JSON, short for JavaScript Object Notation, is an open standard. Although its name doesn’t imply so, it is a language-independent data format. JSON is used to both store and exchange data. It’s a prevalent data format because it is easy to read and write for humans too. Working with JSON in Python is super easy! Python has two data types that, together, form the perfect tool for working with JSON in Python: dictionaries and lists.

Importing the JSON library in Python

Python ships with a powerful and elegant JSON library to help you decode and encode JSON. It can be imported with:

import json

This library…

In mathematics, there’s a concept called set-builder notation, also called set comprehension. Inspired by this principle, Python offers comprehensions, too. In fact, list comprehensions are one of the defining features of Python. They allow us to create concise, readable code that outperforms the uglier alternatives like for loops or using map().

We’ll first look at the most well-known type: list comprehensions. Once we’ve got a good grasp of how they work, you’ll also learn about set comprehensions and dictionary comprehensions.

What Are List Comprehensions?

A list comprehension is a language construct. It’s used to create a list based on an existing list. Sounds a…

How is Python being used around the globe and across industries?

This question inspired me to write this piece. I figured a list of the most-used Python packages would give a good indication.

As a starting point, I took a list of the most downloaded Python packages on PyPI over the past 365 days. Let’s dive in and find out what they do, how they’re related, and why they rank so high!

1. Urllib3

1B downloads

Urllib3 is an HTTP client for Python that brings many features that are missing from the Python standard libraries:

• Thread safety.
• Connection pooling.
• Client-side SSL/TLS verification.
• File uploads…

What is concurrency?

Concurrency is working on multiple things at the same time. In Python, this can be done in several ways:

• With threading, by letting multiple threads take turns.
• By firing off a task and continuing to do other stuff, instead of waiting for an answer from the network or disk. This is how asynchronous IO operates with the asyncio library.
• With multiprocessing we’re using multiple processes. This way we can truly do more than one thing at a time using multiple processor cores. This is called parallelism.

Concurrency is working on multiple things at the same time

Make sure to check…

There are lots of little tricks that can make life easier for a Python coder. Some of these will be known to you, but I’m sure there are at least a couple that you haven’t seen before.

If you’re done reading, also take a look at our latest article on concurrency:

1. The Python Ellipsis

Iterators make for very elegant for-loops in Python, and also make comprehension possible. Even though it requires some work to understand all the inner workings, they are actually very easy to use in practice!

How a Python iterator works

To understand what a Python iterator is, you need to know two terms:

Iterator — An object that can be iterated, meaning we can keep asking it for a new element until there are no elements left. Elements are requested using a method called __next__.

Iterable — An object that implements another special method, called __iter__. This function returns an iterator.

As stated above, a Python…

One of Python’s biggest strengths is the enormous number of user-contributed packages available for free. Python packages can be offered anywhere but are most commonly published in the Python Package Index.

The Python Package Index, PyPI for short, contains more than 270K packages. Let’s explore some of the most-used packages and find out how to install them using a tool called pip.

Some Popular Python Packages on PyPI

Just to get a taste of what’s available, here are seven packages I personally like and use a lot.

1. IPython

Python has a long history, starting around 1991 with its first release in a newsgroup called alt.sources. Since then, we all know how omnipresent the language has become. Last year, Python ranked second in Redmonk’s list of the most popular programming languages. And I can tell you… this year won’t be different. Here’s why Python will stay among the top languages in 2021.

Originally published on Python Land. Make sure to check out our Python tutorial.

Why is python so popular?

Python has a very vibrant community, and it’s very well maintained. …