Dive Into Python

20 May 2004

This book lives at http://diveintopython3.org/. If you're reading it somewhere else, you may not have the latest version.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Installing Python

Welcome to Python. Let's dive in. In this chapter, you'll install the version of Python that's right for you.

1.1. Which Python is right for you?

The first thing you need to do with Python is install it. Or do you?

If you're using an account on a hosted server, your ISP may have already installed Python. Most popular Linux distributions come with Python in the default installation. Mac OS X 10.2 and later includes a command-line version of Python, although you'll probably want to install a version that includes a more Mac-like graphical interface.

Windows does not come with any version of Python, but don't despair! There are several ways to point-and-click your way to Python on Windows.

As you can see already, Python runs on a great many operating systems. The full list includes Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X, and all varieties of free UNIX-compatible systems like Linux. There are also versions that run on Sun Solaris, AS/400, Amiga, OS/2, BeOS, and a plethora of other platforms you've probably never even heard of.

What's more, Python programs written on one platform can, with a little care, run on any supported platform. For instance, I regularly develop Python programs on Windows and later deploy them on Linux.

So back to the question that started this section, “Which Python is right for you?” The answer is whichever one runs on the computer you already have.

1.2. Python on Windows

On Windows, you have a couple choices for installing Python.

ActiveState makes a Windows installer for Python called ActivePython, which includes a complete version of Python, an IDE with a Python-aware code editor, plus some Windows extensions for Python that allow complete access to Windows-specific services, APIs, and the Windows Registry.

ActivePython is freely downloadable, although it is not open source. It is the IDE I used to learn Python, and I recommend you try it unless you have a specific reason not to. One such reason might be that ActiveState is generally several months behind in updating their ActivePython installer when new version of Python are released. If you absolutely need the latest version of Python and ActivePython is still a version behind as you read this, you'll want to use the second option for installing Python on Windows.

The second option is the “official” Python installer, distributed by the people who develop Python itself. It is freely downloadable and open source, and it is always current with the latest version of Python.

Procedure 1.1. Option 1: Installing ActivePython

Here is the procedure for installing ActivePython:

  1. Download ActivePython from http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePython/.

  2. If you are using Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME, you will also need to download and install Windows Installer 2.0 before installing ActivePython.

  3. Double-click the installer, ActivePython-2.2.2-224-win32-ix86.msi.

  4. Step through the installer program.

  5. If space is tight, you can do a custom installation and deselect the documentation, but I don't recommend this unless you absolutely can't spare the 14MB.

  6. After the installation is complete, close the installer and choose Start->Programs->ActiveState ActivePython 2.2->PythonWin IDE. You'll see something like the following:

PythonWin 2.2.2 (#37, Nov 26 2002, 10:24:37) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] on win32.
Portions Copyright 1994-2001 Mark Hammond (mhammond@skippinet.com.au) -
see 'Help/About PythonWin' for further copyright information.
>>> 

Procedure 1.2. Option 2: Installing Python from Python.org

  1. Download the latest Python Windows installer by going to http://www.python.org/ftp/python/ and selecting the highest version number listed, then downloading the .exe installer.

  2. Double-click the installer, Python-2.xxx.yyy.exe. The name will depend on the version of Python available when you read this.

  3. Step through the installer program.

  4. If disk space is tight, you can deselect the HTMLHelp file, the utility scripts (Tools/), and/or the test suite (Lib/test/).

  5. If you do not have administrative rights on your machine, you can select Advanced Options, then choose Non-Admin Install. This just affects where Registry entries and Start menu shortcuts are created.

  6. After the installation is complete, close the installer and select Start->Programs->Python 2.3->IDLE (Python GUI). You'll see something like the following:

Python 2.3.2 (#49, Oct  2 2003, 20:02:00) [MSC v.1200 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.

    ****************************************************************
    Personal firewall software may warn about the connection IDLE
    makes to its subprocess using this computer's internal loopback
    interface.  This connection is not visible on any external
    interface and no data is sent to or received from the Internet.
    ****************************************************************
    
IDLE 1.0
>>> 

1.3. Python on Mac OS X

On Mac OS X, you have two choices for installing Python: install it, or don't install it. You probably want to install it.

Mac OS X 10.2 and later comes with a command-line version of Python preinstalled. If you are comfortable with the command line, you can use this version for the first third of the book. However, the preinstalled version does not come with an XML parser, so when you get to the XML chapter, you'll need to install the full version.

Rather than using the preinstalled version, you'll probably want to install the latest version, which also comes with a graphical interactive shell.

Procedure 1.3. Running the Preinstalled Version of Python on Mac OS X

To use the preinstalled version of Python, follow these steps:

  1. Open the /Applications folder.

  2. Open the Utilities folder.

  3. Double-click Terminal to open a terminal window and get to a command line.

  4. Type python at the command prompt.

Try it out:

Welcome to Darwin!
[localhost:~] you% python
Python 2.2 (#1, 07/14/02, 23:25:09)
[GCC Apple cpp-precomp 6.14] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits", or "license" for more information.
>>> [press Ctrl+D to get back to the command prompt]
[localhost:~] you% 

Procedure 1.4. Installing the Latest Version of Python on Mac OS X

Follow these steps to download and install the latest version of Python:

  1. Download the MacPython-OSX disk image from http://homepages.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython/download.html.

  2. If your browser has not already done so, double-click MacPython-OSX-2.3-1.dmg to mount the disk image on your desktop.

  3. Double-click the installer, MacPython-OSX.pkg.

  4. The installer will prompt you for your administrative username and password.

  5. Step through the installer program.

  6. After installation is complete, close the installer and open the /Applications folder.

  7. Open the MacPython-2.3 folder

  8. Double-click PythonIDE to launch Python.

The MacPython IDE should display a splash screen, then take you to the interactive shell. If the interactive shell does not appear, select Window->Python Interactive (Cmd-0). The opening window will look something like this:

Python 2.3 (#2, Jul 30 2003, 11:45:28)
[GCC 3.1 20020420 (prerelease)]
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
MacPython IDE 1.0.1
>>> 

Note that once you install the latest version, the pre-installed version is still present. If you are running scripts from the command line, you need to be aware which version of Python you are using.

Example 1.1. Two versions of Python

[localhost:~] you% python
Python 2.2 (#1, 07/14/02, 23:25:09)
[GCC Apple cpp-precomp 6.14] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits", or "license" for more information.
>>> [press Ctrl+D to get back to the command prompt]
[localhost:~] you% /usr/local/bin/python
Python 2.3 (#2, Jul 30 2003, 11:45:28)
[GCC 3.1 20020420 (prerelease)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits", or "license" for more information.
>>> [press Ctrl+D to get back to the command prompt]
[localhost:~] you% 

1.4. Python on Mac OS 9

Mac OS 9 does not come with any version of Python, but installation is very simple, and there is only one choice.

Follow these steps to install Python on Mac OS 9:

  1. Download the MacPython23full.bin file from http://homepages.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython/download.html.

  2. If your browser does not decompress the file automatically, double-click MacPython23full.bin to decompress the file with Stuffit Expander.

  3. Double-click the installer, MacPython23full.

  4. Step through the installer program.

  5. AFter installation is complete, close the installer and open the /Applications folder.

  6. Open the MacPython-OS9 2.3 folder.

  7. Double-click Python IDE to launch Python.

The MacPython IDE should display a splash screen, and then take you to the interactive shell. If the interactive shell does not appear, select Window->Python Interactive (Cmd-0). You'll see a screen like this:

Python 2.3 (#2, Jul 30 2003, 11:45:28)
[GCC 3.1 20020420 (prerelease)]
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
MacPython IDE 1.0.1
>>> 

1.5. Python on RedHat Linux

Installing under UNIX-compatible operating systems such as Linux is easy if you're willing to install a binary package. Pre-built binary packages are available for most popular Linux distributions. Or you can always compile from source.

Download the latest Python RPM by going to http://www.python.org/ftp/python/ and selecting the highest version number listed, then selecting the rpms/ directory within that. Then download the RPM with the highest version number. You can install it with the rpm command, as shown here:

Example 1.2. Installing on RedHat Linux 9

localhost:~$ su -
Password: [enter your root password]
[root@localhost root]# wget http://python.org/ftp/python/2.3/rpms/redhat-9/python2.3-2.3-5pydotorg.i386.rpm
Resolving python.org... done.
Connecting to python.org[194.109.137.226]:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 7,495,111 [application/octet-stream]
...
[root@localhost root]# rpm -Uvh python2.3-2.3-5pydotorg.i386.rpm
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:python2.3              ########################################### [100%]
[root@localhost root]# python          
Python 2.2.2 (#1, Feb 24 2003, 19:13:11)
[GCC 3.2.2 20030222 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.2-4)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits", or "license" for more information.
>>> [press Ctrl+D to exit]
[root@localhost root]# python2.3       
Python 2.3 (#1, Sep 12 2003, 10:53:56)
[GCC 3.2.2 20030222 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.2-5)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits", or "license" for more information.
>>> [press Ctrl+D to exit]
[root@localhost root]# which python2.3 
/usr/bin/python2.3
  1. Whoops! Just typing python gives you the older version of Python -- the one that was installed by default. That's not the one you want.
  2. At the time of this writing, the newest version is called python2.3. You'll probably want to change the path on the first line of the sample scripts to point to the newer version.
  3. This is the complete path of the newer version of Python that you just installed. Use this on the #! line (the first line of each script) to ensure that scripts are running under the latest version of Python, and be sure to type python2.3 to get into the interactive shell.

    1.6. Python on Debian GNU/Linux

    If you are lucky enough to be running Debian GNU/Linux, you install Python through the apt command.

    Example 1.3. Installing on Debian GNU/Linux

    localhost:~$ su -
    Password: [enter your root password]
    localhost:~# apt-get install python
    Reading Package Lists... Done
    Building Dependency Tree... Done
    The following extra packages will be installed:
      python2.3
    Suggested packages:
      python-tk python2.3-doc
    The following NEW packages will be installed:
      python python2.3
    0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
    Need to get 0B/2880kB of archives.
    After unpacking 9351kB of additional disk space will be used.
    Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
    Selecting previously deselected package python2.3.
    (Reading database ... 22848 files and directories currently installed.)
    Unpacking python2.3 (from .../python2.3_2.3.1-1_i386.deb) ...
    Selecting previously deselected package python.
    Unpacking python (from .../python_2.3.1-1_all.deb) ...
    Setting up python (2.3.1-1) ...
    Setting up python2.3 (2.3.1-1) ...
    Compiling python modules in /usr/lib/python2.3 ...
    Compiling optimized python modules in /usr/lib/python2.3 ...
    localhost:~# exit
    logout
    localhost:~$ python
    Python 2.3.1 (#2, Sep 24 2003, 11:39:14)
    [GCC 3.3.2 20030908 (Debian prerelease)] on linux2
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> [press Ctrl+D to exit]
    

    1.7. Python Installation from Source

    If you prefer to build from source, you can download the Python source code from http://www.python.org/ftp/python/. Select the highest version number listed, download the .tgz file), and then do the usual configure, make, make install dance.

    Example 1.4. Installing from source

    localhost:~$ su -
    Password: [enter your root password]
    localhost:~# wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.3/Python-2.3.tgz
    Resolving www.python.org... done.
    Connecting to www.python.org[194.109.137.226]:80... connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
    Length: 8,436,880 [application/x-tar]
    ...
    localhost:~# tar xfz Python-2.3.tgz
    localhost:~# cd Python-2.3
    localhost:~/Python-2.3# ./configure
    checking MACHDEP... linux2
    checking EXTRAPLATDIR...
    checking for --without-gcc... no
    ...
    localhost:~/Python-2.3# make
    gcc -pthread -c -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes
    -I. -I./Include  -DPy_BUILD_CORE -o Modules/python.o Modules/python.c
    gcc -pthread -c -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes
    -I. -I./Include  -DPy_BUILD_CORE -o Parser/acceler.o Parser/acceler.c
    gcc -pthread -c -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes
    -I. -I./Include  -DPy_BUILD_CORE -o Parser/grammar1.o Parser/grammar1.c
    ...
    localhost:~/Python-2.3# make install
    /usr/bin/install -c python /usr/local/bin/python2.3
    ...
    localhost:~/Python-2.3# exit
    logout
    localhost:~$ which python
    /usr/local/bin/python
    localhost:~$ python
    Python 2.3.1 (#2, Sep 24 2003, 11:39:14)
    [GCC 3.3.2 20030908 (Debian prerelease)] on linux2
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> [press Ctrl+D to get back to the command prompt]
    localhost:~$ 
    

    1.8. The Interactive Shell

    Now that you have Python installed, what's this interactive shell thing you're running?

    It's like this: Python leads a double life. It's an interpreter for scripts that you can run from the command line or run like applications, by double-clicking the scripts. But it's also an interactive shell that can evaluate arbitrary statements and expressions. This is extremely useful for debugging, quick hacking, and testing. I even know some people who use the Python interactive shell in lieu of a calculator!

    Launch the Python interactive shell in whatever way works on your platform, and let's dive in with the steps shown here:

    Example 1.5. First Steps in the Interactive Shell

    >>> 1 + 1               
    2
    >>> print 'hello world' 
    hello world
    >>> x = 1               
    >>> y = 2
    >>> x + y
    3
    
    1. The Python interactive shell can evaluate arbitrary Python expressions, including any basic arithmetic expression.
    2. The interactive shell can execute arbitrary Python statements, including the print statement.
    3. You can also assign values to variables, and the values will be remembered as long as the shell is open (but not any longer than that).

      1.9. Summary

      You should now have a version of Python installed that works for you.

      Depending on your platform, you may have more than one version of Python intsalled. If so, you need to be aware of your paths. If simply typing python on the command line doesn't run the version of Python that you want to use, you may need to enter the full pathname of your preferred version.

      Congratulations, and welcome to Python.

      2.3. Documenting Functions

      You can document a Python function by giving it a docstring.

      Example 2.2. Defining the buildConnectionString Function's docstring

      
      def buildConnectionString(params):
          """Build a connection string from a dictionary of parameters.
      
          Returns string."""

      Triple quotes signify a multi-line string. Everything between the start and end quotes is part of a single string, including carriage returns and other quote characters. You can use them anywhere, but you'll see them most often used when defining a docstring.

      NoteTriple quotes are also an easy way to define a string with both single and double quotes, like qq/.../ in Perl.

      Everything between the triple quotes is the function's docstring, which documents what the function does. A docstring, if it exists, must be the first thing defined in a function (that is, the first thing after the colon). You don't technically need to give your function a docstring, but you always should. I know you've heard this in every programming class you've ever taken, but Python gives you an added incentive: the docstring is available at runtime as an attribute of the function.

      NoteMany Python IDEs use the docstring to provide context-sensitive documentation, so that when you type a function name, its docstring appears as a tooltip. This can be incredibly helpful, but it's only as good as the docstrings you write.

      2.4. Everything Is an Object

      2.6. Testing Modules

      Python modules are objects and have several useful attributes. You can use this to easily test your modules as you write them. Here's an example that uses the if __name__ trick.

      if __name__ == "__main__":

      Some quick observations before you get to the good stuff. First, parentheses are not required around the if expression. Second, the if statement ends with a colon, and is followed by indented code.

      NoteLike C, Python uses == for comparison and = for assignment. Unlike C, Python does not support in-line assignment, so there's no chance of accidentally assigning the value you thought you were comparing.

      So why is this particular if statement a trick? Modules are objects, and all modules have a built-in attribute __name__. A module's __name__ depends on how you're using the module. If you import the module, then __name__ is the module's filename, without a directory path or file extension. But you can also run the module directly as a standalone program, in which case __name__ will be a special default value, __main__.

      >>> import odbchelper
      >>> odbchelper.__name__
      'odbchelper'

      Knowing this, you can design a test suite for your module within the module itself by putting it in this if statement. When you run the module directly, __name__ is __main__, so the test suite executes. When you import the module, __name__ is something else, so the test suite is ignored. This makes it easier to develop and debug new modules before integrating them into a larger program.

      TipOn MacPython, there is an additional step to make the if __name__ trick work. Pop up the module's options menu by clicking the black triangle in the upper-right corner of the window, and make sure Run as __main__ is checked.

      Further Reading on Importing Modules

      3.4. Declaring variables

      Now that you know something about dictionaries, tuples, and lists (oh my!), let's get back to the sample program from Chapter 2, odbchelper.py.

      Python has local and global variables like most other languages, but it has no explicit variable declarations. Variables spring into existence by being assigned a value, and they are automatically destroyed when they go out of scope.

      Example 3.17. Defining the myParams Variable

      
      if __name__ == "__main__":
          myParams = {"server":"mpilgrim", \
                      "database":"master", \
                      "uid":"sa", \
                      "pwd":"secret" \
                      }

      Notice the indentation. An if statement is a code block and needs to be indented just like a function.

      Also notice that the variable assignment is one command split over several lines, with a backslash (“\”) serving as a line-continuation marker.

      NoteWhen a command is split among several lines with the line-continuation marker (“\”), the continued lines can be indented in any manner; Python's normally stringent indentation rules do not apply. If your Python IDE auto-indents the continued line, you should probably accept its default unless you have a burning reason not to.

      Strictly speaking, expressions in parentheses, straight brackets, or curly braces (like defining a dictionary) can be split into multiple lines with or without the line continuation character (“\”). I like to include the backslash even when it's not required because I think it makes the code easier to read, but that's a matter of style.

      Third, you never declared the variable myParams, you just assigned a value to it. This is like VBScript without the option explicit option. Luckily, unlike VBScript, Python will not allow you to reference a variable that has never been assigned a value; trying to do so will raise an exception.

      3.4.1. Referencing Variables

      Example 3.18. Referencing an Unbound Variable

      >>> x
      Traceback (innermost last):
        File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
      NameError: There is no variable named 'x'
      >>> x = 1
      >>> x
      1

      You will thank Python for this one day.

      3.4.2. Assigning Multiple Values at Once

      One of the cooler programming shortcuts in Python is using sequences to assign multiple values at once.

      Example 3.19. Assigning multiple values at once

      >>> v = ('a', 'b', 'e')
      >>> (x, y, z) = v     
      >>> x
      'a'
      >>> y
      'b'
      >>> z
      'e'
      1. v is a tuple of three elements, and (x, y, z) is a tuple of three variables. Assigning one to the other assigns each of the values of v to each of the variables, in order.

        This has all sorts of uses. I often want to assign names to a range of values. In C, you would use enum and manually list each constant and its associated value, which seems especially tedious when the values are consecutive. In Python, you can use the built-in range function with multi-variable assignment to quickly assign consecutive values.

        Example 3.20. Assigning Consecutive Values

        >>> range(7)              
        [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
        >>> (MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY) = range(7) 
        >>> MONDAY                
        0
        >>> TUESDAY
        1
        >>> SUNDAY
        6
        1. The built-in range function returns a list of integers. In its simplest form, it takes an upper limit and returns a zero-based list counting up to but not including the upper limit. (If you like, you can pass other parameters to specify a base other than 0 and a step other than 1. You can print range.__doc__ for details.)
        2. MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY, and SUNDAY are the variables you're defining. (This example came from the calendar module, a fun little module that prints calendars, like the UNIX program cal. The calendar module defines integer constants for days of the week.)
        3. Now each variable has its value: MONDAY is 0, TUESDAY is 1, and so forth.

          You can also use multi-variable assignment to build functions that return multiple values, simply by returning a tuple of all the values. The caller can treat it as a tuple, or assign the values to individual variables. Many standard Python libraries do this, including the os module, which you'll discuss in Chapter 6.

