Essential Python Tricks for Efficient Coding

In this article we share a set of commonly used Python tricks that simplify everyday coding tasks.

1. Handling multiple user inputs

# bad practice
n1 = input("enter a number : ")
n2 = input("enter a number : ")
n3 = input("enter a number : ")
print(n1, n2, n3)

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

2. Using all() and any() for multiple conditions

# bad practice
if size == "lg" and color == "blue" and price < 100:
    print("Yes, I want to but the product.")

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

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

3. Determining odd or even numbers

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

4. Swapping variables without a temporary variable

# bad practice
temp = v1
v1 = v2
v2 = temp

# good practice
v1, v2 = v2, v1

5. Checking if a string is a palindrome

v1 = "madam"
v2 = "master"
print(v1.find(v1[::-1]) == 0)  # True
print(v1.find(v2[::-1]) == 0)  # False

6. Using inline if statements

# better approach
print(name if name else "")
name and print(name)
age > 18 and name and print("user is verified")

7. Removing duplicate elements from a list

lst = [1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 3, 1, 6, 7, 9, 4, 0]
unique_lst = list(set(lst))
print(unique_lst)

8. Finding the most frequent element in a list

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

9. List comprehensions

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]

10. Passing multiple arguments with *args

def sum_of_squares(*args):
    return sum(item**2 for item in args)
print(sum_of_squares(2,3,4))
print(sum_of_squares(2,3,4,5,6))

11. Getting index while iterating

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

12. Concatenating list elements with join()

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

13. Merging dictionaries

d1 = {"v1": 22, "v2": 33}
d2 = {"v2": 44, "v3": 55}
d3 = {**d1, **d2}
print(d3)

14. Creating a dictionary from two lists using zip()

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

15. Sorting a dictionary by value

d = {"v1":80, "v2":20, "v3":40, "v4":20, "v5":10}
sorted_d = dict(sorted(d.items(), key=lambda item: item[1]))
print(sorted_d)

Alternatively using itemgetter and reverse=True for descending order.

16. Pretty‑printing complex data structures

from pprint import pprint
data = {"name":"john deo","age":"22","address":{"contry":"canada","state":"an state of canada :)","address":"street st.34 north 12"},"attr":{"verified":True,"emialaddress":True}}
print(data)
pprint(data)

These snippets demonstrate concise, readable, and Pythonic ways to solve frequent programming problems.