Fundamentals 10 min read

Boost Your Python Skills: 20 Essential Tricks Every Developer Should Know

This article presents a curated collection of practical Python tricks—from handling multiple user inputs and using all/any for condition checks, to swapping variables, detecting palindromes, removing duplicates, finding the most frequent list item, leveraging list comprehensions, *args, enumerate, string joining, dictionary merging, sorting, pretty‑printing, and comparing list‑reversal methods—each illustrated with clear code examples.

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Boost Your Python Skills: 20 Essential Tricks Every Developer Should Know

Handling Multiple User Inputs

Instead of calling input() repeatedly, you can read all values at once and split them:

# good practice
n1, n2, n3 = input("enter numbers: ").split()
print(n1, n2, n3)

Using all() and any() for Multiple Conditions

Combine several and conditions with all() and several or conditions with any() for clearer code.

# good practice for all()
conditions = [size == "lg", color == "blue", price < 100]
if all(conditions):
    print("Yes, I want to buy the product.")

# good practice for any()
if any(conditions):
    print("Yes, I want to buy the product.")

Checking Number Parity

Use a one‑liner to print "odd" or "even" based on the remainder of division by 2:

print('odd' if int(input('Enter a number: ')) % 2 else 'even')

Swapping Variables Without a Temporary Variable

# good practice
v1, v2 = v2, v1

Detecting Palindromes

Compare a string with its reverse using slicing:

v1 = "madam"
print(v1.find(v1[::-1]) == 0)  # True

Removing Duplicate Elements from a List

lst = [1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5]
unique_lst = list(set(lst))
print(unique_lst)

Finding the Most Repeated Element

most_repeated_item = max(lst, key=lst.count)
print(most_repeated_item)

List Comprehensions

Create concise, readable lists in a single expression:

numbers = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
evens = [x for x in numbers if x % 2 == 0]
odds = [y for y in numbers if y not in evens]

Using *args to Pass Variable Numbers of Arguments

def sum_of_squares(*args):
    return sum(item**2 for item in args)

print(sum_of_squares(2, 3, 4))  # 29
print(sum_of_squares(2, 3, 4, 5, 6))  # 90

Iterating with Indexes

lst = ["blue", "lightblue", "pink", "orange", "red"]
for idx, item in enumerate(lst):
    print(idx, item)

Joining List Elements into a String

names = ["john", "sara", "jim", "rock"]
print(", ".join(names))

Merging Dictionaries

d1 = {"v1": 22, "v2": 33}
d2 = {"v2": 44, "v3": 55}
merged = {**d1, **d2}
print(merged)  # {'v1': 22, 'v2': 44, 'v3': 55}

Creating a Dictionary from Two Lists

keys = ['a', 'b', 'c']
vals = [1, 2, 3]
zipped = dict(zip(keys, vals))
print(zipped)

Sorting a Dictionary by Value

sorted_d = dict(sorted(d.items(), key=lambda item: item[1]))
# or using itemgetter
from operator import itemgetter
sorted_d = dict(sorted(d.items(), key=itemgetter(1)))
# descending order
sorted_d = dict(sorted(d.items(), key=itemgetter(1), reverse=True))

Pretty‑Printing Complex Structures

from pprint import pprint
data = {"name": "john deo", "age": "22", "address": {"country": "canada", "state": "...", "address": "street st.34"}, "attr": {"verified": True}}
print(data)
pprint(data)

Reversing a List – Slice vs reverse()

Both methods work, but list.reverse() is faster:

# slice (creates a new list)
reversed_list = mylist[::-1]
# in‑place reversal
mylist.reverse()
Author: Anonymous Source: Python Developer Community
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best practicesData StructuresCode Examplesprogramming fundamentalsTips
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