          Further Reading on Variables

          3.6. Mapping Lists

          One of the most powerful features of Python is the list comprehension, which provides a compact way of mapping a list into another list by applying a function to each of the elements of the list.

          Example 3.24. Introducing List Comprehensions

          >>> li = [1, 9, 8, 4]
          >>> [elem*2 for elem in li]      
          [2, 18, 16, 8]
          >>> li         
          [1, 9, 8, 4]
          >>> li = [elem*2 for elem in li] 
          >>> li
          [2, 18, 16, 8]
          1. To make sense of this, look at it from right to left. li is the list you're mapping. Python loops through li one element at a time, temporarily assigning the value of each element to the variable elem. Python then applies the function elem*2 and appends that result to the returned list.
          2. Note that list comprehensions do not change the original list.
          3. It is safe to assign the result of a list comprehension to the variable that you're mapping. Python constructs the new list in memory, and when the list comprehension is complete, it assigns the result to the variable.

            Here are the list comprehensions in the buildConnectionString function that you declared in Chapter 2:

            
            ["%s=%s" % (k, v) for k, v in params.items()]

            First, notice that you're calling the items function of the params dictionary. This function returns a list of tuples of all the data in the dictionary.

            Example 3.25. The keys, values, and items Functions

            >>> params = {"server":"mpilgrim", "database":"master", "uid":"sa", "pwd":"secret"}
            >>> params.keys()   
            ['server', 'uid', 'database', 'pwd']
            >>> params.values() 
            ['mpilgrim', 'sa', 'master', 'secret']
            >>> params.items()  
            [('server', 'mpilgrim'), ('uid', 'sa'), ('database', 'master'), ('pwd', 'secret')]
            1. The keys method of a dictionary returns a list of all the keys. The list is not in the order in which the dictionary was defined (remember that elements in a dictionary are unordered), but it is a list.
            2. The values method returns a list of all the values. The list is in the same order as the list returned by keys, so params.values()[n] == params[params.keys()[n]] for all values of n.
            3. The items method returns a list of tuples of the form (key, value). The list contains all the data in the dictionary.

              Now let's see what buildConnectionString does. It takes a list, params.items(), and maps it to a new list by applying string formatting to each element. The new list will have the same number of elements as params.items(), but each element in the new list will be a string that contains both a key and its associated value from the params dictionary.

              Example 3.26. List Comprehensions in buildConnectionString, Step by Step

              >>> params = {"server":"mpilgrim", "database":"master", "uid":"sa", "pwd":"secret"}
              >>> params.items()
              [('server', 'mpilgrim'), ('uid', 'sa'), ('database', 'master'), ('pwd', 'secret')]
              >>> [k for k, v in params.items()]                
              ['server', 'uid', 'database', 'pwd']
              >>> [v for k, v in params.items()]                
              ['mpilgrim', 'sa', 'master', 'secret']
              >>> ["%s=%s" % (k, v) for k, v in params.items()] 
              ['server=mpilgrim', 'uid=sa', 'database=master', 'pwd=secret']
              1. Note that you're using two variables to iterate through the params.items() list. This is another use of multi-variable assignment. The first element of params.items() is ('server', 'mpilgrim'), so in the first iteration of the list comprehension, k will get 'server' and v will get 'mpilgrim'. In this case, you're ignoring the value of v and only including the value of k in the returned list, so this list comprehension ends up being equivalent to params.keys().
              2. Here you're doing the same thing, but ignoring the value of k, so this list comprehension ends up being equivalent to params.values().
              3. Combining the previous two examples with some simple string formatting, you get a list of strings that include both the key and value of each element of the dictionary. This looks suspiciously like the output of the program. All that remains is to join the elements in this list into a single string.

                Further Reading on List Comprehensions

                (String splitting stuff was here)

                Before diving into the next chapter, make sure you're comfortable doing all of these things:

                Chapter 4. The Power Of Introspection

                This chapter covers one of Python's strengths: introspection. As you know, everything in Python is an object, and introspection is code looking at other modules and functions in memory as objects, getting information about them, and manipulating them. Along the way, you'll define functions with no name, call functions with arguments out of order, and reference functions whose names you don't even know ahead of time.

                4.1. Diving In

                Here is a complete, working Python program. You should understand a good deal about it just by looking at it. The numbered lines illustrate concepts covered in Chapter 2, Your First Python Program. Don't worry if the rest of the code looks intimidating; you'll learn all about it throughout this chapter.

                Example 4.1. apihelper.py

                If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                
                def info(object, spacing=10, collapse=1):   
                    """Print methods and docstrings.
                    
                    Takes module, class, list, dictionary, or string."""
                    methodList = [method for method in dir(object) if callable(getattr(object, method))]
                    processFunc = collapse and (lambda s: " ".join(s.split())) or (lambda s: s)
                    print "\n".join(["%s %s" %
                    (method.ljust(spacing),
                     processFunc(str(getattr(object, method).__doc__)))
                   for method in methodList])
                
                if __name__ == "__main__":                 
                    print info.__doc__
                1. This module has one function, info. According to its function declaration, it takes three parameters: object, spacing, and collapse. The last two are actually optional parameters, as you'll see shortly.
                2. The info function has a multi-line docstring that succinctly describes the function's purpose. Note that no return value is mentioned; this function will be used solely for its effects, rather than its value.
                3. Code within the function is indented.
                4. The if __name__ trick allows this program do something useful when run by itself, without interfering with its use as a module for other programs. In this case, the program simply prints out the docstring of the info function.
                5. if statements use == for comparison, and parentheses are not required.

                  The info function is designed to be used by you, the programmer, while working in the Python IDE. It takes any object that has functions or methods (like a module, which has functions, or a list, which has methods) and prints out the functions and their docstrings.

                  Example 4.2. Sample Usage of apihelper.py

                  >>> from apihelper import info
                  >>> li = []
                  >>> info(li)
                  append     L.append(object) -- append object to end
                  count      L.count(value) -> integer -- return number of occurrences of value
                  extend     L.extend(list) -- extend list by appending list elements
                  index      L.index(value) -> integer -- return index of first occurrence of value
                  insert     L.insert(index, object) -- insert object before index
                  pop        L.pop([index]) -> item -- remove and return item at index (default last)
                  remove     L.remove(value) -- remove first occurrence of value
                  reverse    L.reverse() -- reverse *IN PLACE*
                  sort       L.sort([cmpfunc]) -- sort *IN PLACE*; if given, cmpfunc(x, y) -> -1, 0, 1

                  By default the output is formatted to be easy to read. Multi-line docstrings are collapsed into a single long line, but this option can be changed by specifying 0 for the collapse argument. If the function names are longer than 10 characters, you can specify a larger value for the spacing argument to make the output easier to read.

                  Example 4.3. Advanced Usage of apihelper.py

                  >>> import odbchelper
                  >>> info(odbchelper)
                  buildConnectionString Build a connection string from a dictionary Returns string.
                  >>> info(odbchelper, 30)
                  buildConnectionString          Build a connection string from a dictionary Returns string.
                  >>> info(odbchelper, 30, 0)
                  buildConnectionString          Build a connection string from a dictionary
                      
                      Returns string.
                  

                  4.2. Using Optional and Named Arguments

                  Python allows function arguments to have default values; if the function is called without the argument, the argument gets its default value. Futhermore, arguments can be specified in any order by using named arguments. Stored procedures in SQL Server Transact/SQL can do this, so if you're a SQL Server scripting guru, you can skim this part.

                  Here is an example of info, a function with two optional arguments:

                  
                  def info(object, spacing=10, collapse=1):

                  spacing and collapse are optional, because they have default values defined. object is required, because it has no default value. If info is called with only one argument, spacing defaults to 10 and collapse defaults to 1. If info is called with two arguments, collapse still defaults to 1.

                  Say you want to specify a value for collapse but want to accept the default value for spacing. In most languages, you would be out of luck, because you would need to call the function with three arguments. But in Python, arguments can be specified by name, in any order.

                  Example 4.4. Valid Calls of info

                  
                  info(odbchelper)  
                  info(odbchelper, 12)                
                  info(odbchelper, collapse=0)        
                  info(spacing=15, object=odbchelper) 
                  1. With only one argument, spacing gets its default value of 10 and collapse gets its default value of 1.
                  2. With two arguments, collapse gets its default value of 1.
                  3. Here you are naming the collapse argument explicitly and specifying its value. spacing still gets its default value of 10.
                  4. Even required arguments (like object, which has no default value) can be named, and named arguments can appear in any order.

                    This looks totally whacked until you realize that arguments are simply a dictionary. The “normal” method of calling functions without argument names is actually just a shorthand where Python matches up the values with the argument names in the order they're specified in the function declaration. And most of the time, you'll call functions the “normal” way, but you always have the additional flexibility if you need it.

                    NoteThe only thing you need to do to call a function is specify a value (somehow) for each required argument; the manner and order in which you do that is up to you.

                    Further Reading on Optional Arguments

                    4.3. Using type, str, dir, and Other Built-In Functions

                    Python has a small set of extremely useful built-in functions. All other functions are partitioned off into modules. This was actually a conscious design decision, to keep the core language from getting bloated like other scripting languages (cough cough, Visual Basic).

                    4.3.1. The type Function

                    The type function returns the datatype of any arbitrary object. The possible types are listed in the types module. This is useful for helper functions that can handle several types of data.

                    Example 4.5. Introducing type

                    >>> type(1)           
                    <type 'int'>
                    >>> li = []
                    >>> type(li)          
                    <type 'list'>
                    >>> import odbchelper
                    >>> type(odbchelper)  
                    <type 'module'>
                    >>> import types      
                    >>> type(odbchelper) == types.ModuleType
                    True
                    1. type takes anything -- and I mean anything -- and returns its datatype. Integers, strings, lists, dictionaries, tuples, functions, classes, modules, even types are acceptable.
                    2. type can take a variable and return its datatype.
                    3. type also works on modules.
                    4. You can use the constants in the types module to compare types of objects. This is what the info function does, as you'll see shortly.

                      4.3.2. The str Function

                      The str coerces data into a string. Every datatype can be coerced into a string.

                      Example 4.6. Introducing str

                      >>> str(1)          
                      '1'
                      >>> horsemen = ['war', 'pestilence', 'famine']
                      >>> horsemen
                      ['war', 'pestilence', 'famine']
                      >>> horsemen.append('Powerbuilder')
                      >>> str(horsemen)   
                      "['war', 'pestilence', 'famine', 'Powerbuilder']"
                      >>> str(odbchelper) 
                      "<module 'odbchelper' from 'c:\\docbook\\dip\\py\\odbchelper.py'>"
                      >>> str(None)       
                      'None'
                      1. For simple datatypes like integers, you would expect str to work, because almost every language has a function to convert an integer to a string.
                      2. However, str works on any object of any type. Here it works on a list which you've constructed in bits and pieces.
                      3. str also works on modules. Note that the string representation of the module includes the pathname of the module on disk, so yours will be different.
                      4. A subtle but important behavior of str is that it works on None, the Python null value. It returns the string 'None'. You'll use this to your advantage in the info function, as you'll see shortly.

                        At the heart of the info function is the powerful dir function. dir returns a list of the attributes and methods of any object: modules, functions, strings, lists, dictionaries... pretty much anything.

                        Example 4.7. Introducing dir

                        >>> li = []
                        >>> dir(li)           
                        ['append', 'count', 'extend', 'index', 'insert',
                        'pop', 'remove', 'reverse', 'sort']
                        >>> d = {}
                        >>> dir(d)            
                        ['clear', 'copy', 'get', 'has_key', 'items', 'keys', 'setdefault', 'update', 'values']
                        >>> import odbchelper
                        >>> dir(odbchelper)   
                        ['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__name__', 'buildConnectionString']
                        1. li is a list, so dir(li) returns a list of all the methods of a list. Note that the returned list contains the names of the methods as strings, not the methods themselves.
                        2. d is a dictionary, so dir(d) returns a list of the names of dictionary methods. At least one of these, keys, should look familiar.
                        3. This is where it really gets interesting. odbchelper is a module, so dir(odbchelper) returns a list of all kinds of stuff defined in the module, including built-in attributes, like __name__, __doc__, and whatever other attributes and methods you define. In this case, odbchelper has only one user-defined method, the buildConnectionString function described in Chapter 2.

                          Finally, the callable function takes any object and returns True if the object can be called, or False otherwise. Callable objects include functions, class methods, even classes themselves. (More on classes in the next chapter.)

                          Example 4.8. Introducing callable

                          >>> import string
                          >>> string.punctuation           
                          '!"#$%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_`{|}~'
                          >>> string.join
                          <function join at 00C55A7C>
                          >>> callable(string.punctuation) 
                          False
                          >>> callable(string.join)        
                          True
                          >>> print string.join.__doc__    
                          join(list [,sep]) -> string
                          
                              Return a string composed of the words in list, with
                              intervening occurrences of sep. The default separator is a
                              single space.
                          
                              (joinfields and join are synonymous)
                          1. The functions in the string module are deprecated (although many people still use the join function), but the module contains a lot of useful constants like this string.punctuation, which contains all the standard punctuation characters.
                          2. string.join is a function that joins a list of strings.
                          3. string.punctuation is not callable; it is a string. (A string does have callable methods, but the string itself is not callable.)
                          4. string.join is callable; it's a function that takes two arguments.
                          5. Any callable object may have a docstring. By using the callable function on each of an object's attributes, you can determine which attributes you care about (methods, functions, classes) and which you want to ignore (constants and so on) without knowing anything about the object ahead of time.

                            4.3.3. Built-In Functions

                            type, str, dir, and all the rest of Python's built-in functions are grouped into a special module called __builtin__. (That's two underscores before and after.) If it helps, you can think of Python automatically executing from __builtin__ import * on startup, which imports all the “built-in” functions into the namespace so you can use them directly.

                            The advantage of thinking like this is that you can access all the built-in functions and attributes as a group by getting information about the __builtin__ module. And guess what, Python has a function called info. Try it yourself and skim through the list now. We'll dive into some of the more important functions later. (Some of the built-in error classes, like AttributeError, should already look familiar.)

                            Example 4.9. Built-in Attributes and Functions

                            >>> from apihelper import info
                            >>> import __builtin__
                            >>> info(__builtin__, 20)
                            ArithmeticError      Base class for arithmetic errors.
                            AssertionError       Assertion failed.
                            AttributeError       Attribute not found.
                            EOFError             Read beyond end of file.
                            EnvironmentError     Base class for I/O related errors.
                            Exception            Common base class for all exceptions.
                            FloatingPointError   Floating point operation failed.
                            IOError              I/O operation failed.
                            
                            [...snip...]
                            NotePython comes with excellent reference manuals, which you should peruse thoroughly to learn all the modules Python has to offer. But unlike most languages, where you would find yourself referring back to the manuals or man pages to remind yourself how to use these modules, Python is largely self-documenting.

                            Further Reading on Built-In Functions

                            4.4. Getting Object References With getattr

                            You already know that Python functions are objects. What you don't know is that you can get a reference to a function without knowing its name until run-time, by using the getattr function.

                            Example 4.10. Introducing getattr

                            >>> li = ["Larry", "Curly"]
                            >>> li.pop     
                            <built-in method pop of list object at 010DF884>
                            >>> getattr(li, "pop")           
                            <built-in method pop of list object at 010DF884>
                            >>> getattr(li, "append")("Moe") 
                            >>> li
                            ["Larry", "Curly", "Moe"]
                            >>> getattr({}, "clear")         
                            <built-in method clear of dictionary object at 00F113D4>
                            >>> getattr((), "pop")           
                            Traceback (innermost last):
                              File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
                            AttributeError: 'tuple' object has no attribute 'pop'
                            1. This gets a reference to the pop method of the list. Note that this is not calling the pop method; that would be li.pop(). This is the method itself.
                            2. This also returns a reference to the pop method, but this time, the method name is specified as a string argument to the getattr function. getattr is an incredibly useful built-in function that returns any attribute of any object. In this case, the object is a list, and the attribute is the pop method.
                            3. In case it hasn't sunk in just how incredibly useful this is, try this: the return value of getattr is the method, which you can then call just as if you had said li.append("Moe") directly. But you didn't call the function directly; you specified the function name as a string instead.
                            4. getattr also works on dictionaries.
                            5. In theory, getattr would work on tuples, except that tuples have no methods, so getattr will raise an exception no matter what attribute name you give.

                              4.4.1. getattr with Modules

                              getattr isn't just for built-in datatypes. It also works on modules.

                              Example 4.11. The getattr Function in apihelper.py

                              >>> import odbchelper
                              >>> odbchelper.buildConnectionString             
                              <function buildConnectionString at 00D18DD4>
                              >>> getattr(odbchelper, "buildConnectionString") 
                              <function buildConnectionString at 00D18DD4>
                              >>> object = odbchelper
                              >>> method = "buildConnectionString"
                              >>> getattr(object, method)    
                              <function buildConnectionString at 00D18DD4>
                              >>> type(getattr(object, method))                
                              <type 'function'>
                              >>> import types
                              >>> type(getattr(object, method)) == types.FunctionType
                              True
                              >>> callable(getattr(object, method))            
                              True
                              1. This returns a reference to the buildConnectionString function in the odbchelper module, which you studied in Chapter 2, Your First Python Program. (The hex address you see is specific to my machine; your output will be different.)
                              2. Using getattr, you can get the same reference to the same function. In general, getattr(object, "attribute") is equivalent to object.attribute. If object is a module, then attribute can be anything defined in the module: a function, class, or global variable.
                              3. And this is what you actually use in the info function. object is passed into the function as an argument; method is a string which is the name of a method or function.
                              4. In this case, method is the name of a function, which you can prove by getting its type.
                              5. Since method is a function, it is callable.

                                4.4.2. getattr As a Dispatcher

                                A common usage pattern of getattr is as a dispatcher. For example, if you had a program that could output data in a variety of different formats, you could define separate functions for each output format and use a single dispatch function to call the right one.

                                For example, let's imagine a program that prints site statistics in HTML, XML, and plain text formats. The choice of output format could be specified on the command line, or stored in a configuration file. A statsout module defines three functions, output_html, output_xml, and output_text. Then the main program defines a single output function, like this:

                                Example 4.12. Creating a Dispatcher with getattr

                                
                                import statsout
                                
                                def output(data, format="text"):            
                                    output_function = getattr(statsout, "output_%s" % format) 
                                    return output_function(data)            
                                
                                1. The output function takes one required argument, data, and one optional argument, format. If format is not specified, it defaults to text, and you will end up calling the plain text output function.
                                2. You concatenate the format argument with "output_" to produce a function name, and then go get that function from the statsout module. This allows you to easily extend the program later to support other output formats, without changing this dispatch function. Just add another function to statsout named, for instance, output_pdf, and pass "pdf" as the format into the output function.
                                3. Now you can simply call the output function in the same way as any other function. The output_function variable is a reference to the appropriate function from the statsout module.

                                  Did you see the bug in the previous example? This is a very loose coupling of strings and functions, and there is no error checking. What happens if the user passes in a format that doesn't have a corresponding function defined in statsout? Well, getattr will return None, which will be assigned to output_function instead of a valid function, and the next line that attempts to call that function will crash and raise an exception. That's bad.

                                  Luckily, getattr takes an optional third argument, a default value.

