Python: best_practices[2]

Write better Python code in the future.

Part 3 of our snippets and learning moments in Python.

Topics I recently remembered or picked up. Here is the recollection of all this posts:

Visual Studio Code [color scheme: Night Owl (No Italics)]

DEBUGGING

The process of solving a bug/error which takes up to 75% of your time.

Master debugging to master scripting.

"Frame: " + 1001

# Traceback (most recent call last):
#   File "/server/week_05.py", line 32, in <module>
#     "Frame: " + 1001
# TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'int' objects

# EXPLAIN
# [EXCEPTION] Code stops and the traceback prints out the interpreter issue
# [WHERE]     file path, line 32, module
# [WHAT]      TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'int' objects
#             Cannot combine (+) a string and an integer

SAME LINE STATEMENTS

Semicolons can be used to delimit statements (see C++, MEL, ...)

when you must put multiple statements in the same line.

# idiomatic
print("test")
print("works too")

# delimit statement
print("test"); print("works too")
# WARNING: Bad style!!!

# USE CASE: UI button commands
# A call needs to be converted into a multi statement string
# cmds.button(label="Start Tool", command="import tool; tool.start()")

ENUMERATE

Get the index and value of a sequence.

assets = ['mike', 'sulley', 'camera']
enum_assets = enumerate(assets)
# [(0, 'mike'), (1, 'sulley'), (2, 'camera')]

for index, value in enum_assets:
    assets[index] = value + '_001'

MULTI RETURN

Return multiple values (e.g. enumerate).

def get_type_task(file_name):
    file_split = file_name.split('_')
    return file_split[0], file_split[1]

file_name = 'char_mike_RIG_v001.ma'
group, asset = get_type_task(file_name)

SLICE

Limit a sequence with seq[first:last].

# slice list
assets = ["mike", "sulley", "announcer", "table"]
assets[1:3]       # ['sulley', 'announcer']

# slice string
character = "mike_001"
character[-3:]    # 001

WEBBROWSER

Opens anything in your default browser or OS.

import webbrowser

# WEBSITE
webbrowser.open("https://www.alexanderrichtertd.com")

# IMG & VIDEOS
webbrowser.open("/server/image.png")
webbrowser.open("/server/video.mp4")

# SCRIPTS | LOGS | ...
webbrowser.open("/server/script.py")

# DIRECTORIES
webbrowser.open("/server/project")

"" vs ''

There is no difference between double and single quotes but we careful mixing them.

# ERROR: without escape characters
print("Are you really a "Superhero"?")

# Typical: Integrate "" in ''
print('Are you really a "Superhero"?')
# Are you really a "Superhero"?

# Or integrate '' in ""
print("Are you really a 'Superhero'?")
# Are you really a 'Superhero'?

ESCAPE CHARACTERS

Backslash (\) allows escape characters with special meaning

e.g. newline (\n), backslash (\\), quote (\' or \")

# ERROR: without escape characters
print("Are you really a "Superhero"?")

# Alternative: Mixing '' and ""
print('Are you really a "Superhero"?')

# Quotations
print('Are you really a \'Superhero\'?')
print("Are you really a \"Superhero\"?")

# Add newline between two sentences
# n is an escape character and will not be displayed as \n
print("Hello?\nCan you read this?")
# Hello?
# Can you read this?

- Alex

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