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Python Code Samples

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

382 matches
Files & data easy

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.

filesystem cleanup pathlib
Python
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:
       …
57 0 Open
Files & data easy

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.

etl json jsonl
Python
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…
14 0 Open
Files & data medium

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.

file i/o chunking hashing
Python
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…
16 0 Open
Files & data easy

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.

zip compression file-io
Python
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…
103 0 Open
Files & data medium

Create a ZIP Archive of a Folder in Python

Recursively zip all files in a folder into a single archive using the standard library zipfile and pathlib modules.

zipfile pathlib archives
Python
import zipfile
from pathlib import Path

def zip_folder(source_dir: str, archive_path: str) -> None:
    """Zip all files in source_dir recursively into archive_path."""
    source = Path(source_dir)
    with zipfile.ZipFile(archive_path, "w", zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED) as archive:
        for file_path in source.rglob("*"…
17 0 Open
Files & data medium

Extract Hyperlinks from Word Documents in Python

Parses a .docx file using Python's standard library to extract every hyperlink's display text and target URL.

docx hyperlinks xml
Python
import zipfile
from pathlib import Path
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

def extract_hyperlinks_from_docx(filepath: str) -> list[dict]:
    """
    Extract all hyperlinks from a .docx file.
    Returns a list of dicts with 'text' and 'target' keys.
    """
    hyperlinks = []
    with zipfile.ZipFile(Path(filepath)…
90 0 Open
Files & data easy

Extract a Single Member from a ZIP Archive in Python

Extract one specific file from a ZIP archive to an output directory using the standard zipfile and pathlib modules.

zipfile zip extraction
Python
import zipfile
from pathlib import Path

def extract_single_member(zip_path: str, member_name: str, output_dir: str = ".") -> Path:
    """Extract a single member from a zip archive to the output directory."""
    with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_path, "r") as archive:
        archive.extract(member_name, output_dir)
    retu…
21 0 Open
Files & data medium

How to Automatically Extract Every Archive in a Folder with Python

Walk through a folder and extract all ZIP, RAR, and 7Z archives into separate subdirectories using Python.

zipfile rarfile py7zr
Python
import zipfile
import rarfile
import py7zr
import pathlib

def extract_archives(folder: str):
    """Extract every ZIP, RAR, and 7Z archive in the given folder."""
    folder_path = pathlib.Path(folder)
    for archive_file in folder_path.iterdir():
        suffix = archive_file.suffix.lower()
        try:
           …
40 0 Open
Files & data easy

How to Check Disk Free Space in Python with shutil.disk_usage

This Python script uses the standard library shutil.disk_usage to report total, used, and free disk space in bytes, plus a percentage usage figure.

shutil disk usage disk space
Python
import shutil


def check_disk_free_space(path="/"):
    """Return a tuple of total, used, and free disk space in bytes."""
    usage = shutil.disk_usage(path)
    return usage.total, usage.used, usage.free


if __name__ == "__main__":
    total, used, free = check_disk_free_space()
    print(f"Total: {total:,} bytes"…
15 0 Open
Files & data medium

How to Compare Two Files by Content Hash Equality in Python

Compares two files by hashing their contents with SHA-256, skipping the hash if file sizes differ, and returns whether they are identical.

hashlib sha256 file-hashing
Python
import hashlib
from pathlib import Path

def file_hash(path: Path, chunk_size: int = 8192) -> str:
    sha256 = hashlib.sha256()
    with path.open("rb") as f:
        for chunk in iter(lambda: f.read(chunk_size), b""):
            sha256.update(chunk)
    return sha256.hexdigest()

def files_are_identical(file_a: Pat…
14 0 Open
Files & data easy

How to Compress a String to Gzip Bytes in Python

Compress a string into gzip-compressed bytes entirely in memory using the standard library gzip module.

gzip compression bytes
Python
import gzip

def compress_to_gzip_bytes(data: str, encoding: str = "utf-8") -> bytes:
    """Compress a string to gzip-compressed bytes in memory."""
    return gzip.compress(data.encode(encoding))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    original = "Hello, world! " * 10
    compressed = compress_to_gzip_bytes(original)
    pr…
14 0 Open
Files & data easy

How to Decompress a gzip File in Python

This code provides a function to decompress a .gz file, writing the decompressed content to a new file and returning the text, using the gzip standard library module.

gzip decompression file-handling
Python
import gzip
from pathlib import Path

def decompress_gzip(filepath: str, output_path: str | None = None) -> str:
    """Decompress a .gz file and return the decompressed content."""
    input_path = Path(filepath)
    if output_path is None:
        output_path = str(input_path.with_suffix(""))
    
    with gzip.open…
13 0 Open
Files & data easy

How to Extract IP Address Counts from Access Logs in Python

Read a web server access log, count occurrences of each IP address using regex and Counter, and print the ranked results.

regex access log counter
Python
import re
from collections import Counter
from pathlib import Path

def extract_ip_counts(log_file_path):
    ip_pattern = r'^(\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3})'
    ip_counter = Counter()
    
    with open(log_file_path, 'r') as file:
        for line in file:
            match = re.match(ip_pattern, line)
       …
17 0 Open
Files & data easy

How to Load a YAML Subset in Python Without PyYAML

Parse a flat, key-value YAML file with the Python standard library (re and pathlib), handling comments, quotes, and inline comments while skipping nested structures.

yaml parsing stdlib
Python
import re
from pathlib import Path

def load_yaml_subset(path):
    """Load a flat YAML file (key: value) without external dependencies."""
    data = {}
    with open(path, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
        for line in f:
            # Skip empty lines and comments
            line = line.strip()
            if no…
18 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 easy

How to Sanitize Filenames in Python

Strip illegal filename characters and clean up names for safe filesystem use.

filenames sanitize re
Python
import re
from pathlib import Path

def sanitize_filename(filename: str, replacement: str = "_") -> str:
    """
    Remove illegal characters from a filename.
    