                                  Example 4.13. getattr Default Values

                                  
                                  import statsout
                                  
                                  def output(data, format="text"):
                                      output_function = getattr(statsout, "output_%s" % format, statsout.output_text)
                                      return output_function(data) 
                                  
                                  1. This function call is guaranteed to work, because you added a third argument to the call to getattr. The third argument is a default value that is returned if the attribute or method specified by the second argument wasn't found.

                                    As you can see, getattr is quite powerful. It is the heart of introspection, and you'll see even more powerful examples of it in later chapters.

                                    4.5. Filtering Lists

                                    As you know, Python has powerful capabilities for mapping lists into other lists, via list comprehensions (Section 3.6, “Mapping Lists”). This can be combined with a filtering mechanism, where some elements in the list are mapped while others are skipped entirely.

                                    Here is the list filtering syntax:

                                    
                                    [mapping-expression for element in source-list if filter-expression]

                                    This is an extension of the list comprehensions that you know and love. The first two thirds are the same; the last part, starting with the if, is the filter expression. A filter expression can be any expression that evaluates true or false (which in Python can be almost anything). Any element for which the filter expression evaluates true will be included in the mapping. All other elements are ignored, so they are never put through the mapping expression and are not included in the output list.

                                    Example 4.14. Introducing List Filtering

                                    >>> li = ["a", "mpilgrim", "foo", "b", "c", "b", "d", "d"]
                                    >>> [elem for elem in li if len(elem) > 1]       
                                    ['mpilgrim', 'foo']
                                    >>> [elem for elem in li if elem != "b"]         
                                    ['a', 'mpilgrim', 'foo', 'c', 'd', 'd']
                                    >>> [elem for elem in li if li.count(elem) == 1] 
                                    ['a', 'mpilgrim', 'foo', 'c']
                                    1. The mapping expression here is simple (it just returns the value of each element), so concentrate on the filter expression. As Python loops through the list, it runs each element through the filter expression. If the filter expression is true, the element is mapped and the result of the mapping expression is included in the returned list. Here, you are filtering out all the one-character strings, so you're left with a list of all the longer strings.
                                    2. Here, you are filtering out a specific value, b. Note that this filters all occurrences of b, since each time it comes up, the filter expression will be false.
                                    3. count is a list method that returns the number of times a value occurs in a list. You might think that this filter would eliminate duplicates from a list, returning a list containing only one copy of each value in the original list. But it doesn't, because values that appear twice in the original list (in this case, b and d) are excluded completely. There are ways of eliminating duplicates from a list, but filtering is not the solution.

                                      Let's id="apihelper.filter.care" get back to this line from apihelper.py:

                                      
                                          methodList = [method for method in dir(object) if callable(getattr(object, method))]

                                      This looks complicated, and it is complicated, but the basic structure is the same. The whole filter expression returns a list, which is assigned to the methodList variable. The first half of the expression is the list mapping part. The mapping expression is an identity expression, which it returns the value of each element. dir(object) returns a list of object's attributes and methods -- that's the list you're mapping. So the only new part is the filter expression after the if.

                                      The filter expression looks scary, but it's not. You already know about callable, getattr, and in. As you saw in the previous section, the expression getattr(object, method) returns a function object if object is a module and method is the name of a function in that module.

                                      So this expression takes an object (named object). Then it gets a list of the names of the object's attributes, methods, functions, and a few other things. Then it filters that list to weed out all the stuff that you don't care about. You do the weeding out by taking the name of each attribute/method/function and getting a reference to the real thing, via the getattr function. Then you check to see if that object is callable, which will be any methods and functions, both built-in (like the pop method of a list) and user-defined (like the buildConnectionString function of the odbchelper module). You don't care about other attributes, like the __name__ attribute that's built in to every module.

                                      Further Reading on Filtering Lists

                                      4.6. The Peculiar Nature of and and or

                                      In Python, and and or perform boolean logic as you would expect, but they do not return boolean values; instead, they return one of the actual values they are comparing.

                                      Example 4.15. Introducing and

                                      >>> 'a' and 'b'         
                                      'b'
                                      >>> '' and 'b'          
                                      ''
                                      >>> 'a' and 'b' and 'c' 
                                      'c'
                                      1. When using and, values are evaluated in a boolean context from left to right. 0, '', [], (), {}, and None are false in a boolean context; everything else is true. Well, almost everything. By default, instances of classes are true in a boolean context, but you can define special methods in your class to make an instance evaluate to false. You'll learn all about classes and special methods in Chapter 5. If all values are true in a boolean context, and returns the last value. In this case, and evaluates 'a', which is true, then 'b', which is true, and returns 'b'.
                                      2. If any value is false in a boolean context, and returns the first false value. In this case, '' is the first false value.
                                      3. All values are true, so and returns the last value, 'c'.

                                        Example 4.16. Introducing or

                                        >>> 'a' or 'b'          
                                        'a'
                                        >>> '' or 'b'           
                                        'b'
                                        >>> '' or [] or {}      
                                        {}
                                        >>> def sidefx():
                                        ...    print "in sidefx()"
                                        ...    return 1
                                        >>> 'a' or sidefx()     
                                        'a'
                                        1. When using or, values are evaluated in a boolean context from left to right, just like and. If any value is true, or returns that value immediately. In this case, 'a' is the first true value.
                                        2. or evaluates '', which is false, then 'b', which is true, and returns 'b'.
                                        3. If all values are false, or returns the last value. or evaluates '', which is false, then [], which is false, then {}, which is false, and returns {}.
                                        4. Note that or evaluates values only until it finds one that is true in a boolean context, and then it ignores the rest. This distinction is important if some values can have side effects. Here, the function sidefx is never called, because or evaluates 'a', which is true, and returns 'a' immediately.

                                          If you're a C hacker, you are certainly familiar with the bool ? a : b expression, which evaluates to a if bool is true, and b otherwise. Because of the way and and or work in Python, you can accomplish the same thing.

                                          4.6.1. Using the and-or Trick

                                          Example 4.17. Introducing the and-or Trick

                                          >>> a = "first"
                                          >>> b = "second"
                                          >>> 1 and a or b 
                                          'first'
                                          >>> 0 and a or b 
                                          'second'
                                          
                                          1. This syntax looks similar to the bool ? a : b expression in C. The entire expression is evaluated from left to right, so the and is evaluated first. 1 and 'first' evalutes to 'first', then 'first' or 'second' evalutes to 'first'.
                                          2. 0 and 'first' evalutes to False, and then 0 or 'second' evaluates to 'second'.

                                            However, since this Python expression is simply boolean logic, and not a special construct of the language, there is one extremely important difference between this and-or trick in Python and the bool ? a : b syntax in C. If the value of a is false, the expression will not work as you would expect it to. (Can you tell I was bitten by this? More than once?)

                                            Example 4.18. When the and-or Trick Fails

                                            >>> a = ""
                                            >>> b = "second"
                                            >>> 1 and a or b         
                                            'second'
                                            1. Since a is an empty string, which Python considers false in a boolean context, 1 and '' evalutes to '', and then '' or 'second' evalutes to 'second'. Oops! That's not what you wanted.

                                              The and-or trick, bool and a or b, will not work like the C expression bool ? a : b when a is false in a boolean context.

                                              The real trick behind the and-or trick, then, is to make sure that the value of a is never false. One common way of doing this is to turn a into [a] and b into [b], then taking the first element of the returned list, which will be either a or b.

                                              Example 4.19. Using the and-or Trick Safely

                                              >>> a = ""
                                              >>> b = "second"
                                              >>> (1 and [a] or [b])[0] 
                                              ''
                                              1. Since [a] is a non-empty list, it is never false. Even if a is 0 or '' or some other false value, the list [a] is true because it has one element.

                                                By now, this trick may seem like more trouble than it's worth. You could, after all, accomplish the same thing with an if statement, so why go through all this fuss? Well, in many cases, you are choosing between two constant values, so you can use the simpler syntax and not worry, because you know that the a value will always be true. And even if you need to use the more complicated safe form, there are good reasons to do so. For example, there are some cases in Python where if statements are not allowed, such as in lambda functions.

                                                Further Reading on the and-or Trick

                                                4.7. Using lambda Functions

                                                Python supports an interesting syntax that lets you define one-line mini-functions on the fly. Borrowed from Lisp, these so-called lambda functions can be used anywhere a function is required.

                                                Example 4.20. Introducing lambda Functions

                                                >>> def f(x):
                                                ...    return x*2
                                                ...    
                                                >>> f(3)
                                                6
                                                >>> g = lambda x: x*2  
                                                >>> g(3)
                                                6
                                                >>> (lambda x: x*2)(3) 
                                                6
                                                1. This is a lambda function that accomplishes the same thing as the normal function above it. Note the abbreviated syntax here: there are no parentheses around the argument list, and the return keyword is missing (it is implied, since the entire function can only be one expression). Also, the function has no name, but it can be called through the variable it is assigned to.
                                                2. You can use a lambda function without even assigning it to a variable. This may not be the most useful thing in the world, but it just goes to show that a lambda is just an in-line function.

                                                  To generalize, a lambda function is a function that takes any number of arguments (including optional arguments) and returns the value of a single expression. lambda functions can not contain commands, and they can not contain more than one expression. Don't try to squeeze too much into a lambda function; if you need something more complex, define a normal function instead and make it as long as you want.

                                                  Notelambda functions are a matter of style. Using them is never required; anywhere you could use them, you could define a separate normal function and use that instead. I use them in places where I want to encapsulate specific, non-reusable code without littering my code with a lot of little one-line functions.

                                                  4.7.1. Real-World lambda Functions

                                                  Here are the lambda functions in apihelper.py:

                                                  
                                                      processFunc = collapse and (lambda s: " ".join(s.split())) or (lambda s: s)

                                                  Notice that this uses the simple form of the and-or trick, which is okay, because a lambda function is always true in a boolean context. (That doesn't mean that a lambda function can't return a false value. The function is always true; its return value could be anything.)

                                                  Also notice that you're using the split function with no arguments. You've already seen it used with one or two arguments, but without any arguments it splits on whitespace.

                                                  Example 4.21. split With No Arguments

                                                  >>> s = "this   is\na\ttest"  
                                                  >>> print s
                                                  this   is
                                                  a	test
                                                  >>> print s.split()           
                                                  ['this', 'is', 'a', 'test']
                                                  >>> print " ".join(s.split()) 
                                                  'this is a test'
                                                  1. This is a multiline string, defined by escape characters instead of triple quotes. \n is a carriage return, and \t is a tab character.
                                                  2. split without any arguments splits on whitespace. So three spaces, a carriage return, and a tab character are all the same.
                                                  3. You can normalize whitespace by splitting a string with split and then rejoining it with join, using a single space as a delimiter. This is what the info function does to collapse multi-line docstrings into a single line.

                                                    So what is the info function actually doing with these lambda functions, splits, and and-or tricks?

                                                        processFunc = collapse and (lambda s: " ".join(s.split())) or (lambda s: s)

                                                    processFunc is now a function, but which function it is depends on the value of the collapse variable. If collapse is true, processFunc(string) will collapse whitespace; otherwise, processFunc(string) will return its argument unchanged.

                                                    To do this in a less robust language, like Visual Basic, you would probably create a function that took a string and a collapse argument and used an if statement to decide whether to collapse the whitespace or not, then returned the appropriate value. This would be inefficient, because the function would need to handle every possible case. Every time you called it, it would need to decide whether to collapse whitespace before it could give you what you wanted. In Python, you can take that decision logic out of the function and define a lambda function that is custom-tailored to give you exactly (and only) what you want. This is more efficient, more elegant, and less prone to those nasty oh-I-thought-those-arguments-were-reversed kinds of errors.

                                                    Further Reading on lambda Functions

                                                    4.8. Putting It All Together

                                                    The last line of code, the only one you haven't deconstructed yet, is the one that does all the work. But by now the work is easy, because everything you need is already set up just the way you need it. All the dominoes are in place; it's time to knock them down.

                                                    This is the meat of apihelper.py:

                                                    
                                                        print "\n".join(["%s %s" %
                                                        (method.ljust(spacing),
                                                         processFunc(str(getattr(object, method).__doc__)))
                                                       for method in methodList])

                                                    Note that this is one command, split over multiple lines, but it doesn't use the line continuation character (\). Remember when I said that some expressions can be split into multiple lines without using a backslash? A list comprehension is one of those expressions, since the entire expression is contained in square brackets.

                                                    Now, let's take it from the end and work backwards. The

                                                    
                                                    for method in methodList

                                                    shows that this is a list comprehension. As you know, methodList is a list of all the methods you care about in object. So you're looping through that list with method.

                                                    Example 4.22. Getting a docstring Dynamically

                                                    >>> import odbchelper
                                                    >>> object = odbchelper 
                                                    >>> method = 'buildConnectionString'      
                                                    >>> getattr(object, method)               
                                                    <function buildConnectionString at 010D6D74>
                                                    >>> print getattr(object, method).__doc__ 
                                                    Build a connection string from a dictionary of parameters.
                                                    
                                                        Returns string.
                                                    1. In the info function, object is the object you're getting help on, passed in as an argument.
                                                    2. As you're looping through methodList, method is the name of the current method.
                                                    3. Using the getattr function, you're getting a reference to the method function in the object module.
                                                    4. Now, printing the actual docstring of the method is easy.

                                                      The next piece of the puzzle is the use of str around the docstring. As you may recall, str is a built-in function that coerces data into a string. But a docstring is always a string, so why bother with the str function? The answer is that not every function has a docstring, and if it doesn't, its __doc__ attribute is None.

                                                      Example 4.23. Why Use str on a docstring?

                                                      >>> >>> def foo(): print 2
                                                      >>> >>> foo()
                                                      2
                                                      >>> >>> foo.__doc__     
                                                      >>> foo.__doc__ == None 
                                                      True
                                                      >>> str(foo.__doc__)    
                                                      'None'
                                                      
                                                      1. You can easily define a function that has no docstring, so its __doc__ attribute is None. Confusingly, if you evaluate the __doc__ attribute directly, the Python IDE prints nothing at all, which makes sense if you think about it, but is still unhelpful.
                                                      2. You can verify that the value of the __doc__ attribute is actually None by comparing it directly.
                                                      3. The str function takes the null value and returns a string representation of it, 'None'.
                                                        NoteIn SQL, you must use IS NULL instead of = NULL to compare a null value. In Python, you can use either == None or is None, but is None is faster.

                                                        Now that you are guaranteed to have a string, you can pass the string to processFunc, which you have already defined as a function that either does or doesn't collapse whitespace. Now you see why it was important to use str to convert a None value into a string representation. processFunc is assuming a string argument and calling its split method, which would crash if you passed it None because None doesn't have a split method.

                                                        Stepping back even further, you see that you're using string formatting again to concatenate the return value of processFunc with the return value of method's ljust method. This is a new string method that you haven't seen before.

                                                        Example 4.24. Introducing ljust

                                                        >>> s = 'buildConnectionString'
                                                        >>> s.ljust(30) 
                                                        'buildConnectionString         '
                                                        >>> s.ljust(20) 
                                                        'buildConnectionString'
                                                        1. ljust pads the string with spaces to the given length. This is what the info function uses to make two columns of output and line up all the docstrings in the second column.
                                                        2. If the given length is smaller than the length of the string, ljust will simply return the string unchanged. It never truncates the string.

                                                          You're almost finished. Given the padded method name from the ljust method and the (possibly collapsed) docstring from the call to processFunc, you concatenate the two and get a single string. Since you're mapping methodList, you end up with a list of strings. Using the join method of the string "\n", you join this list into a single string, with each element of the list on a separate line, and print the result.

                                                          Example 4.25. Printing a List

                                                          >>> li = ['a', 'b', 'c']
                                                          >>> print "\n".join(li) 
                                                          a
                                                          b
                                                          c
                                                          1. This is also a useful debugging trick when you're working with lists. And in Python, you're always working with lists.

                                                            That's the last piece of the puzzle. You should now understand this code.

                                                            
                                                                print "\n".join(["%s %s" %
                                                                (method.ljust(spacing),
                                                                 processFunc(str(getattr(object, method).__doc__)))
                                                               for method in methodList])

                                                            4.9. Summary

                                                            The apihelper.py program and its output should now make perfect sense.

                                                            
                                                            def info(object, spacing=10, collapse=1):
                                                                """Print methods and docstrings.
                                                                
                                                                Takes module, class, list, dictionary, or string."""
                                                                methodList = [method for method in dir(object) if callable(getattr(object, method))]
                                                                processFunc = collapse and (lambda s: " ".join(s.split())) or (lambda s: s)
                                                                print "\n".join(["%s %s" %
                                                                (method.ljust(spacing),
                                                                 processFunc(str(getattr(object, method).__doc__)))
                                                               for method in methodList])
                                                            
                                                            if __name__ == "__main__":
                                                                print info.__doc__

                                                            Here is the output of apihelper.py:

                                                            >>> from apihelper import info
                                                            >>> li = []
                                                            >>> info(li)
                                                            append     L.append(object) -- append object to end
                                                            count      L.count(value) -> integer -- return number of occurrences of value
                                                            extend     L.extend(list) -- extend list by appending list elements
                                                            index      L.index(value) -> integer -- return index of first occurrence of value
                                                            insert     L.insert(index, object) -- insert object before index
                                                            pop        L.pop([index]) -> item -- remove and return item at index (default last)
                                                            remove     L.remove(value) -- remove first occurrence of value
                                                            reverse    L.reverse() -- reverse *IN PLACE*
                                                            sort       L.sort([cmpfunc]) -- sort *IN PLACE*; if given, cmpfunc(x, y) -> -1, 0, 1

                                                            Before diving into the next chapter, make sure you're comfortable doing all of these things:

                                                            • Defining and calling functions with optional and named arguments
                                                            • Using str to coerce any arbitrary value into a string representation
                                                            • Using getattr to get references to functions and other attributes dynamically
                                                            • Extending the list comprehension syntax to do list filtering
                                                            • Recognizing the and-or trick and using it safely
                                                            • Defining lambda functions
                                                            • Assigning functions to variables and calling the function by referencing the variable. I can't emphasize this enough, because this mode of thought is vital to advancing your understanding of Python. You'll see more complex applications of this concept throughout this book.

                                                            Chapter 5. Objects and Object-Orientation

                                                            This chapter, and pretty much every chapter after this, deals with object-oriented Python programming.

                                                            5.1. Diving In

                                                            Here is a complete, working Python program. Read the docstrings of the module, the classes, and the functions to get an overview of what this program does and how it works. As usual, don't worry about the stuff you don't understand; that's what the rest of the chapter is for.

