Reference library

Python Code Samples

Easy snippets you can copy, study, and run in the browser editor.

22 matches
Files & data easy

Build a File Index by Relative Path Hash Map in Python

Recursively walk a directory and map normalized relative paths to absolute file paths using a defaultdict hash map.

os.walk file-index defaultdict
Python
import os
from collections import defaultdict


def build_file_index(root_dir):
    index = defaultdict(list)

    for dirpath, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(root_dir):
        for filename in filenames:
            full_path = os.path.join(dirpath, filename)
            relative_path = os.path.relpath(full_path, roo…
18 0 Open
Files & data easy

Generate Timesheet Reports from Daily Logs in Python

Aggregate daily log entries by project and produce a formatted timesheet report using Python's standard library.

timesheet reporting aggregation
Python
import json
from pathlib import Path
from collections import defaultdict

def generate_timesheet_report(daily_logs: list[dict]) -> str:
    """
    Generate a timesheet report from daily log entries.
    
    Args:
        daily_logs: List of dicts with 'date', 'project', 'hours', 'task' keys
    
    Returns:
       …
45 0 Open
Files & data easy

How to Sum a CSV Column by Group in Python

This code reads a CSV string and sums a specified column for each unique value of a group key using the csv module and defaultdict.

csv aggregation data-summary
Python
import csv
from collections import defaultdict
from io import StringIO

def aggregate_csv(csv_data, group_key, sum_column):
    totals = defaultdict(float)
    reader = csv.DictReader(StringIO(csv_data))
    for row in reader:
        key = row[group_key]
        totals[key] += float(row[sum_column])
    return dict(t…
12 0 Open
Dictionaries & sets easy

Build a defaultdict histogram of categories in Python

Count occurrences of each category in a list using collections.defaultdict(int) for automatic initialization.

defaultdict histogram collections
Python
from collections import defaultdict

def build_category_histogram(items):
    """Count occurrences of each category in a list of items."""
    histogram = defaultdict(int)
    for item in items:
        histogram[item] += 1
    return dict(histogram)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    categories = ["fruit", "vegetable", …
10 0 Open
Dictionaries & sets easy

How to Count Co-occurrence Pairs in Python with Nested Dictionaries

This code counts how often any two items appear together in the same group, using a nested defaultdict keyed by item pairs.

dictionaries co-occurrence counter
Python
from itertools import combinations
from collections import defaultdict

def count_cooccurrences(items_per_group):
    cooccurrence = defaultdict(lambda: defaultdict(int))
    for group in items_per_group:
        for a, b in combinations(sorted(group), 2):
            cooccurrence[a][b] += 1
            cooccurrence[b…
12 0 Open
Dictionaries & sets easy

How to Extract Data by Category in Python with Dictionaries and Sets

Use set comprehensions and a defaultdict to extract product names by category and compute total prices per category from a list of dictionaries.

dictionaries sets comprehensions
Python
from collections import defaultdict

# Sample data: products with categories and prices
product_data = [
    {"name": "Apple", "category": "fruit", "price": 0.50},
    {"name": "Banana", "category": "fruit", "price": 0.30},
    {"name": "Carrot", "category": "vegetable", "price": 0.80},
    {"name": "Bread", "category…
12 0 Open
Dictionaries & sets easy

How to Parse Data Into Dictionaries and Sets in Python

Parses raw student strings into a dictionary of lists and finds unique courses using a set.

dictionary set defaultdict
Python
from collections import defaultdict

def parse_students(raw_data):
    """Parse raw student strings into a dictionary of lists."""
    parsed = defaultdict(list)
    for entry in raw_data:
        name, _, course = entry.partition(":")
        parsed[course.strip()].append(name.strip())
    return dict(parsed)

def fi…
12 0 Open
Dictionaries & sets easy

How to Use defaultdict(list) to Group Words by First Letter in Python

This code groups a list of words by their first letter using a defaultdict with a list factory, then prints each group sorted by initial.

