Reference library

Python Code Samples

Copy-ready Python snippets by topic and difficulty — short, focused, and runnable in the browser editor.

506 matches
Automation & scripting medium

Python: Archive Old Logs by Compressing Gzip by Age

A Python script that finds .log files older than a specified age and compresses them into .gz archives while removing the originals.

gzip log-rotation automation
Python
import gzip
import os
import shutil
from pathlib import Path


def archive_logs(log_dir: str, max_age_days: int) -> list[str]:
    """Compress log files older than max_age_days into .gz archives.
    
    Returns a list of compressed file paths.
    """
    cutoff = time.time() - max_age_days * 86400
    compressed = …
15 0 Open
Automation & scripting easy

Stress CPU Threads with a Mock Compute in Python

Simulates CPU-intensive work across multiple threads to test how Python schedules parallel compute.

threading cpu-stress parallelism
Python
import threading
import time


def stress_cpu(iterations: int):
    result = 0
    for i in range(iterations):
        result += i * i % 1000
    return result


def run_mock_stress(thread_count: int, iterations: int):
    threads = []
    for tid in range(thread_count):
        t = threading.Thread(target=lambda: str…
13 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 …
40 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

Attach Source File Metadata to Records in Python

Add a source filename field to each record in a list by merging a new key into every dictionary using a dict unpacking comprehension.

lineage metadata dict-unpacking
Python
from pathlib import Path
import json

def attach_source_metadata(records, source_file):
    """Attach source filename metadata to each record."""
    return [
        {**record, "source": Path(source_file).name}
        for record in records
    ]

if __name__ == "__main__":
    source = "/data/raw/customers.csv"
    …
20 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

Create Data Helper Functions in Python for Beginners

Build reusable Python helper functions to load, filter, sort, summarize, and save JSON data — a beginner-friendly starting point for small data pipelines.

json pipeline helpers
Python
import json
from pathlib import Path
from typing import Any, Dict, List


def load_json_file(filepath: str) -> Dict[str, Any]:
    """Load JSON data from a file."""
    with Path(filepath).open("r", encoding="utf-8") as file:
        return json.load(file)


def filter_by_key(
    data: List[Dict[str, Any]], key: str,…
17 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

Generate a Deterministic Hash for Deduplication in Python

Create a stable SHA-256 fingerprint from nested data and file contents to deduplicate records in a data pipeline.

hashing deduplication sha256
Python
import hashlib
import json
from pathlib import Path

def natural_key_hash(data, salt=""):
    """
    Generate a deterministic fingerprint from raw data (dict/list/str).
    Uses JSON canonical-ish serialization with sorted keys and SHA-256.
    """
    canonical = json.dumps(data, sort_keys=True, separators=(",", ":"…
16 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

Group Python Events into Sessions with a Gap Timeout

Groups timestamped events into sessions, starting a new session when the time gap exceeds a specified timeout.

sessions grouping datetime
Python
from itertools import groupby
from datetime import datetime, timedelta

def session_window_group(events, gap_seconds=300):
    """Group events into sessions where gap > gap_seconds starts a new session."""
    if not events:
        return []
    
    events = sorted(events, key=lambda x: x[0])
    sessions = []
    c…
16 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Compress Pipeline Output Gzip Per Partition in Python

Compress each partition of pipeline output into a separate gzip file and verify the compressed data by reading it back.

gzip compression pipeline
Python
import gzip
import io
import random
from pathlib import Path


def compress_partition(partition_data: list[str], output_path: Path) -> int:
    """Compress a partition of data to a gzip file, returns bytes written."""
    with gzip.open(output_path, 'wt', encoding='utf-8') as f:
        f.writelines(partition_data)
  …
14 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Convert Data Types in a Python Data Pipeline

Demonstrates a simple Python data pipeline that converts string values to proper types (bool, int, float, datetime) and outputs structured JSON.

data-pipeline type-conversion json
Python
import json
from datetime import datetime

def convert_value(value):
    """Convert string values to appropriate Python types."""
    if value.lower() == "true":
        return True
    if value.lower() == "false":
        return False
    if value.isdigit():
        return int(value)
    try:
        return float(val…
13 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing medium

How to Count Events by Minute with a Tumbling Window in Python

Group timestamps into fixed 60-second tumbling windows and count events per bucket using a dict.

datetime grouping time-window
Python
from collections import defaultdict
from datetime import datetime, timedelta


def tumbling_window_count(events, window_seconds=60):
    buckets = defaultdict(int)
    for event in events:
        ts = datetime.fromisoformat(event["timestamp"])
        bucket_start = ts - timedelta(seconds=ts.second % window_seconds,
…
14 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Explode an Array Field into Multiple Rows in Python

This code flattens a list of dictionaries by exploding each array field value into its own row, duplicating the other fields as needed.

data transformation arrays flattening
Python
from collections import defaultdict

data = [
    {"id": 1, "name": "Alice", "tags": ["python", "data", "ai"]},
    {"id": 2, "name": "Bob", "tags": ["web", "devops"]},
    {"id": 3, "name": "Carol", "tags": []},
]

def explode_array_field(records, array_field):
    result = []
    for record in records:
        for v…
11 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…
15 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Implement Incremental Load with Watermark by updated_at in Python