                                                            Example 5.1. fileinfo.py

                                                            If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                            
                                                            """Framework for getting filetype-specific metadata.
                                                            
                                                            Instantiate appropriate class with filename. Returned object acts like a
                                                            dictionary, with key-value pairs for each piece of metadata.
                                                                import fileinfo
                                                                info = fileinfo.MP3FileInfo("/music/ap/mahadeva.mp3")
                                                                print "\\n".join(["%s=%s" % (k, v) for k, v in info.items()])
                                                            
                                                            Or use listDirectory function to get info on all files in a directory.
                                                                for info in fileinfo.listDirectory("/music/ap/", [".mp3"]):
                                                                    ...
                                                            
                                                            Framework can be extended by adding classes for particular file types, e.g.
                                                            HTMLFileInfo, MPGFileInfo, DOCFileInfo. Each class is completely responsible for
                                                            parsing its files appropriately; see MP3FileInfo for example.
                                                            """
                                                            import os
                                                            import sys
                                                            from UserDict import UserDict
                                                            
                                                            def stripnulls(data):
                                                                "strip whitespace and nulls"
                                                                return data.replace("\00", "").strip()
                                                            
                                                            class FileInfo(UserDict):
                                                                "store file metadata"
                                                                def __init__(self, filename=None):
                                                                    UserDict.__init__(self)
                                                                    self["name"] = filename
                                                            
                                                            class MP3FileInfo(FileInfo):
                                                                "store ID3v1.0 MP3 tags"
                                                                tagDataMap = {"title"   : (  3,  33, stripnulls),
                                                            "artist"  : ( 33,  63, stripnulls),
                                                            "album"   : ( 63,  93, stripnulls),
                                                            "year"    : ( 93,  97, stripnulls),
                                                            "comment" : ( 97, 126, stripnulls),
                                                            "genre"   : (127, 128, ord)}
                                                            
                                                                def __parse(self, filename):
                                                                    "parse ID3v1.0 tags from MP3 file"
                                                                    self.clear()
                                                                    try:             
                                                                        fsock = open(filename, "rb", 0)
                                                                        try:         
                                                                            fsock.seek(-128, 2)        
                                                                            tagdata = fsock.read(128)  
                                                                        finally:     
                                                                            fsock.close()              
                                                                        if tagdata[:3] == "TAG":
                                                                            for tag, (start, end, parseFunc) in self.tagDataMap.items():
                                                              self[tag] = parseFunc(tagdata[start:end])               
                                                                    except IOError:  
                                                                        pass         
                                                            
                                                                def __setitem__(self, key, item):
                                                                    if key == "name" and item:
                                                                        self.__parse(item)
                                                                    FileInfo.__setitem__(self, key, item)
                                                            
                                                            def listDirectory(directory, fileExtList):    
                                                                "get list of file info objects for files of particular extensions"
                                                                fileList = [os.path.normcase(f)
                                                                            for f in os.listdir(directory)]           
                                                                fileList = [os.path.join(directory, f) 
                                                                           for f in fileList
                                                                            if os.path.splitext(f)[1] in fileExtList] 
                                                                def getFileInfoClass(filename, module=sys.modules[FileInfo.__module__]):      
                                                                    "get file info class from filename extension"           
                                                                    subclass = "%sFileInfo" % os.path.splitext(filename)[1].upper()[1:]       
                                                                    return hasattr(module, subclass) and getattr(module, subclass) or FileInfo
                                                                return [getFileInfoClass(f)(f) for f in fileList]           
                                                            
                                                            if __name__ == "__main__":
                                                                for info in listDirectory("/music/_singles/", [".mp3"]): 
                                                                    print "\n".join(["%s=%s" % (k, v) for k, v in info.items()])
                                                                    print
                                                            1. This program's output depends on the files on your hard drive. To get meaningful output, you'll need to change the directory path to point to a directory of MP3 files on your own machine.

                                                              This is the output I got on my machine. Your output will be different, unless, by some startling coincidence, you share my exact taste in music.

                                                              album=
                                                              artist=Ghost in the Machine
                                                              title=A Time Long Forgotten (Concept
                                                              genre=31
                                                              name=/music/_singles/a_time_long_forgotten_con.mp3
                                                              year=1999
                                                              comment=http://mp3.com/ghostmachine
                                                              
                                                              album=Rave Mix
                                                              artist=***DJ MARY-JANE***
                                                              title=HELLRAISER****Trance from Hell
                                                              genre=31
                                                              name=/music/_singles/hellraiser.mp3
                                                              year=2000
                                                              comment=http://mp3.com/DJMARYJANE
                                                              
                                                              album=Rave Mix
                                                              artist=***DJ MARY-JANE***
                                                              title=KAIRO****THE BEST GOA
                                                              genre=31
                                                              name=/music/_singles/kairo.mp3
                                                              year=2000
                                                              comment=http://mp3.com/DJMARYJANE
                                                              
                                                              album=Journeys
                                                              artist=Masters of Balance
                                                              title=Long Way Home
                                                              genre=31
                                                              name=/music/_singles/long_way_home1.mp3
                                                              year=2000
                                                              comment=http://mp3.com/MastersofBalan
                                                              
                                                              album=
                                                              artist=The Cynic Project
                                                              title=Sidewinder
                                                              genre=18
                                                              name=/music/_singles/sidewinder.mp3
                                                              year=2000
                                                              comment=http://mp3.com/cynicproject
                                                              
                                                              album=Digitosis@128k
                                                              artist=VXpanded
                                                              title=Spinning
                                                              genre=255
                                                              name=/music/_singles/spinning.mp3
                                                              year=2000
                                                              comment=http://mp3.com/artists/95/vxp

                                                              5.2. Importing Modules Using from module import

                                                              Python has two ways of importing modules. Both are useful, and you should know when to use each. One way, import module, you've already seen in Section 2.4, “Everything Is an Object”. The other way accomplishes the same thing, but it has subtle and important differences.

                                                              Here is the basic from module import syntax:

                                                              
                                                              from UserDict import UserDict
                                                              

                                                              This is similar to the import module syntax that you know and love, but with an important difference: the attributes and methods of the imported module types are imported directly into the local namespace, so they are available directly, without qualification by module name. You can import individual items or use from module import * to import everything.

                                                              Notefrom module import * in Python is like use module in Perl; import module in Python is like require module in Perl.
                                                              Notefrom module import * in Python is like import module.* in Java; import module in Python is like import module in Java.

                                                              Example 5.2. import module vs. from module import

                                                              >>> import types
                                                              >>> types.FunctionType             
                                                              <type 'function'>
                                                              >>> FunctionType 
                                                              Traceback (innermost last):
                                                                File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
                                                              NameError: There is no variable named 'FunctionType'
                                                              >>> from types import FunctionType 
                                                              >>> FunctionType 
                                                              <type 'function'>
                                                              1. The types module contains no methods; it just has attributes for each Python object type. Note that the attribute, FunctionType, must be qualified by the module name, types.
                                                              2. FunctionType by itself has not been defined in this namespace; it exists only in the context of types.
                                                              3. This syntax imports the attribute FunctionType from the types module directly into the local namespace.
                                                              4. Now FunctionType can be accessed directly, without reference to types.

                                                                When should you use from module import?

                                                                • If you will be accessing attributes and methods often and don't want to type the module name over and over, use from module import.
                                                                • If you want to selectively import some attributes and methods but not others, use from module import.
                                                                • If the module contains attributes or functions with the same name as ones in your module, you must use import module to avoid name conflicts.

                                                                Other than that, it's just a matter of style, and you will see Python code written both ways.

                                                                CautionUse from module import * sparingly, because it makes it difficult to determine where a particular function or attribute came from, and that makes debugging and refactoring more difficult.

                                                                Further Reading on Module Importing Techniques

                                                                [classes stuff was here]

                                                                Example 5.4. Defining the FileInfo Class

                                                                
                                                                from UserDict import UserDict
                                                                
                                                                class FileInfo(UserDict): 
                                                                1. In Python, the ancestor of a class is simply listed in parentheses immediately after the class name. So the FileInfo class is inherited from the UserDict class (which was imported from the UserDict module). UserDict is a class that acts like a dictionary, allowing you to essentially subclass the dictionary datatype and add your own behavior. (There are similar classes UserList and UserString which allow you to subclass lists and strings.) There is a bit of black magic behind this, which you will demystify later in this chapter when you explore the UserDict class in more depth.
                                                                  NoteIn Python, the ancestor of a class is simply listed in parentheses immediately after the class name. There is no special keyword like extends in Java.

                                                                  Python supports multiple inheritance. In the parentheses following the class name, you can list as many ancestor classes as you like, separated by commas.

                                                                  5.3.1. Initializing and Coding Classes

                                                                  This example shows the initialization of the FileInfo class using the __init__ method.

                                                                  Example 5.5. Initializing the FileInfo Class

                                                                  
                                                                  class FileInfo(UserDict):
                                                                      "store file metadata"              
                                                                      def __init__(self, filename=None):   
                                                                  1. Classes can (and should) have docstrings too, just like modules and functions.
                                                                  2. __init__ is called immediately after an instance of the class is created. It would be tempting but incorrect to call this the constructor of the class. It's tempting, because it looks like a constructor (by convention, __init__ is the first method defined for the class), acts like one (it's the first piece of code executed in a newly created instance of the class), and even sounds like one (“init” certainly suggests a constructor-ish nature). Incorrect, because the object has already been constructed by the time __init__ is called, and you already have a valid reference to the new instance of the class. But __init__ is the closest thing you're going to get to a constructor in Python, and it fills much the same role.
                                                                  3. The first argument of every class method, including __init__, is always a reference to the current instance of the class. By convention, this argument is always named self. In the __init__ method, self refers to the newly created object; in other class methods, it refers to the instance whose method was called. Although you need to specify self explicitly when defining the method, you do not specify it when calling the method; Python will add it for you automatically.
                                                                  4. __init__ methods can take any number of arguments, and just like functions, the arguments can be defined with default values, making them optional to the caller. In this case, filename has a default value of None, which is the Python null value.
                                                                    NoteBy convention, the first argument of any Python class method (the reference to the current instance) is called self. This argument fills the role of the reserved word this in C++ or Java, but self is not a reserved word in Python, merely a naming convention. Nonetheless, please don't call it anything but self; this is a very strong convention.

                                                                    Example 5.6. Coding the FileInfo Class

                                                                    
                                                                    class FileInfo(UserDict):
                                                                        "store file metadata"
                                                                        def __init__(self, filename=None):
                                                                            UserDict.__init__(self)        
                                                                            self["name"] = filename        
                                                                    
                                                                    1. Some pseudo-object-oriented languages like Powerbuilder have a concept of “extending” constructors and other events, where the ancestor's method is called automatically before the descendant's method is executed. Python does not do this; you must always explicitly call the appropriate method in the ancestor class.
                                                                    2. I told you that this class acts like a dictionary, and here is the first sign of it. You're assigning the argument filename as the value of this object's name key.
                                                                    3. Note that the __init__ method never returns a value.

                                                                      5.3.2. Knowing When to Use self and __init__

                                                                      When defining your class methods, you must explicitly list self as the first argument for each method, including __init__. When you call a method of an ancestor class from within your class, you must include the self argument. But when you call your class method from outside, you do not specify anything for the self argument; you skip it entirely, and Python automatically adds the instance reference for you. I am aware that this is confusing at first; it's not really inconsistent, but it may appear inconsistent because it relies on a distinction (between bound and unbound methods) that you don't know about yet.

                                                                      Whew. I realize that's a lot to absorb, but you'll get the hang of it. All Python classes work the same way, so once you learn one, you've learned them all. If you forget everything else, remember this one thing, because I promise it will trip you up:

                                                                      Note__init__ methods are optional, but when you define one, you must remember to explicitly call the ancestor's __init__ method (if it defines one). This is more generally true: whenever a descendant wants to extend the behavior of the ancestor, the descendant method must explicitly call the ancestor method at the proper time, with the proper arguments.

                                                                      Further Reading on Python Classes

                                                                      5.4. Instantiating Classes

                                                                      Instantiating classes in Python is straightforward. To instantiate a class, simply call the class as if it were a function, passing the arguments that the __init__ method defines. The return value will be the newly created object.

                                                                      Example 5.7. Creating a FileInfo Instance

                                                                      >>> import fileinfo
                                                                      >>> f = fileinfo.FileInfo("/music/_singles/kairo.mp3") 
                                                                      >>> f.__class__    
                                                                      <class fileinfo.FileInfo at 010EC204>
                                                                      >>> f.__doc__      
                                                                      'store file metadata'
                                                                      >>> f              
                                                                      {'name': '/music/_singles/kairo.mp3'}
                                                                      1. You are creating an instance of the FileInfo class (defined in the fileinfo module) and assigning the newly created instance to the variable f. You are passing one parameter, /music/_singles/kairo.mp3, which will end up as the filename argument in FileInfo's __init__ method.
                                                                      2. Every class instance has a built-in attribute, __class__, which is the object's class. (Note that the representation of this includes the physical address of the instance on my machine; your representation will be different.) Java programmers may be familiar with the Class class, which contains methods like getName and getSuperclass to get metadata information about an object. In Python, this kind of metadata is available directly on the object itself through attributes like __class__, __name__, and __bases__.
                                                                      3. You can access the instance's docstring just as with a function or a module. All instances of a class share the same docstring.
                                                                      4. Remember when the __init__ method assigned its filename argument to self["name"]? Well, here's the result. The arguments you pass when you create the class instance get sent right along to the __init__ method (along with the object reference, self, which Python adds for free).
                                                                        NoteIn Python, simply call a class as if it were a function to create a new instance of the class. There is no explicit new operator like C++ or Java.

                                                                        5.4.1. Garbage Collection

                                                                        If creating new instances is easy, destroying them is even easier. In general, there is no need to explicitly free instances, because they are freed automatically when the variables assigned to them go out of scope. Memory leaks are rare in Python.

                                                                        Example 5.8. Trying to Implement a Memory Leak

                                                                        >>> def leakmem():
                                                                        ...    f = fileinfo.FileInfo('/music/_singles/kairo.mp3') 
                                                                        ...    
                                                                        >>> for i in range(100):
                                                                        ...    leakmem()      
                                                                        1. Every time the leakmem function is called, you are creating an instance of FileInfo and assigning it to the variable f, which is a local variable within the function. Then the function ends without ever freeing f, so you would expect a memory leak, but you would be wrong. When the function ends, the local variable f goes out of scope. At this point, there are no longer any references to the newly created instance of FileInfo (since you never assigned it to anything other than f), so Python destroys the instance for us.
                                                                        2. No matter how many times you call the leakmem function, it will never leak memory, because every time, Python will destroy the newly created FileInfo class before returning from leakmem.

                                                                          The technical term for this form of garbage collection is “reference counting”. Python keeps a list of references to every instance created. In the above example, there was only one reference to the FileInfo instance: the local variable f. When the function ends, the variable f goes out of scope, so the reference count drops to 0, and Python destroys the instance automatically.

                                                                          In previous versions of Python, there were situations where reference counting failed, and Python couldn't clean up after you. If you created two instances that referenced each other (for instance, a doubly-linked list, where each node has a pointer to the previous and next node in the list), neither instance would ever be destroyed automatically because Python (correctly) believed that there is always a reference to each instance. Python 2.0 has an additional form of garbage collection called “mark-and-sweep” which is smart enough to notice this virtual gridlock and clean up circular references correctly.

                                                                          As a former philosophy major, it disturbs me to think that things disappear when no one is looking at them, but that's exactly what happens in Python. In general, you can simply forget about memory management and let Python clean up after you.

                                                                          Further Reading on Garbage Collection

                                                                          5.5. Exploring UserDict: A Wrapper Class

                                                                          As you've seen, FileInfo is a class that acts like a dictionary. To explore this further, let's look at the UserDict class in the UserDict module, which is the ancestor of the FileInfo class. This is nothing special; the class is written in Python and stored in a .py file, just like any other Python code. In particular, it's stored in the lib directory in your Python installation.

                                                                          TipIn the ActivePython IDE on Windows, you can quickly open any module in your library path by selecting File->Locate... (Ctrl-L).

                                                                          Example 5.9. Defining the UserDict Class

                                                                          
                                                                          class UserDict:              
                                                                              def __init__(self, dict=None):             
                                                                                  self.data = {}       
                                                                                  if dict is not None: self.update(dict)  
                                                                          
                                                                          1. Note that UserDict is a base class, not inherited from any other class.
                                                                          2. This is the __init__ method that you overrode in the FileInfo class. Note that the argument list in this ancestor class is different than the descendant. That's okay; each subclass can have its own set of arguments, as long as it calls the ancestor with the correct arguments. Here the ancestor class has a way to define initial values (by passing a dictionary in the dict argument) which the FileInfo does not use.
                                                                          3. Python supports data attributes (called “instance variables” in Java and Powerbuilder, and “member variables” in C++). Data attributes are pieces of data held by a specific instance of a class. In this case, each instance of UserDict will have a data attribute data. To reference this attribute from code outside the class, you qualify it with the instance name, instance.data, in the same way that you qualify a function with its module name. To reference a data attribute from within the class, you use self as the qualifier. By convention, all data attributes are initialized to reasonable values in the __init__ method. However, this is not required, since data attributes, like local variables, spring into existence when they are first assigned a value.
                                                                          4. The update method is a dictionary duplicator: it copies all the keys and values from one dictionary to another. This does not clear the target dictionary first; if the target dictionary already has some keys, the ones from the source dictionary will be overwritten, but others will be left untouched. Think of update as a merge function, not a copy function.
                                                                          5. This is a syntax you may not have seen before (I haven't used it in the examples in this book). It's an if statement, but instead of having an indented block starting on the next line, there is just a single statement on the same line, after the colon. This is perfectly legal syntax, which is just a shortcut you can use when you have only one statement in a block. (It's like specifying a single statement without braces in C++.) You can use this syntax, or you can have indented code on subsequent lines, but you can't do both for the same block.
                                                                            NoteJava and Powerbuilder support function overloading by argument list, i.e. one class can have multiple methods with the same name but a different number of arguments, or arguments of different types. Other languages (most notably PL/SQL) even support function overloading by argument name; i.e. one class can have multiple methods with the same name and the same number of arguments of the same type but different argument names. Python supports neither of these; it has no form of function overloading whatsoever. Methods are defined solely by their name, and there can be only one method per class with a given name. So if a descendant class has an __init__ method, it always overrides the ancestor __init__ method, even if the descendant defines it with a different argument list. And the same rule applies to any other method.
                                                                            NoteGuido, the original author of Python, explains method overriding this way: "Derived classes may override methods of their base classes. Because methods have no special privileges when calling other methods of the same object, a method of a base class that calls another method defined in the same base class, may in fact end up calling a method of a derived class that overrides it. (For C++ programmers: all methods in Python are effectively virtual.)" If that doesn't make sense to you (it confuses the hell out of me), feel free to ignore it. I just thought I'd pass it along.
                                                                            CautionAlways assign an initial value to all of an instance's data attributes in the __init__ method. It will save you hours of debugging later, tracking down AttributeError exceptions because you're referencing uninitialized (and therefore non-existent) attributes.

                                                                            Example 5.10. UserDict Normal Methods

                                                                            
                                                                                def clear(self): self.data.clear()          
                                                                                def copy(self):           
                                                                                    if self.__class__ is UserDict:          
                                                                                        return UserDict(self.data)         
                                                                                    import copy           
                                                                                    return copy.copy(self)                 
                                                                                def keys(self): return self.data.keys()     
                                                                                def items(self): return self.data.items()  
                                                                                def values(self): return self.data.values()
                                                                            
                                                                            1. clear is a normal class method; it is publicly available to be called by anyone at any time. Notice that clear, like all class methods, has self as its first argument. (Remember that you don't include self when you call the method; it's something that Python adds for you.) Also note the basic technique of this wrapper class: store a real dictionary (data) as a data attribute, define all the methods that a real dictionary has, and have each class method redirect to the corresponding method on the real dictionary. (In case you'd forgotten, a dictionary's clear method deletes all of its keys and their associated values.)
                                                                            2. The copy method of a real dictionary returns a new dictionary that is an exact duplicate of the original (all the same key-value pairs). But UserDict can't simply redirect to self.data.copy, because that method returns a real dictionary, and what you want is to return a new instance that is the same class as self.
                                                                            3. You use the __class__ attribute to see if self is a UserDict; if so, you're golden, because you know how to copy a UserDict: just create a new UserDict and give it the real dictionary that you've squirreled away in self.data. Then you immediately return the new UserDict you don't even get to the import copy on the next line.
                                                                            4. If self.__class__ is not UserDict, then self must be some subclass of UserDict (like maybe FileInfo), in which case life gets trickier. UserDict doesn't know how to make an exact copy of one of its descendants; there could, for instance, be other data attributes defined in the subclass, so you would need to iterate through them and make sure to copy all of them. Luckily, Python comes with a module to do exactly this, and it's called copy. I won't go into the details here (though it's a wicked cool module, if you're ever inclined to dive into it on your own). Suffice it to say that copy can copy arbitrary Python objects, and that's how you're using it here.
                                                                            5. The rest of the methods are straightforward, redirecting the calls to the built-in methods on self.data.
                                                                              NoteIn versions of Python prior to 2.2, you could not directly subclass built-in datatypes like strings, lists, and dictionaries. To compensate for this, Python comes with wrapper classes that mimic the behavior of these built-in datatypes: UserString, UserList, and UserDict. Using a combination of normal and special methods, the UserDict class does an excellent imitation of a dictionary. In Python 2.2 and later, you can inherit classes directly from built-in datatypes like dict. An example of this is given in the examples that come with this book, in fileinfo_fromdict.py.

