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Merge k sorted lists in Python using a heap
Merge k individually sorted lists into one sorted list in Python using a min-heap.
import heapq
def merge_k_sorted_lists(lists):
heap = []
# Push the first element of each list onto the heap
for i, lst in enumerate(lists):
if lst:
heapq.heappush(heap, (lst[0], i, 0))
result = []
while heap:
val, list_idx, elem_idx = heapq.heappop(heap)
re…Product of All Elements Except Self in Python
Given a list of integers, return a list where each element is the product of all other elements except itself, using prefix and suffix products in O(n) time and O(1) extra space.
def product_except_self(nums):
n = len(nums)
result = [1] * n
left_product = 1
for i in range(n):
result[i] = left_product
left_product *= nums[i]
right_product = 1
for i in range(n - 1, -1, -1):
result[i] *= right_product
right_product *= nums[i]
…Quickselect in Python: Find the kth Smallest Element
Python implementation of the Quickselect algorithm to find the kth smallest element in an unsorted list with average O(n) time complexity.
def quickselect(arr, k):
"""
Returns the k-th smallest element (0-indexed) using Quickselect.
Average: O(n), Worst: O(n^2)
"""
if len(arr) == 1:
return arr[0]
pivot = arr[-1]
left = [x for x in arr[:-1] if x <= pivot]
right = [x for x in arr[:-1] if x > pivot]
if k < len(l…Set Matrix Zeroes in Python: Markers List Grid Demo
Given a matrix, this code finds all rows and columns that contain a zero and sets every element in those rows and columns to zero, using boolean marker arrays.
def set_zeroes(matrix):
rows, cols = len(matrix), len(matrix[0])
row_markers = [False] * rows
col_markers = [False] * cols
# First pass: record which rows and columns contain zeros
for i in range(rows):
for j in range(cols):
if matrix[i][j] == 0:
row_markers[i] …Find Dead Code in a Python Project Using AST
Walk a project tree, parse every Python file with ast, and list defined functions that are never called anywhere.
import ast
import os
import sys
def find_dead_code(project_path):
defined_functions = {}
called_functions = set()
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(project_path):
for file in files:
if file.endswith('.py'):
filepath = os.path.join(root, file)
with open(f…Find Unused Python Packages Automatically
Scan a Python project's source files for imports and list installed packages not imported anywhere.
import pkg_resources
import ast
import os
import sys
from pathlib import Path
def find_imports_in_project(project_dir="."):
imports = set()
for py_file in Path(project_dir).rglob("*.py"):
try:
with open(py_file, "r") as f:
tree = ast.parse(f.read())
for node in …Generate Holiday Calendars for Different Countries in Python
Generate a sorted list of public holidays for a given country and year using Python's calendar and datetime modules.
import calendar
from datetime import date, timedelta
def generate_holiday_calendar(country_code, year=2025):
holidays = []
if country_code == "US":
# New Year's Day
holidays.append(date(year, 1, 1))
# Independence Day
holidays.append(date(year, 7, 4))
# Thanksgivin…How to Detect Applications Consuming Excessive Memory in Python
Use psutil to list the top memory-using processes by RSS and print their names, PIDs, and memory usage in MB.
import psutil
def find_top_memory_processes(limit=5):
"""Return top `limit` processes by memory usage (RSS)."""
processes = []
for proc in psutil.process_iter(['pid', 'name', 'memory_info']):
try:
info = proc.info
mem = info['memory_info'].rss if info['memory_info'] else 0…How to Detect Recently Installed Software in Python
Uses subprocess to call pip and parse package metadata to list recently installed Python packages.
import subprocess
import sys
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
def detect_recently_installed(days=7):
"""Detect recently installed software packages."""
recent_packages = []
cutoff_date = datetime.now() - timedelta(days=days)
try:
# For pip-installed packages (Python packages)
…How to Scan Open Ports on a Host with Python
A Python function that uses socket.connect_ex to check for open TCP ports on a given host within a range and returns a list of open ports.
import socket
def scan_ports(host, start_port, end_port):
open_ports = []
for port in range(start_port, end_port + 1):
sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
sock.settimeout(0.5)
result = sock.connect_ex((host, port))
if result == 0:
open_ports.app…How to Validate SSL Certificates for Multiple Domains in Python
A Python utility that checks SSL certificate expiry dates for a list of domains using the standard library ssl and socket modules.
import ssl
import socket
from datetime import datetime
def check_ssl_certificate(hostname: str, port: int = 443) -> dict:
"""Validate SSL certificate for a given hostname."""
context = ssl.create_default_context()
with socket.create_connection((hostname, port), timeout=5) as sock:
with context.wra…Pivot long to wide transformation dict
Transform a list of dictionaries from long format to wide format by pivoting on a key column and aggregating values, using pure Python.
def pivot_long_to_wide(rows, key_col, value_col, id_cols=None):
"""
Convert long-format data (list of dicts) to wide format.
