Reference library

Python Code Samples

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

57 matches
Files & data medium

Find Duplicate Web Pages by Content Similarity in Python

Compute SHA-256 hashes of file contents to detect and report duplicate HTML pages or any files in a directory.

duplicate-detection hashing sha256
Python
import hashlib
import os
from collections import defaultdict

def get_file_hash(filepath):
    """Compute SHA-256 hash of file contents."""
    sha256 = hashlib.sha256()
    with open(filepath, 'rb') as f:
        for chunk in iter(lambda: f.read(4096), b''):
            sha256.update(chunk)
    return sha256.hexdiges…
47 0 Open
Files & data medium

How to Atomically Write Files in Python with Temp File and Rename

Write a file atomically using a temporary file and os.replace so readers never see partial writes even if the process crashes mid-write.

atomic-write tempfile fsync
Python
import os
import tempfile
from pathlib import Path

def atomic_write(path: str | Path, content: str) -> None:
    """Write content to path atomically using a temp file and rename."""
    path = Path(path)
    path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

    fd, temp_path = tempfile.mkstemp(
        dir=str(path.par…
17 0 Open
Files & data medium

How to Build a CSV Comparison Tool That Highlights Every Changed Cell in Python

Read two CSV files with DictReader, compare cell by cell, and return a list of dictionaries describing each changed cell using only the standard library.

csv comparison diff
Python
import csv
from pathlib import Path

def csv_cell_diff(file_a: str, file_b: str) -> list[dict]:
    rows_a = list(csv.DictReader(Path(file_a).open('r', newline='')))
    rows_b = list(csv.DictReader(Path(file_b).open('r', newline='')))
    if not rows_a or not rows_b:
        return []
    columns = list(rows_a[0].key…
41 0 Open
Files & data medium

How to Generate Beautiful QR Codes with Embedded Logos in Python

Generate a high-error-correction QR code and paste a logo image in the center to create a branded, scannable QR code.

qrcode qrcode-generation pillow
Python
import qrcode
from PIL import Image

def generate_qr_with_logo(data, logo_path, output_path):
    qr = qrcode.QRCode(
        version=1,
        error_correction=qrcode.constants.ERROR_CORRECT_H,
        box_size=10,
        border=4,
    )
    qr.add_data(data)
    qr.make(fit=True)

    qr_img = qr.make_image(fill_c…
52 0 Open
Files & data medium

How to Merge Sorted Chunk Files in Python

Merge multiple sorted text files into one sorted output file using a heap for efficient k-way merging.

heapq merge-sort external-sort
Python
import heapq


def merge_sorted_chunks(chunks, output_path):
    """Merge multiple sorted iterables into single sorted output file."""
    with open(output_path, "w") as out_f:
        # Open all chunk files
        handles = [open(chunk, "r") for chunk in chunks]
        try:
            # Heap of (value, index) tupl…
14 0 Open
Files & data medium

How to Stream Large CSV Files in Python

Process a large CSV file in memory-efficient chunks using Python's csv module, yielding batches of rows instead of loading everything at once.

csv streaming memory-efficient
Python
import csv
from pathlib import Path

def process_csv_in_chunks(file_path, chunk_size=1000):
    """Yield rows from a large CSV file in chunks without loading all into memory."""
    with open(file_path, 'r', newline='') as f:
        reader = csv.DictReader(f)
        chunk = []
        for row in reader:
            …
12 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

Automatically Generate Charts from CSV Files with One Command

Read a CSV file with headers, extract the first two numeric columns, and save a matplotlib line chart as a PNG image.

csv matplotlib charting
Python
import csv
import sys
from pathlib import Path
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def generate_chart(csv_path: str) -> None:
    """Read a CSV file with headers and plot the first two numeric columns."""
    data = []
    with open(csv_path, 'r', newline='') as f:
        reader = csv.reader(f)
        headers = next(re…
65 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

