30 Python Tips and Tricks to Supercharge Your Coding

Python meets the expectations of many programmers looking for an efficient, high‑level language, offering concise syntax that can replace verbose C/C++ code.

01 Variable Swapping

In Python you can swap two variables without a temporary placeholder:

>a=3
>b=6
>a,b=b,a
>print(a)  # 6
>print(b)  # 3

02 Dictionary and Set Comprehensions

Python supports list, set, and dictionary comprehensions for concise data construction.

# List comprehension
some_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
another_list = [x + 1 for x in some_list]
# Set comprehension (Python 3.1+)
some_list = [1,2,3,4,5,2,5,1,4,8]
even_set = {x for x in some_list if x % 2 == 0}
# Dictionary comprehension
d = {x: x % 2 == 0 for x in range(1, 11)}

03 Counter for Counting

The collections.Counter class provides an easy way to count hashable objects.

from collections import Counter
c = Counter('hello world')
print(c)               # Counter({'l': 3, 'o': 2, ...})
print(c.most_common(2)) # [('l', 3), ('o', 2)]

04 Pretty‑Printing JSON

Use the json module with the indent parameter or pprint for readable output.

import json
print(json.dumps(data))
print(json.dumps(data, indent=2))

05 Solving FizzBuzz

A compact solution prints numbers 1‑100, replacing multiples of 3 with "fizz", multiples of 5 with "buzz", and both with "fizzbuzz".

for x in range(1, 101):
    print("fizz")[x%3*len('fizz')::] + "buzz"[x%5*len('buzz')::] or x

06 Inline If Statement

print("Hello") if True else print("World")
# Output: Hello

07 Concatenating Lists

nfc = ["Packers", "49ers"]
af c = ["Ravens", "Patriots"]
print(nfc + afc)  # ['Packers', '49ers', 'Ravens', 'Patriots']
print(str(1) + " world")  # 1 world

08 Numeric Comparisons

x = 2
if 3 > x > 1:
    print(x)  # 2
if 1 < x > 0:
    print(x)  # 2

09 Iterating Two Lists Simultaneously

nfc = ["Packers", "49ers"]
af c = ["Ravens", "Patriots"]
for teama, teamb in zip(nfc, afc):
    print(teama + " vs. " + teamb)
# Packers vs. Ravens
# 49ers vs. Patriots

10 Enumerating with Index

teams = ["Packers", "49ers", "Ravens", "Patriots"]
for index, team in enumerate(teams):
    print(index, team)
# 0 Packers
# 1 49ers
# 2 Ravens
# 3 Patriots

11 List Comprehension for Even Numbers

numbers = [1,2,3,4,5,6]
even = [n for n in numbers if n % 2 == 0]

12 Dictionary Comprehension

teams = ["Packers", "49ers", "Ravens", "Patriots"]
print({key: value for value, key in enumerate(teams)})
# {'49ers': 1, 'Ravens': 2, 'Patriots': 3, 'Packers': 0}

13 Initializing List Values

items = [0] * 3
print(items)  # [0, 0, 0]

14 Converting List to String

teams = ["Packers", "49ers", "Ravens", "Patriots"]
print(", ".join(teams))
# Packers, 49ers, Ravens, Patriots

15 Getting Elements from a Dictionary

Use dict.get to provide a default value instead of a try/except block.

data = {"user": 1, "name": "Max", "three": 4}
is_admin = data.get("admin", False)

16 Subsetting Lists

x = [1,2,3,4,5,6]
print(x[:3])   # [1,2,3]
print(x[1:5])  # [2,3,4,5]
print(x[3:])   # [4,5,6]
print(x[::2])  # [1,3,5]
print(x[1::2]) # [2,4,6]

17 itertools Combinations

from itertools import combinations
teams = ["Packers", "49ers", "Ravens", "Patriots"]
for game in combinations(teams, 2):
    print(game)
# ('Packers', '49ers')
# ('Packers', 'Ravens')
# ...

18 False == True

Demonstrates that False and True are assignable global names, though doing so is discouraged.

False = True
if False:
    print("Hello")
else:
    print("World")
# Output: Hello

Article originally published by Python Programming Learning Circle (© original author).