!"')
# hello world!
print pyson("{1234: 'integer keys!'}")
# {1234: 'integer keys!''}
print pyson('import json')
# ... SyntaxError: invalid syntax

26. # mini lisp calc
def tokenize(program):
return program.replace('(', ' ( ').replace(')', ' ) ').split()
def reshape_tokens(tokens):
token = tokens.pop(0)
if '(' == token:
deep_tokens = []
while tokens[0] != ')':
deep_tokens.append(reshape_tokens(tokens))
tokens.pop(0)
return deep_tokens
try: return int(token)
except: return token
program = '(* 2 (+ 3 5))'
print tokenize(program)
# ['(', '*', '2', '(', '+', '3', '5', ')', ')']
print reshape_tokens(tokenize(program))
# ['*', 2, ['+', 3, 5]]

27. # mini lisp calc continued
import operator
global_env = {'+': operator.add, '-': operator.sub,
'*': operator.mul, '/': operator.div}
def evaluate(tokens, env=global_env.copy()):
if isinstance(tokens, basestring) and tokens in env:
return env[tokens]
elif not isinstance(tokens, list):
return tokens
else:
func = evaluate(tokens[0], env)
args = [evaluate(arg, env) for arg in tokens[1:]]
return func(*args)
program = '(* 2 (+ 3 5))'
print evaluate(read_tokens(tokenize(program)))
# 16
# http://norvig.com/lispy.html & http://norvig.com/lispy2.html