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Copy-ready Python snippets by topic and difficulty — short, focused, and runnable in the browser editor.
How to Bulk Insert Rows into SQLite in Python
Insert many rows into an SQLite table in one call with cursor.executemany, then verify them with a SELECT query.
import sqlite3
# Create an in-memory database and a table
conn = sqlite3.connect(":memory:")
cursor = conn.cursor()
cursor.execute("CREATE TABLE products (name TEXT, price REAL, quantity INTEGER)")
# Data to insert in bulk
products = [
("Laptop", 999.99, 5),
("Mouse", 19.99, 50),
("Keyboard", 49.99, 30),…
How to Find HTML Elements by Tag, Class, ID, CSS Selector, and Attribute in BeautifulSoup
Parse an HTML string with BeautifulSoup and demonstrate five distinct ways to locate elements: by tag name, by class, by ID, by CSS selector, and by attribute.
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
html_content = """
<html><body>
<h1 id="title" class="heading">Hello World</h1>
<p class="content">First paragraph</p>
<p class="content special">Second paragraph</p>
<a href="https://example.com" class="link">Click here</a>
<div id="footer">
<p>© 2024</p>
…
How to Scrape Headlines from a News Website Using Beautiful Soup in Python
Scrape headline text from a news website using requests and Beautiful Soup with a CSS selector.
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
def scrape_headlines(url: str, selector: str) -> list:
"""
Scrape headlines from a news website using Beautiful Soup.
Args:
url: The URL of the news website.
selector: CSS selector for headline elements.
Returns:
List of h…
How to Normalize Data in Python with Dictionaries and Sets
Normalize a list of dicts by keeping selected keys, stripping/lowercasing strings, and extracting unique sorted values using set comprehension.
def normalize_data(data, keys):
"""
Normalize a list of dictionaries by keeping only specified keys
and converting values to proper types.
"""
normalized = []
for item in data:
clean_item = {}
for key in keys:
value = item.get(key)
if isinstance(value, st…
Visitor Pattern in Python: Double Dispatch Demo
Demonstrates the Visitor design pattern with double dispatch so operations on Dog and Cat objects are selected at runtime without modifying their classes.
class Animal:
def accept(self, visitor):
visitor.visit(self)
class Dog(Animal):
def speak(self):
return "Woof!"
class Cat(Animal):
def speak(self):
return "Meow!"
class SoundVisitor:
def visit(self, animal):
if isinstance(animal, Dog):
return self.visit_do…
How to Sample Random Items Without Replacement in Python
Select k random unique items from a sequence using random.sample for uniform, non-repeating selection.
import random
def sample_without_replacement(population, k):
"""Return k random items from population without replacement."""
if k > len(population):
raise ValueError("k cannot exceed population size")
# Use random.sample for O(k) time, no mutation of the original
return random.sample(populati…
Quickselect in Python: Find the kth Smallest Element
Python implementation of the Quickselect algorithm to find the kth smallest element in an unsorted list with average O(n) time complexity.
def quickselect(arr, k):
"""
Returns the k-th smallest element (0-indexed) using Quickselect.
Average: O(n), Worst: O(n^2)
"""
if len(arr) == 1:
return arr[0]
pivot = arr[-1]
left = [x for x in arr[:-1] if x <= pivot]
right = [x for x in arr[:-1] if x > pivot]
if k < len(l…
Pick a Random Region with Mock Carbon Intensity in Python
Selects a random region from a list and generates a mock carbon intensity value using Python's random module.
import random
def pick_region_intensity(regions, seed=42):
random.seed(seed)
selected = random.choice(regions)
intensity = random.randint(1, 10)
return selected, intensity
if __name__ == "__main__":
regions = ["North", "South", "East", "West"]
selected, intensity = pick_region_intensity(regio…
How to Create Interactive CLI Prompts in Python with questionary
Build mock interactive command-line prompts using questionary's select and text widgets with graceful handling of user cancellation.
import questionary
def main():
# Mock interactive prompts using questionary's select and text
choice = questionary.select(
"What is your favorite programming language?",
choices=["Python", "JavaScript", "Go", "Rust"]
).ask()
# ask() returns None if user cancels; handle gracefully
…
How to configure ruff linter rules in pyproject.toml with Python
This Python script generates a pyproject.toml file with ruff linter rules, including selected and ignored rules, per-file ignores, and complexity limits.
from pathlib import Path
def configure_ruff_rules(project_dir: str = "my_project") -> None:
"""Create a pyproject.toml with ruff linter rules for mock usage."""
pyproject_path = Path(project_dir) / "pyproject.toml"
pyproject_path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
config = """[tool.ruff]
line-…
pytest mark slow skip integration
Uses pytest markers to select fast tests, skip unfinished ones, and run integration checks with verbose output.
import pytest
def test_fast():
assert 1 + 1 == 2
@pytest.mark.slow
def test_slow():
import time
time.sleep(1)
assert 5 * 5 == 25
@pytest.mark.skip(reason="Not ready for production")
def test_skipped():
assert 2 + 2 == 5
@pytest.mark.integration
def test_integration():
database = {"users": […
How to Mock anyio.run Backends (asyncio vs trio) in Python
Demonstrates how to mock anyio.run to verify backend selection (asyncio or trio) without actually running the event loop.
import anyio
from unittest.mock import Mock, patch
async def fetch_data():
await anyio.sleep(0.1)
return {"data": 42}
def run_with_backend(backend: str):
async def main():
result = await fetch_data()
print(f"[{backend}] Result: {result}")
anyio.run(main, backend=backend)
if __nam…
How to Skip Slow Tests with pytest.mark in Python
Use pytest.mark.skip and custom marks like @pytest.mark.slow to skip or deselect slow tests during test runs.