defaultdict grouping dictionaries
Python
from collections import defaultdict

def group_by_initial(words):
    groups = defaultdict(list)
    for word in words:
        groups[word[0].upper()].append(word)
    return dict(groups)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    words = ["apple", "banana", "apricot", "blueberry", "cherry"]
    result = group_by_initial(words)…
13 0 Open
Dictionaries & sets easy

How to Use defaultdict(set) in Python to Group Unique Values

Group key-value pairs into a dictionary of sets, automatically creating a new set for each key using defaultdict.

defaultdict sets dictionaries
Python
from collections import defaultdict

def track_groups(pairs):
    groups = defaultdict(set)
    for key, value in pairs:
        groups[key].add(value)
    return groups

if __name__ == "__main__":
    data = [
        ("fruit", "apple"),
        ("fruit", "banana"),
        ("fruit", "apple"),
        ("veg", "carrot…
15 0 Open
Comprehensions & generators easy

How to Group Data in Python with defaultdict and Comprehensions

Group a list of items by a computed key using a defaultdict-based generator helper and an alternative dictionary comprehension approach.

grouping defaultdict comprehensions
Python
from collections import defaultdict

def group_by(data, key_func):
    """Group items in data by the value returned by key_func."""
    result = defaultdict(list)
    for item in data:
        result[key_func(item)].append(item)
    return dict(result)

def group_by_comprehension(data, key_func):
    """Same grouping …
15 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

Fan Out Records to Multiple Sinks in Python

Distribute the same records across multiple target sinks (database, API, queue, etc.) using a defaultdict-based fan-out pattern.

fan-out defaultdict records
Python
import json
from collections import defaultdict

SINKS = ["database", "api", "message_queue", "data_lake", "monitoring"]

def fan_out(records, *sinks):
    dist = defaultdict(list)
    for record in records:
        for sink in sinks:
            dist[sink].append(record)
    return dict(dist)

if __name__ == "__main_…
12 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Group Data by Key in Python

Group a list of dictionaries by a specified key using a defaultdict and compute per-group averages.

grouping defaultdict data-pipelines
Python
from collections import defaultdict

def group_by_key(data, key):
    grouped = defaultdict(list)
    for item in data:
        grouped[item[key]].append(item)
    return dict(grouped)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    records = [
        {"name": "Alice", "dept": "Engineering", "score": 85},
        {"name": "Bob", "de…
15 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Group Rows by Key into Nested Arrays in Python

This code groups rows in a list of dictionaries by a specified key and returns a dictionary with each key mapped to a list of values from another key.

grouping defaultdict data-aggregation
Python
from collections import defaultdict


def implode_rows(rows, key, value_key):
    grouped = defaultdict(list)
    for row in rows:
        grouped[row[key]].append(row[value_key])
    return dict(grouped)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    data = [
        {"category": "fruit", "item": "apple"},
        {"category": "fr…
14 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Partition Output Files by Date Key in Python

Group output files into a dictionary partitioned by a YYYYMMDD date key extracted from the filename prefix.

file-partitioning date-key pathlib
Python
from pathlib import Path
from collections import defaultdict

def partition_files_by_date(directory: str) -> dict:
    """Partition output files by date key extracted from filename (YYYYMMDD prefix)."""
    path = Path(directory)
    partitions = defaultdict(list)
    
    for file in path.iterdir():
        if file.i…
14 0 Open
System design patterns easy

How to Aggregate Mock API Routes by Method in Python

Groups mock API routes by path and method, collecting response bodies and counts into a nested dictionary structure.

defaultdict api-gateway aggregation
Python
from collections import defaultdict


def aggregate_mock_routes(routes):
    """Aggregate mock API routes by method and aggregate their response bodies."""
    aggregated = defaultdict(lambda: defaultdict(list))

    for route in routes:
        method = route["method"]
        path = route["path"]
        response = …
13 0 Open
System design patterns easy

How to Implement a Simple Event Bus in Python

Create a publish-subscribe event bus using dataclasses and defaultdict to decouple event producers from consumers.

event-bus publish-subscribe design-patterns
Python
from collections import defaultdict
from dataclasses import dataclass, field
from typing import Callable, Dict, List, Set