                                                                              In Python, you can inherit directly from the dict built-in datatype, as shown in this example. There are three differences here compared to the UserDict version.

                                                                              Example 5.11. Inheriting Directly from Built-In Datatype dict

                                                                              
                                                                              class FileInfo(dict):
                                                                                  "store file metadata"
                                                                                  def __init__(self, filename=None): 
                                                                                      self["name"] = filename
                                                                              
                                                                              1. The first difference is that you don't need to import the UserDict module, since dict is a built-in datatype and is always available. The second is that you are inheriting from dict directly, instead of from UserDict.UserDict.
                                                                              2. The third difference is subtle but important. Because of the way UserDict works internally, it requires you to manually call its __init__ method to properly initialize its internal data structures. dict does not work like this; it is not a wrapper, and it requires no explicit initialization.

                                                                                Further Reading on UserDict

                                                                                5.6. Special Class Methods

                                                                                In addition to normal class methods, there are a number of special methods that Python classes can define. Instead of being called directly by your code (like normal methods), special methods are called for you by Python in particular circumstances or when specific syntax is used.

                                                                                As you saw in the previous section, normal methods go a long way towards wrapping a dictionary in a class. But normal methods alone are not enough, because there are a lot of things you can do with dictionaries besides call methods on them. For starters, you can get and set items with a syntax that doesn't include explicitly invoking methods. This is where special class methods come in: they provide a way to map non-method-calling syntax into method calls.

                                                                                5.6.1. Getting and Setting Items

                                                                                Example 5.12. The __getitem__ Special Method

                                                                                
                                                                                    def __getitem__(self, key): return self.data[key]
                                                                                >>> f = fileinfo.FileInfo("/music/_singles/kairo.mp3")
                                                                                >>> f
                                                                                {'name':'/music/_singles/kairo.mp3'}
                                                                                >>> f.__getitem__("name") 
                                                                                '/music/_singles/kairo.mp3'
                                                                                >>> f["name"]             
                                                                                '/music/_singles/kairo.mp3'
                                                                                1. The __getitem__ special method looks simple enough. Like the normal methods clear, keys, and values, it just redirects to the dictionary to return its value. But how does it get called? Well, you can call __getitem__ directly, but in practice you wouldn't actually do that; I'm just doing it here to show you how it works. The right way to use __getitem__ is to get Python to call it for you.
                                                                                2. This looks just like the syntax you would use to get a dictionary value, and in fact it returns the value you would expect. But here's the missing link: under the covers, Python has converted this syntax to the method call f.__getitem__("name"). That's why __getitem__ is a special class method; not only can you call it yourself, you can get Python to call it for you by using the right syntax.

                                                                                  Of course, Python has a __setitem__ special method to go along with __getitem__, as shown in the next example.

                                                                                  Example 5.13. The __setitem__ Special Method

                                                                                  
                                                                                      def __setitem__(self, key, item): self.data[key] = item
                                                                                  >>> f
                                                                                  {'name':'/music/_singles/kairo.mp3'}
                                                                                  >>> f.__setitem__("genre", 31) 
                                                                                  >>> f
                                                                                  {'name':'/music/_singles/kairo.mp3', 'genre':31}
                                                                                  >>> f["genre"] = 32            
                                                                                  >>> f
                                                                                  {'name':'/music/_singles/kairo.mp3', 'genre':32}
                                                                                  1. Like the __getitem__ method, __setitem__ simply redirects to the real dictionary self.data to do its work. And like __getitem__, you wouldn't ordinarily call it directly like this; Python calls __setitem__ for you when you use the right syntax.
                                                                                  2. This looks like regular dictionary syntax, except of course that f is really a class that's trying very hard to masquerade as a dictionary, and __setitem__ is an essential part of that masquerade. This line of code actually calls f.__setitem__("genre", 32) under the covers.

                                                                                    __setitem__ is a special class method because it gets called for you, but it's still a class method. Just as easily as the __setitem__ method was defined in UserDict, you can redefine it in the descendant class to override the ancestor method. This allows you to define classes that act like dictionaries in some ways but define their own behavior above and beyond the built-in dictionary.

                                                                                    This concept is the basis of the entire framework you're studying in this chapter. Each file type can have a handler class that knows how to get metadata from a particular type of file. Once some attributes (like the file's name and location) are known, the handler class knows how to derive other attributes automatically. This is done by overriding the __setitem__ method, checking for particular keys, and adding additional processing when they are found.

                                                                                    For example, MP3FileInfo is a descendant of FileInfo. When an MP3FileInfo's name is set, it doesn't just set the name key (like the ancestor FileInfo does); it also looks in the file itself for MP3 tags and populates a whole set of keys. The next example shows how this works.

                                                                                    Example 5.14. Overriding __setitem__ in MP3FileInfo

                                                                                    
                                                                                        def __setitem__(self, key, item):         
                                                                                            if key == "name" and item:            
                                                                                                self.__parse(item)                
                                                                                            FileInfo.__setitem__(self, key, item) 
                                                                                    1. Notice that this __setitem__ method is defined exactly the same way as the ancestor method. This is important, since Python will be calling the method for you, and it expects it to be defined with a certain number of arguments. (Technically speaking, the names of the arguments don't matter; only the number of arguments is important.)
                                                                                    2. Here's the crux of the entire MP3FileInfo class: if you're assigning a value to the name key, you want to do something extra.
                                                                                    3. The extra processing you do for names is encapsulated in the __parse method. This is another class method defined in MP3FileInfo, and when you call it, you qualify it with self. Just calling __parse would look for a normal function defined outside the class, which is not what you want. Calling self.__parse will look for a class method defined within the class. This isn't anything new; you reference data attributes the same way.
                                                                                    4. After doing this extra processing, you want to call the ancestor method. Remember that this is never done for you in Python; you must do it manually. Note that you're calling the immediate ancestor, FileInfo, even though it doesn't have a __setitem__ method. That's okay, because Python will walk up the ancestor tree until it finds a class with the method you're calling, so this line of code will eventually find and call the __setitem__ defined in UserDict.
                                                                                      NoteWhen accessing data attributes within a class, you need to qualify the attribute name: self.attribute. When calling other methods within a class, you need to qualify the method name: self.method.

                                                                                      Example 5.15. Setting an MP3FileInfo's name

                                                                                      >>> import fileinfo
                                                                                      >>> mp3file = fileinfo.MP3FileInfo() 
                                                                                      >>> mp3file
                                                                                      {'name':None}
                                                                                      >>> mp3file["name"] = "/music/_singles/kairo.mp3"      
                                                                                      >>> mp3file
                                                                                      {'album': 'Rave Mix', 'artist': '***DJ MARY-JANE***', 'genre': 31,
                                                                                      'title': 'KAIRO****THE BEST GOA', 'name': '/music/_singles/kairo.mp3',
                                                                                      'year': '2000', 'comment': 'http://mp3.com/DJMARYJANE'}
                                                                                      >>> mp3file["name"] = "/music/_singles/sidewinder.mp3" 
                                                                                      >>> mp3file
                                                                                      {'album': '', 'artist': 'The Cynic Project', 'genre': 18, 'title': 'Sidewinder', 
                                                                                      'name': '/music/_singles/sidewinder.mp3', 'year': '2000', 
                                                                                      'comment': 'http://mp3.com/cynicproject'}
                                                                                      1. First, you create an instance of MP3FileInfo, without passing it a filename. (You can get away with this because the filename argument of the __init__ method is optional.) Since MP3FileInfo has no __init__ method of its own, Python walks up the ancestor tree and finds the __init__ method of FileInfo. This __init__ method manually calls the __init__ method of UserDict and then sets the name key to filename, which is None, since you didn't pass a filename. Thus, mp3file initially looks like a dictionary with one key, name, whose value is None.
                                                                                      2. Now the real fun begins. Setting the name key of mp3file triggers the __setitem__ method on MP3FileInfo (not UserDict), which notices that you're setting the name key with a real value and calls self.__parse. Although you haven't traced through the __parse method yet, you can see from the output that it sets several other keys: album, artist, genre, title, year, and comment.
                                                                                      3. Modifying the name key will go through the same process again: Python calls __setitem__, which calls self.__parse, which sets all the other keys.

                                                                                        5.7. Advanced Special Class Methods

                                                                                        Python has more special methods than just __getitem__ and __setitem__. Some of them let you emulate functionality that you may not even know about.

                                                                                        This example shows some of the other special methods in UserDict.

                                                                                        Example 5.16. More Special Methods in UserDict

                                                                                        
                                                                                            def __repr__(self): return repr(self.data)     
                                                                                            def __cmp__(self, dict):     
                                                                                                if isinstance(dict, UserDict):            
                                                                                                    return cmp(self.data, dict.data)      
                                                                                                else: 
                                                                                                    return cmp(self.data, dict)           
                                                                                            def __len__(self): return len(self.data)       
                                                                                            def __delitem__(self, key): del self.data[key] 
                                                                                        1. __repr__ is a special method that is called when you call repr(instance). The repr function is a built-in function that returns a string representation of an object. It works on any object, not just class instances. You're already intimately familiar with repr and you don't even know it. In the interactive window, when you type just a variable name and press the ENTER key, Python uses repr to display the variable's value. Go create a dictionary d with some data and then print repr(d) to see for yourself.
                                                                                        2. __cmp__ is called when you compare class instances. In general, you can compare any two Python objects, not just class instances, by using ==. There are rules that define when built-in datatypes are considered equal; for instance, dictionaries are equal when they have all the same keys and values, and strings are equal when they are the same length and contain the same sequence of characters. For class instances, you can define the __cmp__ method and code the comparison logic yourself, and then you can use == to compare instances of your class and Python will call your __cmp__ special method for you.
                                                                                        3. __len__ is called when you call len(instance). The len function is a built-in function that returns the length of an object. It works on any object that could reasonably be thought of as having a length. The len of a string is its number of characters; the len of a dictionary is its number of keys; the len of a list or tuple is its number of elements. For class instances, define the __len__ method and code the length calculation yourself, and then call len(instance) and Python will call your __len__ special method for you.
                                                                                        4. __delitem__ is called when you call del instance[key], which you may remember as the way to delete individual items from a dictionary. When you use del on a class instance, Python calls the __delitem__ special method for you.
                                                                                          NoteIn Java, you determine whether two string variables reference the same physical memory location by using str1 == str2. This is called object identity, and it is written in Python as str1 is str2. To compare string values in Java, you would use str1.equals(str2); in Python, you would use str1 == str2. Java programmers who have been taught to believe that the world is a better place because == in Java compares by identity instead of by value may have a difficult time adjusting to Python's lack of such “gotchas”.

                                                                                          At this point, you may be thinking, “All this work just to do something in a class that I can do with a built-in datatype.” And it's true that life would be easier (and the entire UserDict class would be unnecessary) if you could inherit from built-in datatypes like a dictionary. But even if you could, special methods would still be useful, because they can be used in any class, not just wrapper classes like UserDict.

                                                                                          Special methods mean that any class can store key/value pairs like a dictionary, just by defining the __setitem__ method. Any class can act like a sequence, just by defining the __getitem__ method. Any class that defines the __cmp__ method can be compared with ==. And if your class represents something that has a length, don't define a GetLength method; define the __len__ method and use len(instance).

                                                                                          NoteWhile other object-oriented languages only let you define the physical model of an object (“this object has a GetLength method”), Python's special class methods like __len__ allow you to define the logical model of an object (“this object has a length”).

                                                                                          Python has a lot of other special methods. There's a whole set of them that let classes act like numbers, allowing you to add, subtract, and do other arithmetic operations on class instances. (The canonical example of this is a class that represents complex numbers, numbers with both real and imaginary components.) The __call__ method lets a class act like a function, allowing you to call a class instance directly. And there are other special methods that allow classes to have read-only and write-only data attributes; you'll talk more about those in later chapters.

                                                                                          Further Reading on Special Class Methods

                                                                                          5.8. Introducing Class Attributes

                                                                                          You already know about data attributes, which are variables owned by a specific instance of a class. Python also supports class attributes, which are variables owned by the class itself.

                                                                                          Example 5.17. Introducing Class Attributes

                                                                                          
                                                                                          class MP3FileInfo(FileInfo):
                                                                                              "store ID3v1.0 MP3 tags"
                                                                                              tagDataMap = {"title"   : (  3,  33, stripnulls),
                                                                                          "artist"  : ( 33,  63, stripnulls),
                                                                                          "album"   : ( 63,  93, stripnulls),
                                                                                          "year"    : ( 93,  97, stripnulls),
                                                                                          "comment" : ( 97, 126, stripnulls),
                                                                                          "genre"   : (127, 128, ord)}
                                                                                          >>> import fileinfo
                                                                                          >>> fileinfo.MP3FileInfo            
                                                                                          <class fileinfo.MP3FileInfo at 01257FDC>
                                                                                          >>> fileinfo.MP3FileInfo.tagDataMap 
                                                                                          {'title': (3, 33, <function stripnulls at 0260C8D4>), 
                                                                                          'genre': (127, 128, <built-in function ord>), 
                                                                                          'artist': (33, 63, <function stripnulls at 0260C8D4>), 
                                                                                          'year': (93, 97, <function stripnulls at 0260C8D4>), 
                                                                                          'comment': (97, 126, <function stripnulls at 0260C8D4>), 
                                                                                          'album': (63, 93, <function stripnulls at 0260C8D4>)}
                                                                                          >>> m = fileinfo.MP3FileInfo()      
                                                                                          >>> m.tagDataMap
                                                                                          {'title': (3, 33, <function stripnulls at 0260C8D4>), 
                                                                                          'genre': (127, 128, <built-in function ord>), 
                                                                                          'artist': (33, 63, <function stripnulls at 0260C8D4>), 
                                                                                          'year': (93, 97, <function stripnulls at 0260C8D4>), 
                                                                                          'comment': (97, 126, <function stripnulls at 0260C8D4>), 
                                                                                          'album': (63, 93, <function stripnulls at 0260C8D4>)}
                                                                                          1. MP3FileInfo is the class itself, not any particular instance of the class.
                                                                                          2. tagDataMap is a class attribute: literally, an attribute of the class. It is available before creating any instances of the class.
                                                                                          3. Class attributes are available both through direct reference to the class and through any instance of the class.
                                                                                            NoteIn Java, both static variables (called class attributes in Python) and instance variables (called data attributes in Python) are defined immediately after the class definition (one with the static keyword, one without). In Python, only class attributes can be defined here; data attributes are defined in the __init__ method.

                                                                                            Class attributes can be used as class-level constants (which is how you use them in MP3FileInfo), but they are not really constants. You can also change them.

                                                                                            NoteThere are no constants in Python. Everything can be changed if you try hard enough. This fits with one of the core principles of Python: bad behavior should be discouraged but not banned. If you really want to change the value of None, you can do it, but don't come running to me when your code is impossible to debug.

                                                                                            Example 5.18. Modifying Class Attributes

                                                                                            >>> class counter:
                                                                                            ...    count = 0   
                                                                                            ...    def __init__(self):
                                                                                            ...        self.__class__.count += 1 
                                                                                            ...    
                                                                                            >>> counter
                                                                                            <class __main__.counter at 010EAECC>
                                                                                            >>> counter.count   
                                                                                            0
                                                                                            >>> c = counter()
                                                                                            >>> c.count         
                                                                                            1
                                                                                            >>> counter.count
                                                                                            1
                                                                                            >>> d = counter()   
                                                                                            >>> d.count
                                                                                            2
                                                                                            >>> c.count
                                                                                            2
                                                                                            >>> counter.count
                                                                                            2
                                                                                            1. count is a class attribute of the counter class.
                                                                                            2. __class__ is a built-in attribute of every class instance (of every class). It is a reference to the class that self is an instance of (in this case, the counter class).
                                                                                            3. Because count is a class attribute, it is available through direct reference to the class, before you have created any instances of the class.
                                                                                            4. Creating an instance of the class calls the __init__ method, which increments the class attribute count by 1. This affects the class itself, not just the newly created instance.
                                                                                            5. Creating a second instance will increment the class attribute count again. Notice how the class attribute is shared by the class and all instances of the class.

                                                                                              5.9. Private Functions

                                                                                              Like most languages, Python has the concept of private elements:

                                                                                              • Private functions, which can't be called from outside their module
                                                                                              • Private class methods, which can't be called from outside their class
                                                                                              • Private attributes, which can't be accessed from outside their class.

                                                                                              Unlike in most languages, whether a Python function, method, or attribute is private or public is determined entirely by its name.

                                                                                              If the name of a Python function, class method, or attribute starts with (but doesn't end with) two underscores, it's private; everything else is public. Python has no concept of protected class methods (accessible only in their own class and descendant classes). Class methods are either private (accessible only in their own class) or public (accessible from anywhere).

                                                                                              In MP3FileInfo, there are two methods: __parse and __setitem__. As you have already discussed, __setitem__ is a special method; normally, you would call it indirectly by using the dictionary syntax on a class instance, but it is public, and you could call it directly (even from outside the fileinfo module) if you had a really good reason. However, __parse is private, because it has two underscores at the beginning of its name.

                                                                                              NoteIn Python, all special methods (like __setitem__) and built-in attributes (like __doc__) follow a standard naming convention: they both start with and end with two underscores. Don't name your own methods and attributes this way, because it will only confuse you (and others) later.

                                                                                              Example 5.19. Trying to Call a Private Method

                                                                                              >>> import fileinfo
                                                                                              >>> m = fileinfo.MP3FileInfo()
                                                                                              >>> m.__parse("/music/_singles/kairo.mp3") 
                                                                                              Traceback (innermost last):
                                                                                                File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
                                                                                              AttributeError: 'MP3FileInfo' instance has no attribute '__parse'
                                                                                              1. If you try to call a private method, Python will raise a slightly misleading exception, saying that the method does not exist. Of course it does exist, but it's private, so it's not accessible outside the class.Strictly speaking, private methods are accessible outside their class, just not easily accessible. Nothing in Python is truly private; internally, the names of private methods and attributes are mangled and unmangled on the fly to make them seem inaccessible by their given names. You can access the __parse method of the MP3FileInfo class by the name _MP3FileInfo__parse. Acknowledge that this is interesting, but promise to never, ever do it in real code. Private methods are private for a reason, but like many other things in Python, their privateness is ultimately a matter of convention, not force.