Args:
rows: List of dicts in long format
key_col: Column name to pivot on (becomes new column headers)
value_col: Column name whose values become the cel…Generate Release Notes Markdown from PR Titles in Python
Generate structured Markdown release notes from a list of pull request titles using conventional commit types.
import json
from datetime import datetime, timezone
PRS = [
{"title": "feat: add user login", "number": 12, "merged_at": "2025-01-10"},
{"title": "fix: resolve payment timeout", "number": 13, "merged_at": "2025-01-11"},
{"title": "chore: bump dependencies", "number": 14, "merged_at": "2025-01-12"},
{"…How to generate and parse an interactive rebase TODO list in Python
Generate a Git interactive rebase TODO list from commit data and parse it back into structured records.
import re
from collections import namedtuple
Commit = namedtuple("Commit", ["hash", "subject"])
def generate_rebase_todo(commits, action="pick"):
todo_lines = []
for i, commit in enumerate(commits):
if i == 0 and action == "reword":
todo_lines.append(f"reword {commit.hash} {commit.subject…Python Script to Rotate a Leaked API Key
A checklist-driven Python script that scans a codebase for a leaked API key, replaces it with a new one, and prints a step-by-step rotation checklist.
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Checklist for rotating a leaked API key across a codebase."""
import re
from pathlib import Path
CHECKLIST = [
"Identify all files containing the leaked key",
"Generate a new key with sufficient entropy",
"Update the secret storage/CI environment variables",
"Replace the ol…Mock Google Pub/Sub publish and pull in Python
A lightweight in-memory mock of Google Pub/Sub with publisher/subscriber classes to test topic-based fan-out and message pulling without real infrastructure.
import json
import time
from collections import deque
from dataclasses import dataclass, field
from typing import Any, Callable
@dataclass
class Message:
data: str
attributes: dict[str, str] = field(default_factory=dict)
message_id: str | None = None
ack_id: str | None = None
class MockPublisher:
…Mock S3 List Objects Paginator in Python
This code implements a mock S3 paginator that yields pages of object keys, mimicking the behavior of boto3's list_objects_v2 paginator for local testing.
import json
from datetime import datetime, timezone
class MockS3Paginator:
"""A mock S3 list_objects_v2 paginator returning pages of keys."""
def __init__(self, bucket, all_keys, page_size=1000):
self.bucket = bucket
self.all_keys = all_keys
self.page_size = page_size
def pagina…Benchmark list.append vs deque.append in Python
Measures and compares the performance of appending to a Python list versus a collections.deque using timeit.repeat, showing best and average timings.
"""Benchmark list.append vs collections.deque.append."""
import timeit
def bench(stmt, setup, repeat=5, number=1_000_000):
times = timeit.repeat(stmt, setup=setup, repeat=repeat, number=number)
return min(times), sum(times) / len(times)
if __name__ == "__main__":
number = 1_000_000
list_best, list_a…How to Share Memory Between Processes in Python with multiprocessing.Value and Array
Share a numeric value and a list-like array across multiple Python processes using multiprocessing.Value and multiprocessing.Array, with each process modifying the same memory.
import multiprocessing
def worker(shared_value, shared_array, index):
shared_value.value += 10
shared_array[index] = shared_array[index] * 2
if __name__ == "__main__":
shared_value = multiprocessing.Value("i", 5)
shared_array = multiprocessing.Array("i", [1, 2, 3, 4, 5])
processes = []
for i…How to Share a Dict and List Between Processes with multiprocessing Manager in Python
This code demonstrates how to share a dictionary and a list between multiple processes using multiprocessing.Manager, enabling safe concurrent updates.
import multiprocessing as mp
def worker(shared_dict, shared_list, name):
shared_dict[name] = name.upper()
shared_list.append(name)
print(f"{name} added to shared structures")
def main():
with mp.Manager() as manager:
shared_dict = manager.dict()
shared_list = manager.list()
…How to Use ProcessPoolExecutor for CPU Parallel Map in Python
Run a function over a sequence of inputs in parallel across multiple CPU cores with ProcessPoolExecutor.map.
from concurrent.futures import ProcessPoolExecutor
import math
def compute_square(num):
return num * num
def is_prime(n):
if n < 2:
return False
for i in range(2, int(math.sqrt(n)) + 1):
if n % i == 0:
return False
return True
if __name__ == "__main__":
numbers = rang…How to Use multiprocessing Pool map and starmap in Python
Parallelize functions over iterables with Pool.map, and unpack multiple arguments via Pool.starmap.
from multiprocessing import Pool
def square(x):
return x * x
def add_and_multiply(a, b, c):
return (a + b) * c
if __name__ == "__main__":
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
with Pool(processes=2) as pool:
squares = pool.map(square, numbers)
print(f"squares: {squares}")
starmap_arg…Merge K Sorted Lists in Python with heapq
Merge k sorted lists into one sorted list in O(N log k) time using a min-heap of current elements.
import heapq
def merge_k_sorted_lists(lists):
heap = []
for i, lst in enumerate(lists):
if lst: # only push non-empty lists
heapq.heappush(heap, (lst[0], i, 0))
result = []
while heap:
val, list_idx, elem_idx = heapq.heappop(heap)
result.append(val)
if elem…How to Flag Unexpected Diff Changes in Python
Compares two snapshot lists, detects unexpected differences, and returns a flag indicating whether the snapshot should be updated.
import difflib
def snapshot_diff(before, after, intentional_changes=None):
"""Compare snapshots and flag only unexpected differences."""
intentional_changes = intentional_changes or set()
diff = list(difflib.unified_diff(before, after, lineterm=""))
has_unexpected = False
for line in diff:
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