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Copy-ready Python snippets by topic and difficulty — short, focused, and runnable in the browser editor.
How to Validate an Email Address and Raise ValueError in Python
This code defines a validate_email function that checks an email address against a regex pattern and several rules, raising ValueError with a specific reason when invalid.
import re
def validate_email(email: str) -> str:
"""Validate an email address and return it if valid, otherwise raise ValueError."""
if not isinstance(email, str):
raise ValueError("Email must be a string")
if len(email) > 254:
raise ValueError("Email length exceeds 254 characters")
#…
How to Wrap a Low Level Error in a Higher Level Exception in Python
Wrap low-level exceptions in a higher-level exception while preserving the original cause with the `from` keyword.
class LowLevelError(Exception):
pass
class HighLevelError(Exception):
pass
def low_level_operation():
raise LowLevelError("storage drive failed to respond")
def high_level_operation():
try:
low_level_operation()
except LowLevelError as e:
raise HighLevelError(f"database operation…
How to attach a request ID to exception messages in Python
This code shows how to enrich exception messages with contextual request IDs using context variables, making error logs more traceable across concurrent requests.
import logging
from contextvars import ContextVar
request_id_var = ContextVar("request_id", default="unknown")
def add_request_id(exc: Exception) -> Exception:
exc.args = (f"request_id={request_id_var.get()} | {exc.args[0]}" if exc.args else f"request_id={request_id_var.get()}",) + exc.args[1:]
return exc
d…
How to check for None and raise helpful errors in Python
A defensive function that explicitly validates data, keys, and values — raising descriptive ValueError and KeyError exceptions before returning a result.
def get_value(data, key):
if data is None:
raise ValueError("data cannot be None")
if key not in data:
raise KeyError(f"key '{key}' not found in data")
result = data[key]
if result is None:
raise ValueError(f"value for key '{key}' is None")
return result
if __name__ == "__…
How to define an exception hierarchy for domain errors in Python
Create a custom exception hierarchy with a base DomainError class and specific subclasses to handle validation, not-found, permission, and concurrency errors cleanly in Python apps.
class DomainError(Exception):
"""Base class for all domain errors."""
pass
class ValidationError(DomainError):
"""Raised when input data fails validation rules."""
pass
class NotFoundError(DomainError):
"""Raised when a requested entity does not exist."""
pass
class PermissionDeniedError(Dom…
How to handle ZeroDivisionError in Python
Wrap a division operation in try/except to return None or a friendly message instead of crashing when dividing by zero.
def safe_divide(a, b):
"""Return a/b if possible, else None when dividing by zero."""
try:
return a / b
except ZeroDivisionError:
return None
def safe_divide_with_message(a, b):
"""Return a how-to message on divide-by-zero error."""
try:
return a / b
except ZeroDivisio…
Implement a Context Manager That Suppresses Exceptions in Python
Shows how to write a custom context manager that catches specified exceptions and optionally re-raises others, plus the stdlib contextlib.suppress alternative.
import contextlib
class SuppressExceptions:
def __init__(self, *exceptions):
self.exceptions = exceptions
def __enter__(self):
return self
def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_val, exc_tb):
if exc_type is None:
return False
if not self.exceptions or exc_type in se…
Implement circuit breaker open after failures demo in Python
A minimal CircuitBreaker class that calls a function and automatically 'opens' after a set number of consecutive failures, blocking further calls with a RuntimeError.
import time
from datetime import datetime
class CircuitBreaker:
def __init__(self, threshold=3):
self.threshold = threshold
self.failure_count = 0
self.is_open = False
def call(self, func, *args, **kwargs):
if self.is_open:
raise RuntimeError("Circuit is OPEN")
…
Log to stderr with Python logging basicConfig
Configure Python's logging module to send all log messages to standard error (stderr) instead of the default stderr, with a readable timestamped format.
import logging
def main():
logging.basicConfig(
level=logging.DEBUG,
format="%(asctime)s — %(name)s — %(levelname)s — %(message)s",
stream=__import__("sys").stderr,
)
logger = logging.getLogger("example")
logger.debug("Debug message")
logger.info("Info message")
logger.…
Python dict try-except KeyError EAFP vs LBYL
Compare EAFP (try-except) and LBYL (if-in-check) styles for safely accessing dictionary keys, with working examples in Python.
def safe_get_lbyl(d, key):
if key in d:
return d[key]
return "default-lbyl"
def safe_get_eafp(d, key):
try:
return d[key]
except KeyError:
return "default-eafp"
if __name__ == "__main__":
data = {"name": "Alice", "age": 30}
print("LBYL:", safe_get_lbyl(data, "missing")…
Redact secrets from log message formatter in Python
Build a custom logging.Formatter that masks passwords, API keys, and credit card numbers in log output.
import re
import logging
class RedactingFormatter(logging.Formatter):
"""Formatter that masks sensitive data in log messages."""