Build a Network Ping Monitor in Python

A Python script that continuously pings a remote host using subprocess and reports connectivity status with timestamps and latency.

ping network monitoring
Python
import subprocess
import time

def ping_host(host, count=4):
    """Ping a host and return the results."""
    try:
        # Platform-independent ping command
        cmd = ["ping", "-c", str(count), host]
        result = subprocess.run(cmd, capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=10)
        return result.stdout, r…
94 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

Build a Terminal Dashboard That Displays Real-Time System Performance in Python

A Python script that reads Linux system files to display a real-time terminal dashboard with CPU usage, memory usage, and CPU temperature.

linux system-monitoring terminal
Python
import os, time, sys
from collections import deque

def get_cpu_temp():
    try:
        with open("/sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp") as f:
            return round(int(f.read().strip()) / 1000, 1)
    except:
        return None

def get_mem_usage():
    with open("/proc/meminfo") as f:
        lines = f.readli…
42 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

Detect and Remove Blurry Images in Python with OpenCV

Automatically scan a directory of images, detect blur using Laplacian variance, and remove blurry images with a dry-run option for safety.

opencv image-processing automation
Python
from pathlib import Path
import cv2
import numpy as np

def is_blurry(image_path, threshold=100.0):
    """
    Detect if an image is blurry using Laplacian variance.
    Returns True if blurry, False otherwise.
    """
    img = cv2.imread(str(image_path), cv2.IMREAD_GRAYSCALE)
    if img is None:
        return True…
48 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

Find Zombie Processes on Linux with Python

Parse the output of `ps -eo pid,stat,comm` to detect processes in zombie state (Z) on a Linux system and report their PIDs and commands.

linux process monitoring
Python
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os
import subprocess

def find_zombie_processes():
    """Find zombie processes (state 'Z') running on Linux."""
    try:
        result = subprocess.run(['ps', '-eo', 'pid,stat,comm'], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True)
        zombies = []
        for line in result.stdout.stri…
38 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

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.

psutil memory monitoring
Python
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…
36 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

How to Detect Recently Installed Software in Python

Uses subprocess to call pip and parse package metadata to list recently installed Python packages.

pip subprocess automation
Python
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)
    …
36 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

How to Monitor USB Device Connections in Python

A Python utility that monitors USB device connections and disconnections by comparing output of the lsusb command at regular intervals.

usb monitoring subprocess
Python
import time
import subprocess
import os

def get_usb_devices():
    """Return list of currently connected USB devices (Linux)."""
    try:
        result = subprocess.run(['lsusb'], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True)
        return result.stdout.strip().split('\n')
    except (subprocess.CalledProcessError, F…
43 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

How to Ping Multiple Hosts in Parallel with Python ThreadPoolExecutor

A parallel host-pinging script using ThreadPoolExecutor and subprocess to check connectivity across multiple addresses concurrently.

thread-pool subprocess ping
Python
import subprocess
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
from pathlib import Path

HOSTS = [
    "google.com",
    "github.com",
    "stackoverflow.com",
    "nonexistent.invalid",
    "localhost",
]

def ping_host(host: str) -> str:
    """Ping a single host and return a status string."""
    result = subp…
12 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

How to Run Tesseract OCR from Python with subprocess

This script uses Python's subprocess module to invoke the Tesseract OCR engine from the command line and return the extracted text.

subprocess ocr tesseract
Python
import subprocess

def ocr_image(image_path):
    command = ["tesseract", image_path, "stdout"]
    result = subprocess.run(command, capture_output=True, text=True)
    return result.stdout.strip()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Stub: call the actual tesseract (must be installed)
    text = ocr_image("sample.png")
…
12 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

How to apply Kubernetes YAML files from a folder in Python

Uses the Kubernetes Python client to apply all YAML manifests in a directory, with sorted processing and per-file error handling.