Load only new or changed rows into SQLite by comparing an updated_at timestamp against a stored watermark, returning counts and the new watermark.

incremental-load watermark sqlite
Python
import sqlite3
from datetime import datetime, timedelta


def watermark_incremental_load(db_path, table_name, last_watermark, source_data):
    """Load only rows with updated_at greater than the last watermark."""
    conn = sqlite3.connect(db_path)
    cursor = conn.cursor()

    # Create table if it doesn't exist
  …
13 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Merge Incremental Snapshot Upsert Dict in Python

Merge a snapshot dict into a base dict, recursively updating nested dictionaries while preferring snapshot values on conflicts.

dict merge upsert
Python
def merge_upsert(base: dict, snapshot: dict) -> dict:
    """
    Merge a snapshot dict into a base dict, preferring snapshot values 
    on key conflicts (upsert semantics). Nested dicts are merged recursively.
    """
    result = dict(base)
    
    for key, value in snapshot.items():
        if key in result and i…
15 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Merge Multiple Data Sources in Python

A beginner-friendly helper that merges lists of dictionaries from multiple sources into one combined list using key filtering.

merge pipelines dicts
Python
import json

def merge_pipeline_data(*data_sources, keys=()):
    """Merge multiple data sources (list of dicts) into a single list of merged dicts.
    
    Args:
        *data_sources: One or more lists of dictionaries.
        keys: Tuple of keys to include from each source (empty means all keys).
    Returns:
    …
16 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…
15 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Reduce Aggregate Counts from Mapped Chunks in Python

Combine a list of mapped chunk dictionaries into a single aggregated count dictionary using functools.reduce.

reduce aggregation dictionary
Python
from functools import reduce
from collections import defaultdict

def aggregate_chunks(mapped_chunks):
    """Combine mapped chunk counts into a single aggregate dict."""
    return reduce(
        lambda acc, chunk: {
            **acc,
            **{k: acc.get(k, 0) + v for k, v in chunk.items()}
        },
       …
15 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Safely Coerce Strings to Numbers in Python

A safe conversion function that turns strings into integers or floats, returning a fallback value when conversion fails.

type-conversion robust-parsing data-cleaning
Python
import math

def to_number(value, fallback=None):
    """Safely coerce a string to int or float, returning fallback on failure."""
    if isinstance(value, (int, float)):
        return value
    try:
        # Try int first for clean whole numbers
        return int(value)
    except (ValueError, TypeError):
        …
13 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 = …
14 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Track Checkpoint Offset After Batch Commit in Python

A batch processor that tracks the last successfully committed offset after processing records in batches, advancing the checkpoint only when each batch commits successfully.

batch-processing checkpoint offset
Python
import json
from typing import Any


class BatchProcessor:
    """Tracks checkpoint offset after committing batches."""

    def __init__(self, batch_size: int = 3):
        self.batch_size = batch_size
        self.offset = 0  # last successfully committed offset (exclusive)
        self.total_committed = 0

    def …
13 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Unpivot Wide to Long with pandas melt in Python

This code demonstrates how to use pandas.melt to unpivot a wide DataFrame into a tidy long format, converting subject columns into rows.

pandas melt reshape
Python
import pandas as pd

# Sample wide-format data
df_wide = pd.DataFrame({
    'id': [1, 2, 3],
    'name': ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Charlie'],
    'math': [90, 85, 95],
    'science': [80, 92, 88]
})

print("Original wide DataFrame:")
print(df_wide)

# Melt: unpivot subject columns into rows
df_long = pd.melt(
    df_wide,
   …
17 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to Validate Data in a Python Pipeline

A helper module to validate common record types — email, positive integer, and non-empty string list — before processing data in a pipeline.

data-validation pipelines type-checking
Python
from typing import Any, Iterable


def is_valid_email(email: str) -> bool:
    """Basic email check: one '@', no spaces, dot after '@'."""
    if "@" not in email or " " in email:
        return False
    local, _, domain = email.partition("@")
    return bool(local) and "." in domain


def is_positive_int(value: Any)…
13 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

How to route late-arriving data to a side output in Python

Separate late-arriving events from a streaming data batch into a dead-letter side output list using a timestamp threshold.

data pipelines streaming dead-letter
Python
from collections import defaultdict

def late_arriving_side_output(events, late_threshold_ts):
    """
    Mock a streaming pipeline that separates late-arriving data events
    into a side output list (e.g., for dead-letter analysis).

    events: list of (timestamp, data) tuples, timestamps as ints.
    late_thresho…
14 0 Open
Data pipelines & processing easy

Pipeline stage compose functions left to right in Python

Compose multiple functions into a left-to-right pipeline so each stage receives the output of the previous one.

composition pipeline functional
Python
def compose(*funcs):
    """Compose functions left to right: compose(f, g, h)(x) == h(g(f(x)))"""
    def composed(arg):
        result = arg
        for func in funcs:
            result = func(result)
        return result
    return composed

if __name__ == "__main__":
    def add_one(x):
        return x + 1

    …
17 0 Open

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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.