20 Essential Python Tricks to Boost Code Readability and Efficiency

Python's readability and simplicity are two major reasons for its popularity; this article introduces twenty common Python tricks that improve code readability and help you save a lot of time in everyday coding.

1. String Reversal

Use slicing to reverse a string:

# Reversing a string using slicing

my_string = "ABCDE"
reversed_string = my_string[::-1]

print(reversed_string)
# Output
# EDCBA

2. Capitalize First Letter of Each Word

Use the title() method:

my_string = "my name is chaitanya baweja"

# using the title() function of string class
new_string = my_string.title()

print(new_string)
# Output
# My Name Is Chaitanya Baweja

3. Find Unique Characters in a String

Convert the string to a set and join back:

my_string = "aavvccccddddeee"

# converting the string to a set
temp_set = set(my_string)

# stitching set into a string using join
new_string = ''.join(temp_set)

print(new_string)
# output
# cdvae

4. Repeat a String or List N Times

Use the multiplication operator * :

n = 3  # number of repetitions

my_string = "abcd"
my_list = [1,2,3]

print(my_string * n)  # abcdabcdabcd
print(my_list * n)   # [1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3]

5. List Comprehension (Multiply Each Element by 2)

# Multiplying each element in a list by 2

original_list = [1,2,3,4]
new_list = [2*x for x in original_list]

print(new_list)
# [2,4,6,8]

6. Variable Swapping

a = 1
b = 2

a, b = b, a

print(a)  # 2
print(b)  # 1

7. Split a String into a List of Sub‑strings

string_1 = "My name is Chaitanya Baweja"
string_2 = "sample/ string 2"

# default separator ' '
print(string_1.split())
# ['My', 'name', 'is', 'Chaitanya', 'Baweja']

# defining separator as '/'
print(string_2.split('/'))
# ['sample', ' string 2']

8. Join Multiple Strings into One

list_of_strings = ['My', 'name', 'is', 'Chaitanya', 'Baweja']

print(','.join(list_of_strings))
# My,name,is,Chaitanya,Baweja

9. Check if a String is a Palindrome

my_string = "abcba"

if my_string == my_string[::-1]:
    print("palindrome")
else:
    print("not palindrome")
# Output
# palindrome

10. Count Occurrences of Elements in a List

# finding frequency of each element in a list
from collections import Counter

my_list = ['a','a','b','b','b','c','d','d','d','d','d']
count = Counter(my_list)

print(count)               # Counter({'d': 5, 'b': 3, 'a': 2, 'c': 1})
print(count['b'])          # 3
print(count.most_common(1))# [('d', 5)]

11. Determine if Two Strings are Anagrams

Use Counter to compare character frequencies:

from collections import Counter

str_1, str_2, str_3 = "acbde", "abced", "abcda"
cnt_1, cnt_2, cnt_3 = Counter(str_1), Counter(str_2), Counter(str_3)

if cnt_1 == cnt_2:
    print('1 and 2 anagram')
if cnt_1 == cnt_3:
    print('1 and 3 anagram')
# output
# 1 and 2 anagram

12. Try‑Except‑Else‑Finally Block

a, b = 1,0

try:
    print(a/b)
except ZeroDivisionError:
    print("division by zero")
else:
    print("no exceptions raised")
finally:
    print("Run this always")
# output
# division by zero
# Run this always

13. Enumerate to Get Index/Value Pairs

my_list = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']
for index, value in enumerate(my_list):
    print('{0}: {1}'.format(index, value))
# 0: a
# 1: b
# 2: c
# 3: d
# 4: e

14. Check Object Memory Usage

import sys
num = 21
print(sys.getsizeof(num))
# In Python 2, 24
# In Python 3, 28

15. Merge Dictionaries

dict_1 = {'apple': 9, 'banana': 6}
dict_2 = {'banana': 4, 'orange': 8}

combined_dict = {**dict_1, **dict_2}
print(combined_dict)
# {'apple': 9, 'banana': 4, 'orange': 8}

16. Measure Execution Time of a Code Block

import time

start_time = time.time()
# Code to check follows
for i in range(10**5):
    a, b = 1,2
    c = a + b
# Code to check ends
end_time = time.time()
time_taken_in_micro = (end_time - start_time) * (10**6)
print(time_taken_in_micro)
# output example: 18770.217895507812

17. List Flattening

# Simple flatten for one‑level nested list
def flatten(l):
    return [item for sublist in l for item in sublist]

l = [[1,2,3],[3]]
print(flatten(l))  # [1, 2, 3, 3]

# Deep flatten using iteration_utilities
def deepflatten_example():
    from iteration_utilities import deepflatten
    l = [[1,2,3],[4,[5]],[6,7]],[8,[9,[10]]]]
    print(list(deepflatten(l, depth=3)))  # [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

18. Random Sampling from a List

import random
my_list = ['a','b','c','d','e']
num_samples = 2
samples = random.sample(my_list, num_samples)
print(samples)  # e.g., ['a', 'e']

19. Convert an Integer to a List of Digits

num = 123456
# using map
list_of_digits = list(map(int, str(num)))
print(list_of_digits)  # [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

# using list comprehension
list_of_digits = [int(x) for x in str(num)]
print(list_of_digits)  # [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

20. Check Uniqueness of List Elements

def unique(l):
    if len(l) == len(set(l)):
        print("All elements are unique")
    else:
        print("List has duplicates")

unique([1,2,3,4])  # All elements are unique
unique([1,1,2,3])  # List has duplicates

These twenty Python tricks cover a range of everyday programming tasks, from string manipulation and list operations to performance measurement and error handling, helping developers write cleaner and more efficient code.