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Copy-ready Python snippets by topic and difficulty — short, focused, and runnable in the browser editor.
Find Most Frequent Character in a String in Python
Count character frequencies in a Python string using a dictionary and return the character that appears most often with a max() key function.
def most_frequent_char(s: str) -> str:
if not s:
return ""
char_count = {}
for ch in s:
char_count[ch] = char_count.get(ch, 0) + 1
max_char = max(char_count, key=char_count.get)
return max_char
if __name__ == "__main__":
text = "programming"
result = most_frequent…Find the Index of a Substring or Return a Default in Python
Finds the index of a substring using str.find() and returns a specified default value instead of -1 when the substring is not found.
def find_substring_or_default(text, substring, default=-1):
index = text.find(substring)
return index if index != -1 else default
if __name__ == "__main__":
text = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
print(find_substring_or_default(text, "brown"))
print(find_substring_or_default(text, "c…How to Detect if a String Contains Only ASCII in Python
This code defines a function that checks whether every character in a given string is an ASCII character (Unicode code point < 128) and demonstrates it with multiple test cases.
def is_ascii_only(text: str) -> bool:
"""Return True if all characters in text are ASCII, False otherwise."""
return all(ord(char) < 128 for char in text)
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Test cases
samples = [
"Hello, world!",
"Café au lait",
"日本語テキスト",
"ASCII only 123",
…How to Format Text in Python (Beginner's Guide)
This beginner-friendly Python script demonstrates text formatting basics: stripping whitespace, converting to title case, replacing substrings, splitting into words, and generating a snippet.
text = " hello world, welcome to python skillset! "
cleaned = text.strip()
title_cased = cleaned.title()
replaced = title_cased.replace("Python", "PYTHON")
words = replaced.split()
word_count = len(words)
first_three = " ".join(words[:3])
snippet = first_three + "..."
print("Original:", repr(text))
print("Stripped:"…How to Format a Float as Currency in Python
This code defines a function that converts a float to a string formatted as US currency with two decimal places and comma separators.
def format_currency(amount):
return f"${amount:,.2f}"
if __name__ == "__main__":
test_amounts = [1234.5, 0, 9999999.999, -42.867]
for amount in test_amounts:
print(f"{amount} -> {format_currency(amount)}")How to Mask Credit Card Middle Digits in Python
Mask the middle digits of credit card numbers in a string, keeping only the first 8 and last 4 digits, using regular expressions.
import re
def mask_credit_card(text: str) -> str:
pattern = re.compile(r'(\d{4}[-\s]?)(\d{4}[-\s]?)(\d{4}[-\s]?)(\d{4})')
return pattern.sub(lambda m: m.group(1) + m.group(2) + '****' + m.group(4), text)
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = "Card: 1234-5678-9012-3456 and 1111 2222 3333 4444"
print(mas…How to Parse and Clean Text in Python
This code defines three helper functions to parse text into lowercase words, count unique word frequencies, and clean text by removing punctuation and extra whitespace.
def extract_words(text: str) -> list[str]:
"""Return a list of lowercase words from the given text."""
return [word.lower() for word in text.split() if word.isalpha()]
def count_unique_words(text: str) -> dict[str, int]:
"""Return a dictionary with unique words and their frequencies."""
words = extra…How to Use Template Strings for Substitution in Python
This code shows how to use Python's Template class for safe string substitution, replacing placeholders like $name with actual values.
from string import Template
def format_user_message(name, role, company):
template = Template("Hello $name! We are glad to have you as our $role at $company.")
return template.substitute(name=name, role=role, company=company)
if __name__ == "__main__":
result = format_user_message("Alice", "Python Develo…How to build a text helper in Python for beginners
This code provides easy-to-use functions for cleaning text, removing punctuation, counting word frequencies, and summarizing strings — perfect for beginners.
def clean_text(text: str) -> str:
"""Clean and normalize a text string."""
text = text.strip()
text = text.replace(" ", " ")
text = text.capitalize()
text = text.replace(".", ".")
return text
def remove_punctuation(text: str) -> str:
"""Remove common punctuation marks from a string."""
…How to wrap long text to a specified width in Python
Uses Python's textwrap.fill to wrap a long string to a specified width at word boundaries, preserving readability in console output or logs.
import textwrap
text = """This is a long piece of text that definitely exceeds the width limit
if we try to print it on a single line without any wrapping applied."""
wrapped = textwrap.fill(text, width=40)
print(wrapped)Normalize unicode accents to ASCII in Python
This code converts accented Unicode characters to ASCII equivalents using the standard library's unicodedata module.
import unicodedata
def normalize_accents(text: str) -> str:
"""Convert accented unicode characters to ASCII equivalents."""
decomposed = unicodedata.normalize('NFD', text)
ascii_text = ''.join(
char for char in decomposed
if unicodedata.category(char) != 'Mn'
)
return unicodedata.n…Python: Replace Spaces with Hyphens for Slug
Transform a string by stripping surrounding whitespace and replacing each space with a hyphen to create a simple slug.