import pytest
import time
def test_fast():
assert 1 + 1 == 2
@pytest.mark.skip(reason="slow test skipped by default")
def test_slow():
time.sleep(5)
assert True
@pytest.mark.slow
def test_marked_slow():
time.sleep(5)
assert True
if __name__ == "__main__":
pytest.main([__file__, "-v", "-…
How to Build a Weighted Random Load Balancer in Python
A Python load balancer mock that distributes requests across servers based on configurable weights using a cumulative weighted random selection algorithm.
import random
from collections import Counter
SERVERS = {
"server-a": 50,
"server-b": 30,
"server-c": 20,
}
def weighted_random_server(servers: dict[str, int]) -> str:
"""Select a server based on its weight (higher weight = more likely)."""
total_weight = sum(servers.values())
rand = random.…
Mock NATS queue group load balancing in Python
Simulates a NATS queue group where each message is delivered to exactly one subscriber using random selection with a lightweight mock.
import random
import time
from collections import defaultdict
class MockQueueGroup:
"""Mock a NATS queue group: each message is delivered to exactly one subscriber."""
def __init__(self, subscribers):
self.subscribers = subscribers
def publish(self, message):
receiver = random.choice(se…
How to Mock a Server-Side Load Balancer in Python
A simple Python class that mimics a server-side load balancer with round-robin, random, and least-connections selection strategies.
import itertools
import random
class LoadBalancer:
def __init__(self, servers=None):
self.servers = servers if servers else ["server1", "server2", "server3"]
self.counter = itertools.count(1)
def round_robin(self):
return next(self.counter) % len(self.servers)
def random_selectio…
How to Filter and Project Spark DataFrames with PySpark SQL
Simulate a SQL SELECT with WHERE using PySpark DataFrame select and filter to project columns and apply conditions.
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.functions import col
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("QueryFilterMock").master("local[2]").getOrCreate()
data = [
("Alice", 28, "Engineering"),
("Bob", 35, "Sales"),
("Carol", 32, "Engineering"),
("David", 25, "Marketing"),
("Eve", 29, "E…
How to select specific columns in Python with SQLite
A reusable function that connects to a SQLite database and returns only the requested columns from a given table.
import sqlite3
def select_pruned_columns(db_path, table, columns):
with sqlite3.connect(db_path) as conn:
cursor = conn.cursor()
col_list = ", ".join(columns)
query = f"SELECT {col_list} FROM {table}"
return cursor.execute(query).fetchall()
if __name__ == "__main__":
conn = sq…
How to do feature selection with VarianceThreshold in Python
This code demonstrates how to use scikit-learn's VarianceThreshold to remove low-variance features from a NumPy array, keeping only those that vary enough to be useful for modeling.
import numpy as np
from sklearn.feature_selection import VarianceThreshold
def main():
# Mock dataset: 4 samples, 5 features
X = np.array([
[0.1, 0.2, 1.0, 1.0, 0.5],
[0.2, 0.2, 0.0, 1.0, 0.4],
[0.1, 0.2, 1.0, 1.0, 0.6],
[0.3, 0.2, 1.0, 0.0, 0.5]
])
# Select features w…
How to create a global control holdout group in Python
This code implements a deterministic global control holdout group, randomly selecting a fraction of users to be excluded from feature rollouts for experiment validation.
import random
class GlobalControl:
def __init__(self, population_size, holdout_fraction=0.2, seed=42):
random.seed(seed)
self.population_size = population_size
self.holdout_fraction = holdout_fraction
self.holdout_size = int(population_size * holdout_fraction)
self.holdout_…
How to simulate a contextual bandit in Python
Simulate a contextual multi-armed bandit with random features and epsilon-greedy action selection in Python.
import random
class ContextualBandit:
def __init__(self, n_actions=3, n_features=4):
self.n_actions = n_actions
self.n_features = n_features
self.theta = [random.random() for _ in range(n_actions * n_features)]
def mock_context(self):
return [random.uniform(-1, 1) for _ in ra…
How to Avoid SELECT * and Mock SQL Column Queries in Python
Mock a SQLite cursor to verify that queries specify explicit columns instead of using SELECT *.
import sqlite3
from unittest.mock import Mock, patch
def get_user_emails(connection):
"""Fetch only the required columns instead of SELECT *."""
cursor = connection.cursor()
cursor.execute("SELECT email FROM users")
return [row[0] for row in cursor.fetchall()]
def test_get_user_emails_specific_colu…
How to Explain SQLite Query Plans in Python
Build a Python function that runs EXPLAIN QUERY PLAN on SQLite in-memory tables and prints the optimizer's execution plan for any SELECT statement.
import sqlite3
def explain_query(sql: str) -> str:
"""Return the SQLite query plan for the given SQL statement."""
conn = sqlite3.connect(":memory:")
cursor = conn.cursor()
# Create sample data for a realistic plan
cursor.execute("CREATE TABLE users (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT)")
c…
Route SELECT Queries to Read Replicas in Python
A mock round-robin router that forwards SELECT queries to read replicas and sends writes to the primary.
import random
class ReadReplicaRouter:
"""Round-robin router that sends SELECT queries to read replicas."""
def __init__(self, replicas):
self.replicas = replicas
self.counter = 0
def route(self, sql):
if sql.strip().upper().startswith("SELECT"):
replica = sel…
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