12 Essential Python Tricks Every Developer Should Know

In this article we share twelve practical Python tips and code snippets that you can bookmark for future use.

1. Get String Index

This simple code shows how to obtain the starting index of any word or character in a string.

# Get String of String
string = "Here we go Python Coders"
print(string.index("Here"))  # 0
print(string.index("go"))    # 8
print(string.index("Coders"))  # 18

2. Progress Bar

If your program needs a progress bar, you can use the progress library.

# To install use "pip install progress"
from progress.bar import Bar
bar = Bar('Processing', max=100)
for i in range(100):
    # Do some work
    bar.next()
bar.finish()
# Output:
# Processing |###############               | 52/100

3. Simple GUI Code

Python offers several GUI modules. Below are three basic examples using tkinter, PyQt5, and wxPython.

tkinter

# Simple Gui Code
# tkinter
from tkinter import *
window = Tk()
window.title("Tkinter Code")
window.mainloop()

PyQt5

# PyQt
import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QWidget
def main():
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    win = QWidget()
    win.resize(250, 250)
    win.setWindowTitle('Pyqt5')
    win.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

wxPython

# Wxpython
import wx
app = wx.App()
frame = wx.Frame(None, title='WxPython')
frame.Show()
app.MainLoop()

4. String to Snake Case

This function converts a string to snake_case by inserting underscores between words and lower‑casing the result.

# String to Snake Case
from re import sub
def Snake(string):
    return '_'.join(sub('([A-Z][a-z]+)', r' \1',
        sub('([A-Z]+)', r' \1',
        string.replace('-', ' '))).split()).lower()
print(Snake("all the programmer"))  # all_the_programmer
print(Snake("something new"))      # something_new
print(Snake("snake case"))         # snake_case

5. Flatten a 2D List with sum()

You can flatten a two‑dimensional list using the built‑in sum() function.

list1 = [[1, 2], [9, 2], [5, 7, 8]]
flatten = sum(list1, [])
print(flatten)  # [1, 2, 9, 2, 5, 7, 8]

6. Sort by Index

This snippet sorts a list according to a separate list of indexes.

# Sort by Indexes
def Sort_By_Index(mylist, index):
    return [val for (_, val) in sorted(zip(index, mylist), key=lambda x: x[0])]
lst = ["apple", "mango", "bananna", "Pineapple"]
index = [3, 1, 4, 2]
print(Sort_By_Index(lst, index))  # ['mango', 'Pineapple', 'apple', 'bananna']

7. Generate Unique IDs

The built‑in uuid module can generate random unique identifiers (UUID1‑UUID5).

# Generate Unique ID
import uuid
print("Random ID is :", uuid.uuid1())
print("Random ID is :", uuid.uuid4())

8. Initialize a 2D List

Two ways to create a two‑dimensional list without external libraries.

# 2d List Initializing
# Way 1
mylist = [[2]*3 for _ in range(2)]
print(mylist)  # [[2, 2, 2], [2, 2, 2]]
# Way 2
mylist2 = [[0]*3 for i in range(3)]
print(mylist2)  # [[0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]]

9. Transpose an Iterable

Use zip(*iterable) to transpose a list of lists.

mylist = [[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]]
result = list(zip(*mylist))
print(result)  # [(1, 3, 5), (2, 4, 6)]

10. Format Strings with F‑Strings

F‑strings provide a concise way to embed expressions inside string literals.

# String Formating with F-String
a = "Pythonior"
b = "Medium"
str1 = f"Do you want to become a {a}"
print(str1)
str2 = f"Medium had tons of {b} to make you {a}"
print(str2)
# Output:
# Do you want to become a Pythonior
# Medium had tons of Medium to make you Pythonior

11. Concatenate Two Lists

The + operator joins two lists.

# Sum up two List
list1 = [12, 13, 14, 15]
list2 = [16, 17]
newlist = list1 + list2
print(newlist)  # [12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17]

12. Walrus Operator

The walrus operator ( :=) assigns a value to a variable as part of an expression.

# Walrus Operator
mylist = [1, 2, 3, 4]
if len(mylist) > 2:
    print(f"Length is {len(mylist)} which is greater")
if (n := len(mylist)) > 2:
    print(f"Length is {n} which is greater")

That concludes the article; I hope you find these snippets useful.