def slugify(text):
return text.strip().replace(" ", "-")
if __name__ == "__main__":
title = "Hello World Python Example"
result = slugify(title)
print(result)Find Duplicate Elements in a Python List
Identifies and returns duplicate elements from a Python list using sets for efficient membership tests.
def find_duplicates(lst):
seen = set()
duplicates = set()
for item in lst:
if item in seen:
duplicates.add(item)
else:
seen.add(item)
return list(duplicates)
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = [1, 2, 3, 2, 4, 1, 5, 3]
print(find_duplicates(sample))How to Compute Sliding Window Sum of Size k in Python
Compute the sum of every contiguous subarray of a fixed size k using an efficient O(n) sliding window technique.
def sliding_window_sum(nums, k):
"""Return a list of sums for each contiguous subarray of size k."""
if not nums or k <= 0 or k > len(nums):
return []
result = []
window_sum = sum(nums[:k])
result.append(window_sum)
for i in range(k, len(nums)):
window_sum += nums[i] -…How to Compute a Moving Average in Python
This code computes the moving average over a numeric list using an efficient sliding window sum, avoiding recomputation of each window.
def moving_average(data, window_size):
"""
Compute the moving average over a numeric list.
Args:
data: List of numeric values
window_size: Size of the sliding window (positive integer)
Returns:
List of moving averages, each representing the mean of a window
"""
…How to Count Occurrences of a Value in a Python List
Counts how many times a specific value appears in a list using a simple loop and a counter variable.
def count_occurrences(data, target):
count = 0
for item in data:
if item == target:
count += 1
return count
if __name__ == "__main__":
numbers = [3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3, 5]
target_value = 5
result = count_occurrences(numbers, target_value)
print(f"The value {targ…How to Normalize a List of Numbers to the 0-1 Range in Python
Scale a list of numbers so the minimum becomes 0 and the maximum becomes 1 using min-max normalization.
def min_max_normalize(values):
"""Normalize a list of numbers to the [0, 1] range."""
if not values:
return []
min_val = min(values)
max_val = max(values)
if min_val == max_val:
return [0.0] * len(values)
return [(x - min_val) / (max_val - min_val) for x in values]
if __name__…How to Pad a List to Length n in Python with a Fill Value
Create a reusable function that pads a Python list to a specified length n by appending a fill value, or truncates it when the list is already longer than n.
def pad_list(lst, n, fill_value=None):
"""
Pad a list to length n using fill_value for missing elements.
If the list is longer than n, it is truncated to length n.
"""
if n <= len(lst):
return lst[:n]
return lst + [fill_value] * (n - len(lst))
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Examples…How to Rotate a List in Python
Rotate a list to the right by k positions using Python's list slicing and modulo arithmetic.
def rotate_list_right(lst, k):
if not lst:
return lst
k = k % len(lst)
return lst[-k:] + lst[:-k] if k != 0 else lst
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
for k in [0, 1, 3, 8, 20]:
print(f"k={k}: {rotate_list_right(sample, k)}")How to Sort a List of Dictionaries by a Key in Python
Sort a list of dictionaries by a specified key field, optionally in descending order, using Python's built-in sorted() function.
def sort_dicts_by_key(data, key, reverse=False):
return sorted(data, key=lambda item: item.get(key), reverse=reverse)
if __name__ == "__main__":
people = [
{"name": "Alice", "age": 30},
{"name": "Bob", "age": 25},
{"name": "Charlie", "age": 35},
]
sorted_by_age = sort_dicts_b…How to Split a List at the First Occurrence of a Value in Python
This function splits a list into two parts at the first occurrence of a given value, returning the left and right portions.
def split_at_first(lst, value):
try:
idx = lst.index(value)
return lst[:idx], lst[idx:]
except ValueError:
return lst, []
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = [1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 5]
value = 3
left, right = split_at_first(sample, value)
print("Left:", left)
print("Right:"…How to Split a List into Chunks in Python
Split a list into fixed-size sublists using a simple list comprehension with slicing.
def chunk_list(lst, size):
"""Split a list into sublists of given size."""
return [lst[i:i + size] for i in range(0, len(lst), size)]
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
print(chunk_list(sample, 3))How to Truncate a List to Max Length in Python (Keep Head)
This code returns a new list containing only the first max_length items from the original list, using Python's slice syntax.
from typing import List
def truncate_head(lst: List[object], max_length: int) -> List[object]:
"""Return a new list with at most max_length items from the head."""
if max_length < 0:
raise ValueError("max_length must be non-negative")
return lst[:max_length]
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Examp…Pairwise Adjacent Differences in a Python List
Computes the absolute differences between each pair of adjacent elements in a list using a concise list comprehension.
def adjacent_differences(nums):
"""Return list of absolute differences between adjacent elements."""
return [abs(nums[i] - nums[i + 1]) for i in range(len(nums) - 1)]
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample = [3, 7, 2, 9, 5]
diffs = adjacent_differences(sample)
print("Original list:", sample)
print…Browse by section
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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
- 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
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.