kubernetes yaml automation
Python
import os
import yaml
from kubernetes import client, config
from kubernetes.utils import create_from_yaml

def apply_yaml_folder(folder_path):
    """Apply all YAML files in a folder using the Kubernetes mock client."""
    # Load mock configuration
    config.load_kube_config()
    k8s_client = client.ApiClient()

  …
12 0 Open
Automation & scripting medium

Track Internet Connectivity and Downtime Automatically in Python

Monitors internet connectivity by pinging a remote host and logs any downtime events with timestamps and duration.

internet connectivity monitoring
Python
import time
import subprocess
from datetime import datetime

def check_internet(host="8.8.8.8", timeout=3):
    """Returns True if internet is reachable via ping."""
    try:
        subprocess.run(
            ["ping", "-c", "1", "-W", str(timeout), host],
            capture_output=True,
            timeout=timeout …
39 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing medium

Build a Python Utility That Detects Duplicate Records Across Multiple Excel Sheets

A Python utility that uses pandas to find overlapping records across different Excel sheets based on specified key columns.

pandas excel data cleaning
Python
import pandas as pd
from pathlib import Path

def find_duplicate_records_across_sheets(file_path: str, key_columns: list, sheet_names: list) -> dict:
    """
    Detect duplicate records across multiple Excel sheets based on specified key columns.
    
    Args:
        file_path: Path to the Excel file
        key_co…
46 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing medium

How to Stream a Large JSONL File Line by Line in Python

Process a large JSON-lines file incrementally using streaming techniques to avoid loading the entire file into memory.

streaming jsonl large-files
Python
import json

def process_large_file(filepath, chunk_size=8192):
    """
    Stream a large JSON-lines file line by line, processing each record
    without loading the entire file into memory.
    """
    total_count = 0
    total_sum = 0
    
    with open(filepath, 'r') as f:
        while True:
            chunk = …
13 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing medium

Map Partition Over Chunks in Python with Multiprocessing and Mock

Process data in chunks across multiple CPU cores using multiprocessing Pool.map, and mock the chunk function to test partitioning behavior without heavy computation.

multiprocessing chunking parallel
Python
from multiprocessing import Pool
from unittest.mock import patch, Mock

def process_chunk(chunk):
    return [x * x for x in chunk]

def map_partition_over_chunks(data, chunk_size, process_func=process_chunk):
    chunks = [data[i:i + chunk_size] for i in range(0, len(data), chunk_size)]
    with Pool() as pool:
     …
12 0 Open
Git + Python medium

Find the Commit That Introduced a String in Git History Using Python

Use git log -S with Python subprocess to find the earliest commit that introduced a specific string across your repository history.

git subprocess repository
Python
import subprocess
import sys


def find_introducing_commit(repo_path: str, search_string: str, file_glob: str = "*") -> str:
    """Find the first commit that introduced a given string in a git repository."""
    result = subprocess.run(
        ["git", "-C", repo_path, "log", "--all", "--oneline", "-S", search_string…
12 0 Open
Git + Python medium

How to Generate Release Notes from Git Commit Messages in Python

This script fetches recent Git commit messages using conventional commit prefixes (feat, fix, etc.), categorizes them, and prints formatted release notes with today's date.

git release-notes automation
Python
import subprocess
import re
from datetime import datetime

def get_git_log(since_tag="HEAD~10", format_str="%s"):
    """Retrieve commit messages from git log."""
    try:
        result = subprocess.run(
            ["git", "log", f"--since={since_tag}", f"--format={format_str}"],
            capture_output=True,
   …
49 0 Open
Git + Python medium

How to Get Current Git Branch Name in Python with Mock Subprocess

Mocks the subprocess call to reliably test the current git branch name retrieval using GitPython.

git gitpython subprocess
Python
import subprocess
from unittest.mock import patch, MagicMock
from git import Repo
import os


def get_current_branch(repo_path="."):
    """Get the current branch name of a git repository."""
    repo = Repo(repo_path)
    return repo.active_branch.name


if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Mock subprocess to control the…
12 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.