                                                                                                Further Reading on Private Functions

                                                                                                5.10. Summary

                                                                                                That's it for the hard-core object trickery. You'll see a real-world application of special class methods in Chapter 12, which uses getattr to create a proxy to a remote web service.

                                                                                                The next chapter will continue using this code sample to explore other Python concepts, such as exceptions, file objects, and for loops.

                                                                                                Before diving into the next chapter, make sure you're comfortable doing all of these things:

                                                                                                Chapter 6. Exceptions and File Handling

                                                                                                In this chapter, you will dive into exceptions, file objects, for loops, and the os and sys modules. If you've used exceptions in another programming language, you can skim the first section to get a sense of Python's syntax. Be sure to tune in again for file handling.

                                                                                                6.1. Handling Exceptions

                                                                                                Like many other programming languages, Python has exception handling via try...except blocks.

                                                                                                NotePython uses try...except to handle exceptions and raise to generate them. Java and C++ use try...catch to handle exceptions, and throw to generate them.

                                                                                                Exceptions are everywhere in Python. Virtually every module in the standard Python library uses them, and Python itself will raise them in a lot of different circumstances. You've already seen them repeatedly throughout this book.

                                                                                                In each of these cases, you were simply playing around in the Python IDE: an error occurred, the exception was printed (depending on your IDE, perhaps in an intentionally jarring shade of red), and that was that. This is called an unhandled exception. When the exception was raised, there was no code to explicitly notice it and deal with it, so it bubbled its way back to the default behavior built in to Python, which is to spit out some debugging information and give up. In the IDE, that's no big deal, but if that happened while your actual Python program was running, the entire program would come to a screeching halt.

                                                                                                An exception doesn't need result in a complete program crash, though. Exceptions, when raised, can be handled. Sometimes an exception is really because you have a bug in your code (like accessing a variable that doesn't exist), but many times, an exception is something you can anticipate. If you're opening a file, it might not exist. If you're connecting to a database, it might be unavailable, or you might not have the correct security credentials to access it. If you know a line of code may raise an exception, you should handle the exception using a try...except block.

                                                                                                Example 6.1. Opening a Non-Existent File

                                                                                                >>> fsock = open("/notthere", "r")      
                                                                                                Traceback (innermost last):
                                                                                                  File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
                                                                                                IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/notthere'
                                                                                                >>> try:
                                                                                                ...    fsock = open("/notthere")       
                                                                                                ... except IOError:   
                                                                                                ...    print "The file does not exist, exiting gracefully"
                                                                                                ... print "This line will always print" 
                                                                                                The file does not exist, exiting gracefully
                                                                                                This line will always print
                                                                                                1. Using the built-in open function, you can try to open a file for reading (more on open in the next section). But the file doesn't exist, so this raises the IOError exception. Since you haven't provided any explicit check for an IOError exception, Python just prints out some debugging information about what happened and then gives up.
                                                                                                2. You're trying to open the same non-existent file, but this time you're doing it within a try...except block.
                                                                                                3. When the open method raises an IOError exception, you're ready for it. The except IOError: line catches the exception and executes your own block of code, which in this case just prints a more pleasant error message.
                                                                                                4. Once an exception has been handled, processing continues normally on the first line after the try...except block. Note that this line will always print, whether or not an exception occurs. If you really did have a file called notthere in your root directory, the call to open would succeed, the except clause would be ignored, and this line would still be executed.

                                                                                                  Exceptions may seem unfriendly (after all, if you don't catch the exception, your entire program will crash), but consider the alternative. Would you rather get back an unusable file object to a non-existent file? You'd need to check its validity somehow anyway, and if you forgot, somewhere down the line, your program would give you strange errors somewhere down the line that you would need to trace back to the source. I'm sure you've experienced this, and you know it's not fun. With exceptions, errors occur immediately, and you can handle them in a standard way at the source of the problem.

                                                                                                  6.1.1. Using Exceptions For Other Purposes

                                                                                                  There are a lot of other uses for exceptions besides handling actual error conditions. A common use in the standard Python library is to try to import a module, and then check whether it worked. Importing a module that does not exist will raise an ImportError exception. You can use this to define multiple levels of functionality based on which modules are available at run-time, or to support multiple platforms (where platform-specific code is separated into different modules).

                                                                                                  You can also define your own exceptions by creating a class that inherits from the built-in Exception class, and then raise your exceptions with the raise command. See the further reading section if you're interested in doing this.

                                                                                                  The next example demonstrates how to use an exception to support platform-specific functionality. This code comes from the getpass module, a wrapper module for getting a password from the user. Getting a password is accomplished differently on UNIX, Windows, and Mac OS platforms, but this code encapsulates all of those differences.

                                                                                                  Example 6.2. Supporting Platform-Specific Functionality

                                                                                                  
                                                                                                    # Bind the name getpass to the appropriate function
                                                                                                    try:
                                                                                                        import termios, TERMIOS   
                                                                                                    except ImportError:
                                                                                                        try:
                                                                                                            import msvcrt         
                                                                                                        except ImportError:
                                                                                                            try:
                                                                                                                from EasyDialogs import AskPassword 
                                                                                                            except ImportError:
                                                                                                                getpass = default_getpass           
                                                                                                            else:                 
                                                                                                                getpass = AskPassword
                                                                                                        else:
                                                                                                            getpass = win_getpass
                                                                                                    else:
                                                                                                        getpass = unix_getpass
                                                                                                  1. termios is a UNIX-specific module that provides low-level control over the input terminal. If this module is not available (because it's not on your system, or your system doesn't support it), the import fails and Python raises an ImportError, which you catch.
                                                                                                  2. OK, you didn't have termios, so let's try msvcrt, which is a Windows-specific module that provides an API to many useful functions in the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime services. If this import fails, Python will raise an ImportError, which you catch.
                                                                                                  3. If the first two didn't work, you try to import a function from EasyDialogs, which is a Mac OS-specific module that provides functions to pop up dialog boxes of various types. Once again, if this import fails, Python will raise an ImportError, which you catch.
                                                                                                  4. None of these platform-specific modules is available (which is possible, since Python has been ported to a lot of different platforms), so you need to fall back on a default password input function (which is defined elsewhere in the getpass module). Notice what you're doing here: assigning the function default_getpass to the variable getpass. If you read the official getpass documentation, it tells you that the getpass module defines a getpass function. It does this by binding getpass to the correct function for your platform. Then when you call the getpass function, you're really calling a platform-specific function that this code has set up for you. You don't need to know or care which platform your code is running on -- just call getpass, and it will always do the right thing.
                                                                                                  5. A try...except block can have an else clause, like an if statement. If no exception is raised during the try block, the else clause is executed afterwards. In this case, that means that the from EasyDialogs import AskPassword import worked, so you should bind getpass to the AskPassword function. Each of the other try...except blocks has similar else clauses to bind getpass to the appropriate function when you find an import that works.

                                                                                                    Further Reading on Exception Handling

                                                                                                    6.2. Working with File Objects

                                                                                                    Python has a built-in function, open, for opening a file on disk. open returns a file object, which has methods and attributes for getting information about and manipulating the opened file.

                                                                                                    Example 6.3. Opening a File

                                                                                                    >>> f = open("/music/_singles/kairo.mp3", "rb") 
                                                                                                    >>> f       
                                                                                                    <open file '/music/_singles/kairo.mp3', mode 'rb' at 010E3988>
                                                                                                    >>> f.mode  
                                                                                                    'rb'
                                                                                                    >>> f.name  
                                                                                                    '/music/_singles/kairo.mp3'
                                                                                                    1. The open method can take up to three parameters: a filename, a mode, and a buffering parameter. Only the first one, the filename, is required; the other two are optional. If not specified, the file is opened for reading in text mode. Here you are opening the file for reading in binary mode. (print open.__doc__ displays a great explanation of all the possible modes.)
                                                                                                    2. The open function returns an object (by now, this should not surprise you). A file object has several useful attributes.
                                                                                                    3. The mode attribute of a file object tells you in which mode the file was opened.
                                                                                                    4. The name attribute of a file object tells you the name of the file that the file object has open.

                                                                                                      6.2.1. Reading Files

                                                                                                      After you open a file, the first thing you'll want to do is read from it, as shown in the next example.

                                                                                                      Example 6.4. Reading a File

                                                                                                      >>> f
                                                                                                      <open file '/music/_singles/kairo.mp3', mode 'rb' at 010E3988>
                                                                                                      >>> f.tell()              
                                                                                                      0
                                                                                                      >>> f.seek(-128, 2)       
                                                                                                      >>> f.tell()              
                                                                                                      7542909
                                                                                                      >>> tagData = f.read(128) 
                                                                                                      >>> tagData
                                                                                                      'TAGKAIRO****THE BEST GOA         ***DJ MARY-JANE***            
                                                                                                      Rave Mix    2000http://mp3.com/DJMARYJANE     \037'
                                                                                                      >>> f.tell()              
                                                                                                      7543037
                                                                                                      1. A file object maintains state about the file it has open. The tell method of a file object tells you your current position in the open file. Since you haven't done anything with this file yet, the current position is 0, which is the beginning of the file.
                                                                                                      2. The seek method of a file object moves to another position in the open file. The second parameter specifies what the first one means; 0 means move to an absolute position (counting from the start of the file), 1 means move to a relative position (counting from the current position), and 2 means move to a position relative to the end of the file. Since the MP3 tags you're looking for are stored at the end of the file, you use 2 and tell the file object to move to a position 128 bytes from the end of the file.
                                                                                                      3. The tell method confirms that the current file position has moved.
                                                                                                      4. The read method reads a specified number of bytes from the open file and returns a string with the data that was read. The optional parameter specifies the maximum number of bytes to read. If no parameter is specified, read will read until the end of the file. (You could have simply said read() here, since you know exactly where you are in the file and you are, in fact, reading the last 128 bytes.) The read data is assigned to the tagData variable, and the current position is updated based on how many bytes were read.
                                                                                                      5. The tell method confirms that the current position has moved. If you do the math, you'll see that after reading 128 bytes, the position has been incremented by 128.

                                                                                                        6.2.2. Closing Files

                                                                                                        Open files consume system resources, and depending on the file mode, other programs may not be able to access them. It's important to close files as soon as you're finished with them.

                                                                                                        Example 6.5. Closing a File

                                                                                                        >>> f
                                                                                                        <open file '/music/_singles/kairo.mp3', mode 'rb' at 010E3988>
                                                                                                        >>> f.closed       
                                                                                                        False
                                                                                                        >>> f.close()      
                                                                                                        >>> f
                                                                                                        <closed file '/music/_singles/kairo.mp3', mode 'rb' at 010E3988>
                                                                                                        >>> f.closed       
                                                                                                        True
                                                                                                        >>> f.seek(0)      
                                                                                                        Traceback (innermost last):
                                                                                                          File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
                                                                                                        ValueError: I/O operation on closed file
                                                                                                        >>> f.tell()
                                                                                                        Traceback (innermost last):
                                                                                                          File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
                                                                                                        ValueError: I/O operation on closed file
                                                                                                        >>> f.read()
                                                                                                        Traceback (innermost last):
                                                                                                          File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
                                                                                                        ValueError: I/O operation on closed file
                                                                                                        >>> f.close()      
                                                                                                        1. The closed attribute of a file object indicates whether the object has a file open or not. In this case, the file is still open (closed is False).
                                                                                                        2. To close a file, call the close method of the file object. This frees the lock (if any) that you were holding on the file, flushes buffered writes (if any) that the system hadn't gotten around to actually writing yet, and releases the system resources.
                                                                                                        3. The closed attribute confirms that the file is closed.
                                                                                                        4. Just because a file is closed doesn't mean that the file object ceases to exist. The variable f will continue to exist until it goes out of scope or gets manually deleted. However, none of the methods that manipulate an open file will work once the file has been closed; they all raise an exception.
                                                                                                        5. Calling close on a file object whose file is already closed does not raise an exception; it fails silently.

                                                                                                          6.2.3. Handling I/O Errors

                                                                                                          Now you've seen enough to understand the file handling code in the fileinfo.py sample code from teh previous chapter. This example shows how to safely open and read from a file and gracefully handle errors.

                                                                                                          Example 6.6. File Objects in MP3FileInfo

                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                  try:              
                                                                                                                      fsock = open(filename, "rb", 0) 
                                                                                                                      try:         
                                                                                                                          fsock.seek(-128, 2)         
                                                                                                                          tagdata = fsock.read(128)   
                                                                                                                      finally:      
                                                                                                                          fsock.close()              
                                                                                                                      .
                                                                                                                      .
                                                                                                                      .
                                                                                                                  except IOError:   
                                                                                                                      pass         
                                                                                                          1. Because opening and reading files is risky and may raise an exception, all of this code is wrapped in a try...except block. (Hey, isn't standardized indentation great? This is where you start to appreciate it.)
                                                                                                          2. The open function may raise an IOError. (Maybe the file doesn't exist.)
                                                                                                          3. The seek method may raise an IOError. (Maybe the file is smaller than 128 bytes.)
                                                                                                          4. The read method may raise an IOError. (Maybe the disk has a bad sector, or it's on a network drive and the network just went down.)
                                                                                                          5. This is new: a try...finally block. Once the file has been opened successfully by the open function, you want to make absolutely sure that you close it, even if an exception is raised by the seek or read methods. That's what a try...finally block is for: code in the finally block will always be executed, even if something in the try block raises an exception. Think of it as code that gets executed on the way out, regardless of what happened before.
                                                                                                          6. At last, you handle your IOError exception. This could be the IOError exception raised by the call to open, seek, or read. Here, you really don't care, because all you're going to do is ignore it silently and continue. (Remember, pass is a Python statement that does nothing.) That's perfectly legal; “handling” an exception can mean explicitly doing nothing. It still counts as handled, and processing will continue normally on the next line of code after the try...except block.

                                                                                                            6.2.4. Writing to Files

                                                                                                            As you would expect, you can also write to files in much the same way that you read from them. There are two basic file modes:

                                                                                                            • "Append" mode will add data to the end of the file.
                                                                                                            • "write" mode will overwrite the file.

                                                                                                            Either mode will create the file automatically if it doesn't already exist, so there's never a need for any sort of fiddly "if the log file doesn't exist yet, create a new empty file just so you can open it for the first time" logic. Just open it and start writing.

                                                                                                            Example 6.7. Writing to Files

                                                                                                            >>> logfile = open('test.log', 'w') 
                                                                                                            >>> logfile.write('test succeeded') 
                                                                                                            >>> logfile.close()
                                                                                                            >>> print file('test.log').read()   
                                                                                                            test succeeded
                                                                                                            >>> logfile = open('test.log', 'a') 
                                                                                                            >>> logfile.write('line 2')
                                                                                                            >>> logfile.close()
                                                                                                            >>> print file('test.log').read()   
                                                                                                            test succeededline 2
                                                                                                            
                                                                                                            1. You start boldly by creating either the new file test.log or overwrites the existing file, and opening the file for writing. (The second parameter "w" means open the file for writing.) Yes, that's all as dangerous as it sounds. I hope you didn't care about the previous contents of that file, because it's gone now.
                                                                                                            2. You can add data to the newly opened file with the write method of the file object returned by open.
                                                                                                            3. file is a synonym for open. This one-liner opens the file, reads its contents, and prints them.
                                                                                                            4. You happen to know that test.log exists (since you just finished writing to it), so you can open it and append to it. (The "a" parameter means open the file for appending.) Actually you could do this even if the file didn't exist, because opening the file for appending will create the file if necessary. But appending will never harm the existing contents of the file.
                                                                                                            5. As you can see, both the original line you wrote and the second line you appended are now in test.log. Also note that carriage returns are not included. Since you didn't write them explicitly to the file either time, the file doesn't include them. You can write a carriage return with the "\n" character. Since you didn't do this, everything you wrote to the file ended up smooshed together on the same line.

                                                                                                              Further Reading on File Handling

                                                                                                              6.3. Iterating with for Loops

                                                                                                              Like most other languages, Python has for loops. The only reason you haven't seen them until now is that Python is good at so many other things that you don't need them as often.

                                                                                                              Most other languages don't have a powerful list datatype like Python, so you end up doing a lot of manual work, specifying a start, end, and step to define a range of integers or characters or other iteratable entities. But in Python, a for loop simply iterates over a list, the same way list comprehensions work.

                                                                                                              Example 6.8. Introducing the for Loop

                                                                                                              >>> li = ['a', 'b', 'e']
                                                                                                              >>> for s in li:         
                                                                                                              ...    print s          
                                                                                                              a
                                                                                                              b
                                                                                                              e
                                                                                                              >>> print "\n".join(li)  
                                                                                                              a
                                                                                                              b
                                                                                                              e
                                                                                                              1. The syntax for a for loop is similar to list comprehensions. li is a list, and s will take the value of each element in turn, starting from the first element.
                                                                                                              2. Like an if statement or any other indented block, a for loop can have any number of lines of code in it.
                                                                                                              3. This is the reason you haven't seen the for loop yet: you haven't needed it yet. It's amazing how often you use for loops in other languages when all you really want is a join or a list comprehension.

                                                                                                                Doing a “normal” (by Visual Basic standards) counter for loop is also simple.

                                                                                                                Example 6.9. Simple Counters

                                                                                                                >>> for i in range(5):             
                                                                                                                ...    print i
                                                                                                                0
                                                                                                                1
                                                                                                                2
                                                                                                                3
                                                                                                                4
                                                                                                                >>> li = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']
                                                                                                                >>> for i in range(len(li)):       
                                                                                                                ...    print li[i]
                                                                                                                a
                                                                                                                b
                                                                                                                c
                                                                                                                d
                                                                                                                e
                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                1. As you saw in Example 3.20, “Assigning Consecutive Values”, range produces a list of integers, which you then loop through. I know it looks a bit odd, but it is occasionally (and I stress occasionally) useful to have a counter loop.
                                                                                                                2. Don't ever do this. This is Visual Basic-style thinking. Break out of it. Just iterate through the list, as shown in the previous example.

                                                                                                                  for loops are not just for simple counters. They can iterate through all kinds of things. Here is an example of using a for loop to iterate through a dictionary.

                                                                                                                  Example 6.10. Iterating Through a Dictionary

                                                                                                                  >>> import os
                                                                                                                  >>> for k, v in os.environ.items():       
                                                                                                                  ...    print "%s=%s" % (k, v)
                                                                                                                  USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\mpilgrim
                                                                                                                  OS=Windows_NT
                                                                                                                  COMPUTERNAME=MPILGRIM
                                                                                                                  USERNAME=mpilgrim
                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                  [...snip...]
                                                                                                                  >>> print "\n".join(["%s=%s" % (k, v)
                                                                                                                  ...    for k, v in os.environ.items()]) 
                                                                                                                  USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\mpilgrim
                                                                                                                  OS=Windows_NT
                                                                                                                  COMPUTERNAME=MPILGRIM
                                                                                                                  USERNAME=mpilgrim
                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                  [...snip...]
                                                                                                                  1. os.environ is a dictionary of the environment variables defined on your system. In Windows, these are your user and system variables accessible from MS-DOS. In UNIX, they are the variables exported in your shell's startup scripts. In Mac OS, there is no concept of environment variables, so this dictionary is empty.
                                                                                                                  2. os.environ.items() returns a list of tuples: [(key1, value1), (key2, value2), ...]. The for loop iterates through this list. The first round, it assigns key1 to k and value1 to v, so k = USERPROFILE and v = C:\Documents and Settings\mpilgrim. In the second round, k gets the second key, OS, and v gets the corresponding value, Windows_NT.
                                                                                                                  3. With multi-variable assignment and list comprehensions, you can replace the entire for loop with a single statement. Whether you actually do this in real code is a matter of personal coding style. I like it because it makes it clear that what I'm doing is mapping a dictionary into a list, then joining the list into a single string. Other programmers prefer to write this out as a for loop. The output is the same in either case, although this version is slightly faster, because there is only one print statement instead of many.