    Illegal characters: / \\ : * ? " < > |
    Also strips leading/trailing spaces and dots.
    """
    # Remove illegal characters
    sanitized = re.su…
12 0 Open
Files & data easy

How to Serialize a Python Object to Pickle Bytes in Memory

Serialize a Python object to pickle bytes in memory with pickle.dumps, then deserialize it back with pickle.loads and verify the roundtrip.

pickle serialization bytes
Python
import pickle

class Person:
    def __init__(self, name, age, skills):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age
        self.skills = skills

def main():
    person = Person("Alice", 30, ["Python", "SQL", "Docker"])
    
    # Serialize to bytes in memory
    pickle_bytes = pickle.dumps(person)
    
    print(…
16 0 Open
Files & data easy

How to Split a Large File into Fixed-Size Parts in Python

Splits any binary or text file into multiple part files of a fixed byte size using Python's standard library.

file-splitting binary chunking
Python
import os
import math

def split_file(filepath, chunk_size_bytes):
    """Split a file into parts of fixed size (bytes). Creates part files in same directory."""
    filepath = os.path.abspath(filepath)
    basename = os.path.basename(filepath)
    file_size = os.path.getsize(filepath)
    num_parts = math.ceil(file_s…
14 0 Open
Files & data easy

How to Strip BOM When Reading UTF-8 Files in Python

Read a UTF-8 text file with Python's pathlib while automatically stripping the Byte Order Mark (BOM) so the first character isn't a hidden glyph.

bom utf8 pathlib
Python
from pathlib import Path

def read_text_without_bom(file_path):
    """Read a UTF-8 text file, stripping the BOM if present."""
    return Path(file_path).read_text(encoding='utf-8-sig')

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Create a sample file with BOM for demonstration
    sample_path = Path("sample_with_bom.txt")
    …
13 0 Open
Files & data medium

How to Sync Two Folders in Python (Lightweight Backup)

A Python script that synchronizes a source folder to a destination folder, copying new or updated files and removing files that no longer exist in the source.

sync backup filesystem
Python
import os
import shutil
import sys
from pathlib import Path

def sync_folders(src: Path, dst: Path):
    """Sync src folder to dst folder, copying missing/updated files."""
    dst.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

    for src_path in src.rglob("*"):
        relative = src_path.relative_to(src)
        dst_path = ds…
39 0 Open
Files & data easy

Merge Multiple PDF Files into One Document in Python

Combines multiple PDF files into a single PDF document using the PyPDF2 library's PdfMerger class.

pdf pypdf2 file-merging
Python
import PyPDF2

def merge_pdfs(input_paths, output_path):
    merger = PyPDF2.PdfMerger()
    for path in input_paths:
        merger.append(path)
    merger.write(output_path)
    merger.close()
    print(f"Merged {len(input_paths)} PDFs into '{output_path}'.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    files = ["file1.pdf", "fi…
43 0 Open
Files & data medium

Scrape HTML Tables and Convert Them to CSV Using Beautiful Soup in Python

Scrape a Wikipedia table with Beautiful Soup and write the data to a CSV file using the csv module.

web scraping beautiful soup csv
Python
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import csv

url = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)"
response = requests.get(url)
soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')

tables = soup.find_all('table', {'class': 'wikitable'})

if tables:
    target_table = tables[2]
    rows =…
47 0 Open
Files & data easy

Split CSV Files into Smaller Chunks in Python

Splits a large CSV file into multiple smaller chunk files, preserving the header row in each chunk.

csv file-splitting batch-processing
Python
import csv
import os

def split_csv(input_file, chunk_size=1000, output_prefix="chunk"):
    """Split a large CSV file into smaller chunks."""
    with open(input_file, 'r', newline='') as infile:
        reader = csv.reader(infile)
        header = next(reader)
        
        file_count = 1
        row_count = 0
  …
44 0 Open
Files & data easy

Sync only changed files between two folders in Python

This code compares two folders and copies only the new or modified files from source to destination, skipping unchanged ones by comparing SHA-256 hashes.

files sync hashing
Python
import hashlib
from pathlib import Path
import shutil

def file_hash(path: Path, chunk_size: int = 8192) -> str:
    hasher = hashlib.sha256()
    with path.open("rb") as f:
        for chunk in iter(lambda: f.read(chunk_size), b""):
            hasher.update(chunk)
    return hasher.hexdigest()

def sync_files(src: s…
16 0 Open

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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.