SENSITIVE_PATTERNS = [
(re.compile(r'password[=:]\s*\S+', re.IGNORECASE), 'password=[REDACTED]'),
(re.compile(r'api[_-]?key[=:]\s*\S+', re.IGNORECASE), 'api_key…
Retry an Operation on ConnectionError in Python
Retries an unreliable operation a fixed number of times when it raises a transient ConnectionError, with a small delay between attempts.
import time
import random
def unreliable_operation():
"""Simulates an operation that throws ConnectionError occasionally."""
if random.random() < 0.6:
raise ConnectionError("Transient network failure")
return "Operation succeeded"
def retry_operation(attempts=4, delay=0.2):
"""Retries the o…
Try Except ValueError in Python: Handle Conversion Errors
Catch ValueError exceptions when converting strings to integers or performing arithmetic, returning None on failure instead of crashing.
def convert_to_int(value):
try:
return int(value)
except ValueError as error:
print(f"Conversion failed: {error}")
print(f"Problem value was: {repr(value)}")
return None
def divide_numbers(numerator, denominator):
try:
result = numerator / denominator
retur…
Use pprint for Nested Structure Debug Output in Python
Pretty-print nested dictionaries and lists with pprint for readable, organized debug output.
from pprint import pprint
def build_nested_structure():
"""Create a sample nested data structure for demonstration."""
return {
"project": "DataPipeline",
"config": {
"inputs": ["raw_1.json", "raw_2.json"],
"processing": {
"steps": ["clean", "transform",…
Audit File Permissions Across a Project in Python
Walks through every file and directory in a project tree and prints POSIX permissions plus owner UID.
import os
import stat
from pathlib import Path
def audit_file_permissions(project_root):
"""Walk through project_root and print path, owner, and permissions for every file."""
results = []
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(project_root):
for name in files + dirs:
full_path = os.path.joi…
Automatically Detect Corrupted Files Using SHA-256 Checksums in Python
Compute SHA-256 checksums of files and compare them to detect corruption in Python.
import hashlib
import os
def compute_sha256(filepath: str) -> str:
"""Compute SHA-256 checksum of a file."""
sha256 = hashlib.sha256()
with open(filepath, 'rb') as f:
for chunk in iter(lambda: f.read(4096), b''):
sha256.update(chunk)
return sha256.hexdigest()
def validate_file_int…
Automatically Highlight Data Validation Errors Inside Excel Files in Python
Load an Excel file with openpyxl, iterate over cells, and highlight invalid data (empty, negative) with a red fill and error message.
import openpyxl
from openpyxl.styles import PatternFill
from pathlib import Path
def highlight_validation_errors(filepath: str, output_path: str = None):
wb = openpyxl.load_workbook(filepath)
red_fill = PatternFill(start_color="FF0000", end_color="FF0000", fill_type="solid")
for sheet in wb.worksheet…
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.
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…
Build a Python Script That Detects and Deletes Empty Files Across Folders
A Python script that recursively finds and removes all zero-byte files across nested directories, returning a list of deleted paths.
import os
from pathlib import Path
def find_and_delete_empty_files(root_dir: str) -> list:
"""Find and delete all empty files under root_dir. Returns list of deleted paths."""
deleted = []
for file_path in Path(root_dir).rglob('*'):
if file_path.is_file() and file_path.stat().st_size == 0:
…
Build a Secure Local Password Vault with Encrypted Storage in Python
A Python class that stores and retrieves passwords in an encrypted JSON file using Fernet symmetric encryption from the cryptography library.
import json
import os
import base64
import hashlib
from cryptography.fernet import Fernet
from getpass import getpass
class PasswordVault:
def __init__(self, vault_file="vault.json", key_file="vault.key"):
self.vault_file = vault_file
self.key_file = key_file
self.key = self._load_or_creat…
Build a Simple ETL Pipeline in Python
A simple ETL pipeline that reads JSON Lines, transforms records with filtering and normalization, and writes the result to JSON.
import json
from pathlib import Path
def read_input(file_path: Path) -> list[dict]:
"""Read JSON lines file into list of dicts."""
with file_path.open("r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
return [json.loads(line) for line in f if line.strip()]
def transform(records: list[dict]) -> list[dict]:
"""Transf…
Chunk Large File Upload Simulation by Blocks in Python
A Python script reads a large binary file in fixed-size chunks and simulates a block-by-block upload with per-chunk SHA256 hashing.
import os
import hashlib
from pathlib import Path
def read_file_in_chunks(file_path, chunk_size=8196):
"""Yield chunks of a file as bytes."""
with open(file_path, 'rb') as f:
while chunk := f.read(chunk_size):
yield chunk
def simulate_chunked_upload(file_path, chunk_size=8196):
"""S…
Compare Two Folder Structures and Find Differences in Python
Walks two directories using os.walk, builds sets of relative paths, and prints items that exist in only one folder.
import os
def compare_folders(path1, path2):
"""
Compare the file/folder structure of two directories and print differences.
"""
def get_structure(root):
structure = set()
for dirpath, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(root):
rel_path = os.path.relpath(dirpath, root)
…
Compress and Extract ZIP Files Programmatically in Python
Create a ZIP archive with in-memory files and extract its contents to a directory using Python's stdlib zipfile and pathlib modules.
import zipfile
from pathlib import Path
import tempfile
import os
def create_sample_zip(zip_path: str, files: dict) -> None:
"""Create a ZIP file containing the given files (name -> content mapping)."""
with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_path, 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED) as zf:
for filename, content in files.ite…
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Guide: free Python code samples library
Copy-ready Python snippets for learners and developers
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- Pick a topic section — strings, lists, files, functions, and more
- Open a sample, read How it works, and copy the code block
- Run it in the IDE, tweak values, then take a related quiz or tutorial lesson
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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.