                                                                                                                    Now we can look at the for loop in MP3FileInfo, from the sample fileinfo.py program introduced in Chapter 5.

                                                                                                                    Example 6.11. for Loop in MP3FileInfo

                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                        tagDataMap = {"title"   : (  3,  33, stripnulls),
                                                                                                                    "artist"  : ( 33,  63, stripnulls),
                                                                                                                    "album"   : ( 63,  93, stripnulls),
                                                                                                                    "year"    : ( 93,  97, stripnulls),
                                                                                                                    "comment" : ( 97, 126, stripnulls),
                                                                                                                    "genre"   : (127, 128, ord)}             
                                                                                                                        .
                                                                                                                        .
                                                                                                                        .
                                                                                                                                if tagdata[:3] == "TAG":
                                                                                                                                    for tag, (start, end, parseFunc) in self.tagDataMap.items(): 
                                                                                                                      self[tag] = parseFunc(tagdata[start:end])                
                                                                                                                    1. tagDataMap is a class attribute that defines the tags you're looking for in an MP3 file. Tags are stored in fixed-length fields. Once you read the last 128 bytes of the file, bytes 3 through 32 of those are always the song title, 33 through 62 are always the artist name, 63 through 92 are the album name, and so forth. Note that tagDataMap is a dictionary of tuples, and each tuple contains two integers and a function reference.
                                                                                                                    2. This looks complicated, but it's not. The structure of the for variables matches the structure of the elements of the list returned by items. Remember that items returns a list of tuples of the form (key, value). The first element of that list is ("title", (3, 33, <function stripnulls>)), so the first time around the loop, tag gets "title", start gets 3, end gets 33, and parseFunc gets the function stripnulls.
                                                                                                                    3. Now that you've extracted all the parameters for a single MP3 tag, saving the tag data is easy. You slice tagdata from start to end to get the actual data for this tag, call parseFunc to post-process the data, and assign this as the value for the key tag in the pseudo-dictionary self. After iterating through all the elements in tagDataMap, self has the values for all the tags, and you know what that looks like.

                                                                                                                      6.4. Using sys.modules

                                                                                                                      Modules, like everything else in Python, are objects. Once imported, you can always get a reference to a module through the global dictionary sys.modules.

                                                                                                                      Example 6.12. Introducing sys.modules

                                                                                                                      >>> import sys        
                                                                                                                      >>> print '\n'.join(sys.modules.keys()) 
                                                                                                                      win32api
                                                                                                                      os.path
                                                                                                                      os
                                                                                                                      exceptions
                                                                                                                      __main__
                                                                                                                      ntpath
                                                                                                                      nt
                                                                                                                      sys
                                                                                                                      __builtin__
                                                                                                                      site
                                                                                                                      signal
                                                                                                                      UserDict
                                                                                                                      stat
                                                                                                                      1. The sys module contains system-level information, such as the version of Python you're running (sys.version or sys.version_info), and system-level options such as the maximum allowed recursion depth (sys.getrecursionlimit() and sys.setrecursionlimit()).
                                                                                                                      2. sys.modules is a dictionary containing all the modules that have ever been imported since Python was started; the key is the module name, the value is the module object. Note that this is more than just the modules your program has imported. Python preloads some modules on startup, and if you're using a Python IDE, sys.modules contains all the modules imported by all the programs you've run within the IDE.

                                                                                                                        This example demonstrates how to use sys.modules.

                                                                                                                        Example 6.13. Using sys.modules

                                                                                                                        >>> import fileinfo         
                                                                                                                        >>> print '\n'.join(sys.modules.keys())
                                                                                                                        win32api
                                                                                                                        os.path
                                                                                                                        os
                                                                                                                        fileinfo
                                                                                                                        exceptions
                                                                                                                        __main__
                                                                                                                        ntpath
                                                                                                                        nt
                                                                                                                        sys
                                                                                                                        __builtin__
                                                                                                                        site
                                                                                                                        signal
                                                                                                                        UserDict
                                                                                                                        stat
                                                                                                                        >>> fileinfo
                                                                                                                        <module 'fileinfo' from 'fileinfo.pyc'>
                                                                                                                        >>> sys.modules["fileinfo"] 
                                                                                                                        <module 'fileinfo' from 'fileinfo.pyc'>
                                                                                                                        1. As new modules are imported, they are added to sys.modules. This explains why importing the same module twice is very fast: Python has already loaded and cached the module in sys.modules, so importing the second time is simply a dictionary lookup.
                                                                                                                        2. Given the name (as a string) of any previously-imported module, you can get a reference to the module itself through the sys.modules dictionary.

                                                                                                                          The next example shows how to use the __module__ class attribute with the sys.modules dictionary to get a reference to the module in which a class is defined.

                                                                                                                          Example 6.14. The __module__ Class Attribute

                                                                                                                          >>> from fileinfo import MP3FileInfo
                                                                                                                          >>> MP3FileInfo.__module__              
                                                                                                                          'fileinfo'
                                                                                                                          >>> sys.modules[MP3FileInfo.__module__] 
                                                                                                                          <module 'fileinfo' from 'fileinfo.pyc'>
                                                                                                                          1. Every Python class has a built-in class attribute __module__, which is the name of the module in which the class is defined.
                                                                                                                          2. Combining this with the sys.modules dictionary, you can get a reference to the module in which a class is defined.

                                                                                                                            Now you're ready to see how sys.modules is used in fileinfo.py, the sample program introduced in Chapter 5. This example shows that portion of the code.

                                                                                                                            Example 6.15. sys.modules in fileinfo.py

                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                def getFileInfoClass(filename, module=sys.modules[FileInfo.__module__]):       
                                                                                                                                    "get file info class from filename extension"           
                                                                                                                                    subclass = "%sFileInfo" % os.path.splitext(filename)[1].upper()[1:]        
                                                                                                                                    return hasattr(module, subclass) and getattr(module, subclass) or FileInfo 
                                                                                                                            1. This is a function with two arguments; filename is required, but module is optional and defaults to the module that contains the FileInfo class. This looks inefficient, because you might expect Python to evaluate the sys.modules expression every time the function is called. In fact, Python evaluates default expressions only once, the first time the module is imported. As you'll see later, you never call this function with a module argument, so module serves as a function-level constant.
                                                                                                                            2. You'll plow through this line later, after you dive into the os module. For now, take it on faith that subclass ends up as the name of a class, like MP3FileInfo.
                                                                                                                            3. You already know about getattr, which gets a reference to an object by name. hasattr is a complementary function that checks whether an object has a particular attribute; in this case, whether a module has a particular class (although it works for any object and any attribute, just like getattr). In English, this line of code says, “If this module has the class named by subclass then return it, otherwise return the base class FileInfo.”

                                                                                                                              Further Reading on Modules

                                                                                                                              6.5. Working with Directories

                                                                                                                              The os.path module has several functions for manipulating files and directories. Here, we're looking at handling pathnames and listing the contents of a directory.

                                                                                                                              Example 6.16. Constructing Pathnames

                                                                                                                              >>> import os
                                                                                                                              >>> os.path.join("c:\\music\\ap\\", "mahadeva.mp3")  
                                                                                                                              'c:\\music\\ap\\mahadeva.mp3'
                                                                                                                              >>> os.path.join("c:\\music\\ap", "mahadeva.mp3")   
                                                                                                                              'c:\\music\\ap\\mahadeva.mp3'
                                                                                                                              >>> os.path.expanduser("~")       
                                                                                                                              'c:\\Documents and Settings\\mpilgrim\\My Documents'
                                                                                                                              >>> os.path.join(os.path.expanduser("~"), "Python") 
                                                                                                                              'c:\\Documents and Settings\\mpilgrim\\My Documents\\Python'
                                                                                                                              1. os.path is a reference to a module -- which module depends on your platform. Just as getpass encapsulates differences between platforms by setting getpass to a platform-specific function, os encapsulates differences between platforms by setting path to a platform-specific module.
                                                                                                                              2. The join function of os.path constructs a pathname out of one or more partial pathnames. In this case, it simply concatenates strings. (Note that dealing with pathnames on Windows is annoying because the backslash character must be escaped.)
                                                                                                                              3. In this slightly less trivial case, join will add an extra backslash to the pathname before joining it to the filename. I was overjoyed when I discovered this, since addSlashIfNecessary is one of the stupid little functions I always need to write when building up my toolbox in a new language. Do not write this stupid little function in Python; smart people have already taken care of it for you.
                                                                                                                              4. expanduser will expand a pathname that uses ~ to represent the current user's home directory. This works on any platform where users have a home directory, like Windows, UNIX, and Mac OS X; it has no effect on Mac OS.
                                                                                                                              5. Combining these techniques, you can easily construct pathnames for directories and files under the user's home directory.

                                                                                                                                Example 6.17. Splitting Pathnames

                                                                                                                                >>> os.path.split("c:\\music\\ap\\mahadeva.mp3")      
                                                                                                                                ('c:\\music\\ap', 'mahadeva.mp3')
                                                                                                                                >>> (filepath, filename) = os.path.split("c:\\music\\ap\\mahadeva.mp3") 
                                                                                                                                >>> filepath      
                                                                                                                                'c:\\music\\ap'
                                                                                                                                >>> filename      
                                                                                                                                'mahadeva.mp3'
                                                                                                                                >>> (shortname, extension) = os.path.splitext(filename)                 
                                                                                                                                >>> shortname
                                                                                                                                'mahadeva'
                                                                                                                                >>> extension
                                                                                                                                '.mp3'
                                                                                                                                1. The split function splits a full pathname and returns a tuple containing the path and filename. Remember when I said you could use multi-variable assignment to return multiple values from a function? Well, split is such a function.
                                                                                                                                2. You assign the return value of the split function into a tuple of two variables. Each variable receives the value of the corresponding element of the returned tuple.
                                                                                                                                3. The first variable, filepath, receives the value of the first element of the tuple returned from split, the file path.
                                                                                                                                4. The second variable, filename, receives the value of the second element of the tuple returned from split, the filename.
                                                                                                                                5. os.path also contains a function splitext, which splits a filename and returns a tuple containing the filename and the file extension. You use the same technique to assign each of them to separate variables.

                                                                                                                                  Example 6.18. Listing Directories

                                                                                                                                  >>> os.listdir("c:\\music\\_singles\\")              
                                                                                                                                  ['a_time_long_forgotten_con.mp3', 'hellraiser.mp3',
                                                                                                                                  'kairo.mp3', 'long_way_home1.mp3', 'sidewinder.mp3', 
                                                                                                                                  'spinning.mp3']
                                                                                                                                  >>> dirname = "c:\\"
                                                                                                                                  >>> os.listdir(dirname)            
                                                                                                                                  ['AUTOEXEC.BAT', 'boot.ini', 'CONFIG.SYS', 'cygwin',
                                                                                                                                  'docbook', 'Documents and Settings', 'Incoming', 'Inetpub', 'IO.SYS',
                                                                                                                                  'MSDOS.SYS', 'Music', 'NTDETECT.COM', 'ntldr', 'pagefile.sys',
                                                                                                                                  'Program Files', 'Python20', 'RECYCLER',
                                                                                                                                  'System Volume Information', 'TEMP', 'WINNT']
                                                                                                                                  >>> [f for f in os.listdir(dirname)
                                                                                                                                  ...    if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(dirname, f))] 
                                                                                                                                  ['AUTOEXEC.BAT', 'boot.ini', 'CONFIG.SYS', 'IO.SYS', 'MSDOS.SYS',
                                                                                                                                  'NTDETECT.COM', 'ntldr', 'pagefile.sys']
                                                                                                                                  >>> [f for f in os.listdir(dirname)
                                                                                                                                  ...    if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(dirname, f))]  
                                                                                                                                  ['cygwin', 'docbook', 'Documents and Settings', 'Incoming',
                                                                                                                                  'Inetpub', 'Music', 'Program Files', 'Python20', 'RECYCLER',
                                                                                                                                  'System Volume Information', 'TEMP', 'WINNT']
                                                                                                                                  1. The listdir function takes a pathname and returns a list of the contents of the directory.
                                                                                                                                  2. listdir returns both files and folders, with no indication of which is which.
                                                                                                                                  3. You can use list filtering and the isfile function of the os.path module to separate the files from the folders. isfile takes a pathname and returns 1 if the path represents a file, and 0 otherwise. Here you're using os.path.join to ensure a full pathname, but isfile also works with a partial path, relative to the current working directory. You can use os.getcwd() to get the current working directory.
                                                                                                                                  4. os.path also has a isdir function which returns 1 if the path represents a directory, and 0 otherwise. You can use this to get a list of the subdirectories within a directory.

                                                                                                                                    Example 6.19. Listing Directories in fileinfo.py

                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                    def listDirectory(directory, fileExtList):    
                                                                                                                                        "get list of file info objects for files of particular extensions" 
                                                                                                                                        fileList = [os.path.normcase(f)
                                                                                                                                                    for f in os.listdir(directory)]             
                                                                                                                                        fileList = [os.path.join(directory, f) 
                                                                                                                                                   for f in fileList
                                                                                                                                                    if os.path.splitext(f)[1] in fileExtList]    
                                                                                                                                    1. os.listdir(directory) returns a list of all the files and folders in directory.
                                                                                                                                    2. Iterating through the list with f, you use os.path.normcase(f) to normalize the case according to operating system defaults. normcase is a useful little function that compensates for case-insensitive operating systems that think that mahadeva.mp3 and mahadeva.MP3 are the same file. For instance, on Windows and Mac OS, normcase will convert the entire filename to lowercase; on UNIX-compatible systems, it will return the filename unchanged.
                                                                                                                                    3. Iterating through the normalized list with f again, you use os.path.splitext(f) to split each filename into name and extension.
                                                                                                                                    4. For each file, you see if the extension is in the list of file extensions you care about (fileExtList, which was passed to the listDirectory function).
                                                                                                                                    5. For each file you care about, you use os.path.join(directory, f) to construct the full pathname of the file, and return a list of the full pathnames.
                                                                                                                                      NoteWhenever possible, you should use the functions in os and os.path for file, directory, and path manipulations. These modules are wrappers for platform-specific modules, so functions like os.path.split work on UNIX, Windows, Mac OS, and any other platform supported by Python.

                                                                                                                                      There is one other way to get the contents of a directory. It's very powerful, and it uses the sort of wildcards that you may already be familiar with from working on the command line.

                                                                                                                                      Example 6.20. Listing Directories with glob

                                                                                                                                      >>> os.listdir("c:\\music\\_singles\\")               
                                                                                                                                      ['a_time_long_forgotten_con.mp3', 'hellraiser.mp3',
                                                                                                                                      'kairo.mp3', 'long_way_home1.mp3', 'sidewinder.mp3',
                                                                                                                                      'spinning.mp3']
                                                                                                                                      >>> import glob
                                                                                                                                      >>> glob.glob('c:\\music\\_singles\\*.mp3')           
                                                                                                                                      ['c:\\music\\_singles\\a_time_long_forgotten_con.mp3',
                                                                                                                                      'c:\\music\\_singles\\hellraiser.mp3',
                                                                                                                                      'c:\\music\\_singles\\kairo.mp3',
                                                                                                                                      'c:\\music\\_singles\\long_way_home1.mp3',
                                                                                                                                      'c:\\music\\_singles\\sidewinder.mp3',
                                                                                                                                      'c:\\music\\_singles\\spinning.mp3']
                                                                                                                                      >>> glob.glob('c:\\music\\_singles\\s*.mp3')          
                                                                                                                                      ['c:\\music\\_singles\\sidewinder.mp3',
                                                                                                                                      'c:\\music\\_singles\\spinning.mp3']
                                                                                                                                      >>> glob.glob('c:\\music\\*\\*.mp3')
                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                      1. As you saw earlier, os.listdir simply takes a directory path and lists all files and directories in that directory.
                                                                                                                                      2. The glob module, on the other hand, takes a wildcard and returns the full path of all files and directories matching the wildcard. Here the wildcard is a directory path plus "*.mp3", which will match all .mp3 files. Note that each element of the returned list already includes the full path of the file.
                                                                                                                                      3. If you want to find all the files in a specific directory that start with "s" and end with ".mp3", you can do that too.
                                                                                                                                      4. Now consider this scenario: you have a music directory, with several subdirectories within it, with .mp3 files within each subdirectory. You can get a list of all of those with a single call to glob, by using two wildcards at once. One wildcard is the "*.mp3" (to match .mp3 files), and one wildcard is within the directory path itself, to match any subdirectory within c:\music. That's a crazy amount of power packed into one deceptively simple-looking function!

                                                                                                                                        Further Reading on the os Module

                                                                                                                                        6.6. Putting It All Together

                                                                                                                                        Once again, all the dominoes are in place. You've seen how each line of code works. Now let's step back and see how it all fits together.

                                                                                                                                        Example 6.21. listDirectory

                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                        def listDirectory(directory, fileExtList):     
                                                                                                                                            "get list of file info objects for files of particular extensions"
                                                                                                                                            fileList = [os.path.normcase(f)
                                                                                                                                                        for f in os.listdir(directory)]           
                                                                                                                                            fileList = [os.path.join(directory, f) 
                                                                                                                                                       for f in fileList
                                                                                                                                                        if os.path.splitext(f)[1] in fileExtList]        
                                                                                                                                            def getFileInfoClass(filename, module=sys.modules[FileInfo.__module__]):       
                                                                                                                                                "get file info class from filename extension"           
                                                                                                                                                subclass = "%sFileInfo" % os.path.splitext(filename)[1].upper()[1:]        
                                                                                                                                                return hasattr(module, subclass) and getattr(module, subclass) or FileInfo 
                                                                                                                                            return [getFileInfoClass(f)(f) for f in fileList]            
                                                                                                                                        1. listDirectory is the main attraction of this entire module. It takes a directory (like c:\music\_singles\ in my case) and a list of interesting file extensions (like ['.mp3']), and it returns a list of class instances that act like dictionaries that contain metadata about each interesting file in that directory. And it does it in just a few straightforward lines of code.
                                                                                                                                        2. As you saw in the previous section, this line of code gets a list of the full pathnames of all the files in directory that have an interesting file extension (as specified by fileExtList).
                                                                                                                                        3. Old-school Pascal programmers may be familiar with them, but most people give me a blank stare when I tell them that Python supports nested functions -- literally, a function within a function. The nested function getFileInfoClass can be called only from the function in which it is defined, listDirectory. As with any other function, you don't need an interface declaration or anything fancy; just define the function and code it.
                                                                                                                                        4. Now that you've seen the os module, this line should make more sense. It gets the extension of the file (os.path.splitext(filename)[1]), forces it to uppercase (.upper()), slices off the dot ([1:]), and constructs a class name out of it with string formatting. So c:\music\ap\mahadeva.mp3 becomes .mp3 becomes .MP3 becomes MP3 becomes MP3FileInfo.
                                                                                                                                        5. Having constructed the name of the handler class that would handle this file, you check to see if that handler class actually exists in this module. If it does, you return the class, otherwise you return the base class FileInfo. This is a very important point: this function returns a class. Not an instance of a class, but the class itself.
                                                                                                                                        6. For each file in the “interesting files” list (fileList), you call getFileInfoClass with the filename (f). Calling getFileInfoClass(f) returns a class; you don't know exactly which class, but you don't care. You then create an instance of this class (whatever it is) and pass the filename (f again), to the __init__ method. As you saw earlier in this chapter, the __init__ method of FileInfo sets self["name"], which triggers __setitem__, which is overridden in the descendant (MP3FileInfo) to parse the file appropriately to pull out the file's metadata. You do all that for each interesting file and return a list of the resulting instances.

