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How to Interleave Two Lists in Python Until One List Exhausted
Interleave elements from two lists pairwise using zip, stopping when either list runs out of items.
def interleave(a, b):
result = []
for x, y in zip(a, b):
result.extend([x, y])
return result
if __name__ == "__main__":
list1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
list2 = ["a", "b", "c"]
print(interleave(list1, list2))How to Zip Two Lists into Pairs in Python
Combine two lists element-wise into a list of tuples using Python's built-in zip() function.
def zip_lists_into_pairs(list1, list2):
pairs = list(zip(list1, list2))
return pairs
if __name__ == "__main__":
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
quantities = [3, 5, 2]
result = zip_lists_into_pairs(fruits, quantities)
print(result)How to unzip a list of pairs into two lists in Python
Split a list of (a, b) tuples into two separate lists by iterating with a for loop and appending each element to its own output list.
def unzip(pairs):
"""Split a list of (a, b) pairs into two separate lists."""
if not pairs:
return [], []
firsts = []
seconds = []
for a, b in pairs:
firsts.append(a)
seconds.append(b)
return firsts, seconds
if __name__ == "__main__":
pairs = [(1, 'a'), (…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…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.
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("*"…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.
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)…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.
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…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.
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:
…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.
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…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.
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…How to Create a Dict from Two Parallel Lists in Python (zip)
Build a dictionary by pairing elements from two parallel lists using Python's built-in zip function and dict constructor.
keys = ["name", "age", "city"]
values = ["Alice", 30, "New York"]
result = dict(zip(keys, values))
print(result)How to Add Two Lists Elementwise in Python
Add two equal-length lists element by element using a list comprehension with zip, returning a new list of summed values.
def elementwise_add(list1, list2):
return [a + b for a, b in zip(list1, list2)]
if __name__ == "__main__":
list_a = [1, 2, 3, 4]
list_b = [10, 20, 30, 40]
result = elementwise_add(list_a, list_b)
print(result)How to Compare Two Lists Elementwise for Greater Flags in Python
Compare two equal-length lists element by element and return a list of booleans marking where list_a values are greater than list_b values.
def compare_lists_greater(list_a, list_b):
"""
Compare two lists elementwise and return a list of booleans
indicating whether each element in list_a is greater than the
corresponding element in list_b.
"""
if len(list_a) != len(list_b):
raise ValueError("Lists must have the same length"…How to Compute the Dot Product of Two Lists in Python
Compute the dot product of two equal-length numeric lists using a generator expression with zip and sum.
def dot_product(list1, list2):
"""
Compute the dot product of two numeric lists.
The lists must have the same length.
"""
if len(list1) != len(list2):
raise ValueError("Lists must have the same length")
return sum(a * b for a, b in zip(list1, list2))
if __name__ == "__main__":
…How to Compress a Generator with a Boolean Mask in Python
Filters items from a generator based on a parallel boolean mask, yielding only the items where the mask is True.
def compress(generator, mask):
for item, keep in zip(generator, mask):
if keep:
yield item
if __name__ == "__main__":
data = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
mask = [True, False, True, False, True]
result = list(compress(iter(data), mask))
print(result)How to Create a Pairwise Generator with zip and tee in Python
Build a memory-efficient generator that yields successive overlapping pairs from any iterable using zip and tee.
from itertools import tee
def pairwise(iterable):
"""Yield successive overlapping pairs from iterable."""
a, b = tee(iterable)
next(b, None)
return zip(a, b)
if __name__ == "__main__":
values = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print(list(pairwise(values)))
print(list(pairwise("hello")))Convert DOCX to Text by Unzipping XML in Python
Extract plain text from a .docx file by unzipping the container and parsing word/document.xml with regex, using only Python's standard library.
import zipfile
import re
from pathlib import Path
def docx_to_text_unzip_xml(docx_path: str) -> str:
"""Extract plain text from a .docx file by unzipping and parsing document.xml."""
docx_path = Path(docx_path)
if not docx_path.exists():
raise FileNotFoundError(f"File not found: {docx_path}")
…How to Compress a Folder in Python While Preserving Directory Structure
A Python function that uses zipfile to recursively compress a folder, maintaining the original directory hierarchy inside the zip archive.
import os
import zipfile
from pathlib import Path
def compress_folder(source_dir: str, output_zip: str):
"""
Compress a folder into a zip file, preserving the directory structure.
Args:
source_dir: Path to the source directory to compress
output_zip: Path for the output zip file
"…How to Create a Password Protected Zip Archive in Python
Generate a password-protected zip archive and verify password correctness using the standard library zipfile module.
import zipfile
import tempfile
import os
def create_password_protected_zip(zip_path, password: str, files: dict):
"""
Create a zip archive with password protection (mock encryption).
Args:
zip_path: Path where the zip file will be created
password: Password for the archive
files:…How to Download a GitHub Repository as a ZIP File in Python
Download any public GitHub repository as a ZIP file using the GitHub API and Python's requests and zipfile modules.
import requests
import zipfile
import io
import os
def download_github_repo_as_zip(repo_url, output_path='.'):
"""
Download a GitHub repository as a ZIP file.
Args:
repo_url (str): Full GitHub repository URL (e.g., 'https://github.com/username/repo')
output_path (str): Directory to sa…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.
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 = …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.
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)
…How to Archive a Repository as a ZIP in Python
Create a ZIP archive of a repository directory with a mock export, skipping hidden files and __pycache__ folders.
import zipfile
import io
import os
from pathlib import Path
def archive_repo_mock(repo_path, output_path="repo_archive.zip"):
"""Create a zip archive of a repository directory (mock export)."""
repo = Path(repo_path)
if not repo.exists():
raise FileNotFoundError(f"Repository not found: {repo}")
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