@dataclass
class EventBus:
    _subscribers: Dict[str, List[Callable]] = field(
        default_factory=lambda: defaultdict(list)
    )

    def subscribe(self, event_type: str, handler: Callable…
15 0 Open
Streaming & messaging easy

How to Mock Kafka Topic Partitions with a Python dict of lists

Mocks a Kafka topic and its partitions using a defaultdict of lists to simulate message production, consumption, and per-partition counts.

kafka mock partitions
Python
from collections import defaultdict

class KafkaTopicPartitionMock:
    """A simple mock for Kafka topic-partition assignment using dict of lists."""

    def __init__(self, topic):
        self.topic = topic
        self.partitions = defaultdict(list)  # partition_id -> list of messages

    def produce(self, message…
15 0 Open
Streaming & messaging easy

How to Partition and Order Kafka-Style Messages by Key in Python

Group messages with the same key into ordered buckets using hashing and a defaultdict, mimicking Kafka partition ordering.

streaming partitioning kafka-pattern
Python
from dataclasses import dataclass
from collections import defaultdict

@dataclass
class Message:
    key: str
    content: str

def partition_and_order(messages, num_partitions=3):
    partitions = defaultdict(list)
    for msg in messages:
        partition_id = hash(msg.key) % num_partitions
        partitions[parti…
14 0 Open
Reliability & rate limiting easy

Rate Limit per User ID in Python with a Dict Mock

Implements a simple sliding window rate limiter using a defaultdict of timestamps per user ID, blocking requests that exceed a max count within a time window.

rate-limiting defaultdict sliding-window
Python
import time
from collections import defaultdict


class RateLimiter:
    def __init__(self, max_requests, window_seconds):
        self.max_requests = max_requests
        self.window_seconds = window_seconds
        self.user_timestamps = defaultdict(list)

    def allow_request(self, user_id):
        now = time.tim…
14 0 Open
Big data & Spark easy

How to Implement collect_list in Python

Group rows by a key and collect all corresponding values into a list — a pure-Python mock of Spark's collect_list aggregation.

collect_list aggregation grouping
Python
from collections import defaultdict

def collect_list(rows, key_field, value_field):
    grouped = defaultdict(list)
    for row in rows:
        grouped[row[key_field]].append(row[value_field])
    return dict(grouped)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    data = [
        {"dept": "sales", "emp": "alice"},
        {"dept"…
15 0 Open
Big data & Spark easy

How to Pivot and Group Aggregate in Python

Group records by a key, collect values, and apply an aggregate function (like sum) to build a pivot-style summary dictionary.

pivot group-by aggregation
Python
from collections import defaultdict

def pivot_group_aggregate(records, group_key, value_key, agg_func):
    groups = defaultdict(list)
    for record in records:
        groups[record[group_key]].append(record[value_key])
    return {key: agg_func(values) for key, values in groups.items()}

if __name__ == "__main__":…
13 0 Open
ML engineering pipelines easy

How to Build a Mock Offline Feature Store in Python

Build an in-memory mock of an offline feature store with a dict-based FeatureStore class for storing and retrieving ML features by entity ID.

feature-store ml-pipeline mock
Python
from datetime import datetime
from collections import defaultdict


class FeatureStore:
    """Simple in-memory mock of an offline feature store."""

    def __init__(self):
        self._features = defaultdict(dict)

    def ingest(self, entity_id, feature_name, value, timestamp=None):
        ts = timestamp or datet…
14 0 Open

Browse by section

Each section groups closely related Python snippets.

Guide: free Python code samples library

Copy-ready Python snippets for learners and developers

PythonSkillset code samples are short, focused examples organised by topic and difficulty. Every snippet is server-rendered HTML — readable by search engines and easy to copy. Open any sample, read the notes, copy the code, then press Try in editor to run it in the browser with Pyodide.

How to use this library

  1. Pick a topic section — strings, lists, files, functions, and more
  2. Open a sample, read How it works, and copy the code block
  3. Run it in the IDE, tweak values, then take a related quiz or tutorial lesson

Samples vs tutorials and challenges

Samples are quick reference — one concept per page. For step-by-step teaching, use our Python tutorials. To test yourself, try quizzes or coding challenges. Clean up style with the Python formatter.