                                                                                                                                          Note that listDirectory is completely generic. It doesn't know ahead of time which types of files it will be getting, or which classes are defined that could potentially handle those files. It inspects the directory for the files to process, and then introspects its own module to see what special handler classes (like MP3FileInfo) are defined. You can extend this program to handle other types of files simply by defining an appropriately-named class: HTMLFileInfo for HTML files, DOCFileInfo for Word .doc files, and so forth. listDirectory will handle them all, without modification, by handing off the real work to the appropriate classes and collating the results.

                                                                                                                                          6.7. Summary

                                                                                                                                          The fileinfo.py program introduced in Chapter 5 should now make perfect sense.

                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          """Framework for getting filetype-specific metadata.
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          Instantiate appropriate class with filename. Returned object acts like a
                                                                                                                                          dictionary, with key-value pairs for each piece of metadata.
                                                                                                                                              import fileinfo
                                                                                                                                              info = fileinfo.MP3FileInfo("/music/ap/mahadeva.mp3")
                                                                                                                                              print "\\n".join(["%s=%s" % (k, v) for k, v in info.items()])
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          Or use listDirectory function to get info on all files in a directory.
                                                                                                                                              for info in fileinfo.listDirectory("/music/ap/", [".mp3"]):
                                                                                                                                                  ...
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          Framework can be extended by adding classes for particular file types, e.g.
                                                                                                                                          HTMLFileInfo, MPGFileInfo, DOCFileInfo. Each class is completely responsible for
                                                                                                                                          parsing its files appropriately; see MP3FileInfo for example.
                                                                                                                                          """
                                                                                                                                          import os
                                                                                                                                          import sys
                                                                                                                                          from UserDict import UserDict
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          def stripnulls(data):
                                                                                                                                              "strip whitespace and nulls"
                                                                                                                                              return data.replace("\00", "").strip()
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          class FileInfo(UserDict):
                                                                                                                                              "store file metadata"
                                                                                                                                              def __init__(self, filename=None):
                                                                                                                                                  UserDict.__init__(self)
                                                                                                                                                  self["name"] = filename
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          class MP3FileInfo(FileInfo):
                                                                                                                                              "store ID3v1.0 MP3 tags"
                                                                                                                                              tagDataMap = {"title"   : (  3,  33, stripnulls),
                                                                                                                                          "artist"  : ( 33,  63, stripnulls),
                                                                                                                                          "album"   : ( 63,  93, stripnulls),
                                                                                                                                          "year"    : ( 93,  97, stripnulls),
                                                                                                                                          "comment" : ( 97, 126, stripnulls),
                                                                                                                                          "genre"   : (127, 128, ord)}
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def __parse(self, filename):
                                                                                                                                                  "parse ID3v1.0 tags from MP3 file"
                                                                                                                                                  self.clear()
                                                                                                                                                  try:             
                                                                                                                                                      fsock = open(filename, "rb", 0)
                                                                                                                                                      try:         
                                                                                                                                                          fsock.seek(-128, 2)        
                                                                                                                                                          tagdata = fsock.read(128)  
                                                                                                                                                      finally:     
                                                                                                                                                          fsock.close()              
                                                                                                                                                      if tagdata[:3] == "TAG":
                                                                                                                                                          for tag, (start, end, parseFunc) in self.tagDataMap.items():
                                                                                                                                            self[tag] = parseFunc(tagdata[start:end])               
                                                                                                                                                  except IOError:  
                                                                                                                                                      pass         
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def __setitem__(self, key, item):
                                                                                                                                                  if key == "name" and item:
                                                                                                                                                      self.__parse(item)
                                                                                                                                                  FileInfo.__setitem__(self, key, item)
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          def listDirectory(directory, fileExtList):    
                                                                                                                                              "get list of file info objects for files of particular extensions"
                                                                                                                                              fileList = [os.path.normcase(f)
                                                                                                                                                          for f in os.listdir(directory)]           
                                                                                                                                              fileList = [os.path.join(directory, f) 
                                                                                                                                                         for f in fileList
                                                                                                                                                          if os.path.splitext(f)[1] in fileExtList] 
                                                                                                                                              def getFileInfoClass(filename, module=sys.modules[FileInfo.__module__]):      
                                                                                                                                                  "get file info class from filename extension"           
                                                                                                                                                  subclass = "%sFileInfo" % os.path.splitext(filename)[1].upper()[1:]       
                                                                                                                                                  return hasattr(module, subclass) and getattr(module, subclass) or FileInfo
                                                                                                                                              return [getFileInfoClass(f)(f) for f in fileList]           
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          if __name__ == "__main__":
                                                                                                                                              for info in listDirectory("/music/_singles/", [".mp3"]):
                                                                                                                                                  print "\n".join(["%s=%s" % (k, v) for k, v in info.items()])
                                                                                                                                                  print

                                                                                                                                          Before diving into the next chapter, make sure you're comfortable doing the following things:

                                                                                                                                          Chapter 8. HTML Processing

                                                                                                                                          8.1. Diving in

                                                                                                                                          I often see questions on comp.lang.python like “How can I list all the [headers|images|links] in my HTML document?” “How do I parse/translate/munge the text of my HTML document but leave the tags alone?” “How can I add/remove/quote attributes of all my HTML tags at once?” This chapter will answer all of these questions.

                                                                                                                                          Here is a complete, working Python program in two parts. The first part, BaseHTMLProcessor.py, is a generic tool to help you process HTML files by walking through the tags and text blocks. The second part, dialect.py, is an example of how to use BaseHTMLProcessor.py to translate the text of an HTML document but leave the tags alone. Read the docstrings and comments to get an overview of what's going on. Most of it will seem like black magic, because it's not obvious how any of these class methods ever get called. Don't worry, all will be revealed in due time.

                                                                                                                                          Example 8.1. BaseHTMLProcessor.py

                                                                                                                                          If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          from sgmllib import SGMLParser
                                                                                                                                          import htmlentitydefs
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          class BaseHTMLProcessor(SGMLParser):
                                                                                                                                              def reset(self):     
                                                                                                                                                  # extend (called by SGMLParser.__init__)
                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces = []
                                                                                                                                                  SGMLParser.reset(self)
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def unknown_starttag(self, tag, attrs):
                                                                                                                                                  # called for each start tag
                                                                                                                                                  # attrs is a list of (attr, value) tuples
                                                                                                                                                  # e.g. for <pre class=screen>, tag="pre", attrs=[("class", "screen")]
                                                                                                                                                  # Ideally we would like to reconstruct original tag and attributes, but
                                                                                                                                                  # we may end up quoting attribute values that weren't quoted in the source
                                                                                                                                                  # document, or we may change the type of quotes around the attribute value
                                                                                                                                                  # (single to double quotes).
                                                                                                                                                  # Note that improperly embedded non-HTML code (like client-side Javascript)
                                                                                                                                                  # may be parsed incorrectly by the ancestor, causing runtime script errors.
                                                                                                                                                  # All non-HTML code must be enclosed in HTML comment tags (<!-- code -->)
                                                                                                                                                  # to ensure that it will pass through this parser unaltered (in handle_comment).
                                                                                                                                                  strattrs = "".join([' %s="%s"' % (key, value) for key, value in attrs])
                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces.append("<%(tag)s%(strattrs)s>" % locals())
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def unknown_endtag(self, tag):         
                                                                                                                                                  # called for each end tag, e.g. for </pre>, tag will be "pre"
                                                                                                                                                  # Reconstruct the original end tag.
                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces.append("</%(tag)s>" % locals())
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def handle_charref(self, ref):         
                                                                                                                                                  # called for each character reference, e.g. for "&#160;", ref will be "160"
                                                                                                                                                  # Reconstruct the original character reference.
                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces.append("&#%(ref)s;" % locals())
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def handle_entityref(self, ref):       
                                                                                                                                                  # called for each entity reference, e.g. for "&copy;", ref will be "copy"
                                                                                                                                                  # Reconstruct the original entity reference.
                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces.append("&%(ref)s" % locals())
                                                                                                                                                  # standard HTML entities are closed with a semicolon; other entities are not
                                                                                                                                                  if htmlentitydefs.entitydefs.has_key(ref):
                                                                                                                                                      self.pieces.append(";")
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def handle_data(self, text):           
                                                                                                                                                  # called for each block of plain text, i.e. outside of any tag and
                                                                                                                                                  # not containing any character or entity references
                                                                                                                                                  # Store the original text verbatim.
                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces.append(text)
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def handle_comment(self, text):        
                                                                                                                                                  # called for each HTML comment, e.g. <!-- insert Javascript code here -->
                                                                                                                                                  # Reconstruct the original comment.
                                                                                                                                                  # It is especially important that the source document enclose client-side
                                                                                                                                                  # code (like Javascript) within comments so it can pass through this
                                                                                                                                                  # processor undisturbed; see comments in unknown_starttag for details.
                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces.append("<!--%(text)s-->" % locals())
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def handle_pi(self, text):             
                                                                                                                                                  # called for each processing instruction, e.g. <?instruction>
                                                                                                                                                  # Reconstruct original processing instruction.
                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces.append("<?%(text)s>" % locals())
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def handle_decl(self, text):
                                                                                                                                                  # called for the DOCTYPE, if present, e.g.
                                                                                                                                                  # <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
                                                                                                                                                  #     "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
                                                                                                                                                  # Reconstruct original DOCTYPE
                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces.append("<!%(text)s>" % locals())
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def output(self):              
                                                                                                                                                  """Return processed HTML as a single string"""
                                                                                                                                                  return "".join(self.pieces)

                                                                                                                                          Example 8.2. dialect.py

                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          import re
                                                                                                                                          from BaseHTMLProcessor import BaseHTMLProcessor
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          class Dialectizer(BaseHTMLProcessor):
                                                                                                                                              subs = ()
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def reset(self):
                                                                                                                                                  # extend (called from __init__ in ancestor)
                                                                                                                                                  # Reset all data attributes
                                                                                                                                                  self.verbatim = 0
                                                                                                                                                  BaseHTMLProcessor.reset(self)
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def start_pre(self, attrs):            
                                                                                                                                                  # called for every <pre> tag in HTML source
                                                                                                                                                  # Increment verbatim mode count, then handle tag like normal
                                                                                                                                                  self.verbatim += 1                 
                                                                                                                                                  self.unknown_starttag("pre", attrs)
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def end_pre(self):   
                                                                                                                                                  # called for every </pre> tag in HTML source
                                                                                                                                                  # Decrement verbatim mode count
                                                                                                                                                  self.unknown_endtag("pre")         
                                                                                                                                                  self.verbatim -= 1                 
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def handle_data(self, text):    
                                                                                                                                                  # override
                                                                                                                                                  # called for every block of text in HTML source
                                                                                                                                                  # If in verbatim mode, save text unaltered;
                                                                                                                                                  # otherwise process the text with a series of substitutions
                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces.append(self.verbatim and text or self.process(text))
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                              def process(self, text):
                                                                                                                                                  # called from handle_data
                                                                                                                                                  # Process text block by performing series of regular expression
                                                                                                                                                  # substitutions (actual substitions are defined in descendant)
                                                                                                                                                  for fromPattern, toPattern in self.subs:
                                                                                                                                                      text = re.sub(fromPattern, toPattern, text)
                                                                                                                                                  return text
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          class ChefDialectizer(Dialectizer):
                                                                                                                                              """convert HTML to Swedish Chef-speak
                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                              based on the classic chef.x, copyright (c) 1992, 1993 John Hagerman
                                                                                                                                              """
                                                                                                                                              subs = ((r'a([nu])', r'u\1'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'A([nu])', r'U\1'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'a\B', r'e'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'A\B', r'E'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'en\b', r'ee'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\Bew', r'oo'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\Be\b', r'e-a'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\be', r'i'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\bE', r'I'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\Bf', r'ff'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\Bir', r'ur'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'(\w*?)i(\w*?)$', r'\1ee\2'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\bow', r'oo'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\bo', r'oo'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\bO', r'Oo'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'the', r'zee'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'The', r'Zee'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'th\b', r't'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\Btion', r'shun'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\Bu', r'oo'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\BU', r'Oo'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'v', r'f'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'V', r'F'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'w', r'w'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'W', r'W'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'([a-z])[.]', r'\1. Bork Bork Bork!'))
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          class FuddDialectizer(Dialectizer):
                                                                                                                                              """convert HTML to Elmer Fudd-speak"""
                                                                                                                                              subs = ((r'[rl]', r'w'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'qu', r'qw'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'th\b', r'f'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'th', r'd'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'n[.]', r'n, uh-hah-hah-hah.'))
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          class OldeDialectizer(Dialectizer):
                                                                                                                                              """convert HTML to mock Middle English"""
                                                                                                                                              subs = ((r'i([bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz])e\b', r'y\1'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'i([bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz])e', r'y\1\1e'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ick\b', r'yk'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ia([bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz])', r'e\1e'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'e[ea]([bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz])', r'e\1e'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'([bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz])y', r'\1ee'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'([bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz])er', r'\1re'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'([aeiou])re\b', r'\1r'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ia([bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz])', r'i\1e'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'tion\b', r'cioun'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ion\b', r'ioun'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'aid', r'ayde'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ai', r'ey'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ay\b', r'y'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ay', r'ey'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ant', r'aunt'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ea', r'ee'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'oa', r'oo'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ue', r'e'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'oe', r'o'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ou', r'ow'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ow', r'ou'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'\bhe', r'hi'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r've\b', r'veth'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'se\b', r'e'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r"'s\b", r'es'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ic\b', r'ick'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ics\b', r'icc'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ical\b', r'ick'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'tle\b', r'til'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'll\b', r'l'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ould\b', r'olde'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'own\b', r'oune'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'un\b', r'onne'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'rry\b', r'rye'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'est\b', r'este'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'pt\b', r'pte'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'th\b', r'the'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ch\b', r'che'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'ss\b', r'sse'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'([wybdp])\b', r'\1e'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'([rnt])\b', r'\1\1e'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'from', r'fro'),
                                                                                                                                                      (r'when', r'whan'))
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          def translate(url, dialectName="chef"):
                                                                                                                                              """fetch URL and translate using dialect
                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                              dialect in ("chef", "fudd", "olde")"""
                                                                                                                                              import urllib    
                                                                                                                                              sock = urllib.urlopen(url)         
                                                                                                                                              htmlSource = sock.read()           
                                                                                                                                              sock.close()     
                                                                                                                                              parserName = "%sDialectizer" % dialectName.capitalize()
                                                                                                                                              parserClass = globals()[parserName]  
                                                                                                                                              parser = parserClass()               
                                                                                                                                              parser.feed(htmlSource)
                                                                                                                                              parser.close()         
                                                                                                                                              return parser.output() 
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          def test(url):
                                                                                                                                              """test all dialects against URL"""
                                                                                                                                              for dialect in ("chef", "fudd", "olde"):
                                                                                                                                                  outfile = "%s.html" % dialect
                                                                                                                                                  fsock = open(outfile, "wb")
                                                                                                                                                  fsock.write(translate(url, dialect))
                                                                                                                                                  fsock.close()
                                                                                                                                                  import webbrowser
                                                                                                                                                  webbrowser.open_new(outfile)
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          if __name__ == "__main__":
                                                                                                                                              test("http://diveintopython3.org/odbchelper_list.html")

                                                                                                                                          Example 8.3. Output of dialect.py

                                                                                                                                          Running this script will translate Section 3.2, “Introducing Lists” into mock Swedish Chef-speak (from The Muppets), mock Elmer Fudd-speak (from Bugs Bunny cartoons), and mock Middle English (loosely based on Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales). If you look at the HTML source of the output pages, you'll see that all the HTML tags and attributes are untouched, but the text between the tags has been “translated” into the mock language. If you look closer, you'll see that, in fact, only the titles and paragraphs were translated; the code listings and screen examples were left untouched.

                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          <div class=abstract>
                                                                                                                                          <p>Lists awe <span class=application>Pydon</span>'s wowkhowse datatype.
                                                                                                                                          If youw onwy expewience wif wists is awways in
                                                                                                                                          <span class=application>Visuaw Basic</span> ow (God fowbid) de datastowe
                                                                                                                                          in <span class=application>Powewbuiwdew</span>, bwace youwsewf fow
                                                                                                                                          <span class=application>Pydon</span> wists.</p>
                                                                                                                                          </div>
                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                          8.2. Introducing sgmllib.py

                                                                                                                                          HTML processing is broken into three steps: breaking down the HTML into its constituent pieces, fiddling with the pieces, and reconstructing the pieces into HTML again. The first step is done by sgmllib.py, a part of the standard Python library.

                                                                                                                                          The key to understanding this chapter is to realize that HTML is not just text, it is structured text. The structure is derived from the more-or-less-hierarchical sequence of start tags and end tags. Usually you don't work with HTML this way; you work with it textually in a text editor, or visually in a web browser or web authoring tool. sgmllib.py presents HTML structurally.

                                                                                                                                          sgmllib.py contains one important class: SGMLParser. SGMLParser parses HTML into useful pieces, like start tags and end tags. As soon as it succeeds in breaking down some data into a useful piece, it calls a method on itself based on what it found. In order to use the parser, you subclass the SGMLParser class and override these methods. This is what I meant when I said that it presents HTML structurally: the structure of the HTML determines the sequence of method calls and the arguments passed to each method.

                                                                                                                                          SGMLParser parses HTML into 8 kinds of data, and calls a separate method for each of them:

                                                                                                                                          Start tag
                                                                                                                                          An HTML tag that starts a block, like <html>, <head>, <body>, or <pre>, or a standalone tag like <br> or <img>. When it finds a start tag tagname, SGMLParser will look for a method called start_tagname or do_tagname. For instance, when it finds a <pre> tag, it will look for a start_pre or do_pre method. If found, SGMLParser calls this method with a list of the tag's attributes; otherwise, it calls unknown_starttag with the tag name and list of attributes.
                                                                                                                                          End tag
                                                                                                                                          An HTML tag that ends a block, like </html>, </head>, </body>, or </pre>. When it finds an end tag, SGMLParser will look for a method called end_tagname. If found, SGMLParser calls this method, otherwise it calls unknown_endtag with the tag name.
                                                                                                                                          Character reference
                                                                                                                                          An escaped character referenced by its decimal or hexadecimal equivalent, like &#160;. When found, SGMLParser calls handle_charref with the text of the decimal or hexadecimal character equivalent.
                                                                                                                                          Entity reference
                                                                                                                                          An HTML entity, like &copy;. When found, SGMLParser calls handle_entityref with the name of the HTML entity.
                                                                                                                                          Comment
                                                                                                                                          An HTML comment, enclosed in <!-- ... -->. When found, SGMLParser calls handle_comment with the body of the comment.
                                                                                                                                          Processing instruction
                                                                                                                                          An HTML processing instruction, enclosed in <? ... >. When found, SGMLParser calls handle_pi with the body of the processing instruction.
                                                                                                                                          Declaration
                                                                                                                                          An HTML declaration, such as a DOCTYPE, enclosed in <! ... >. When found, SGMLParser calls handle_decl with the body of the declaration.
                                                                                                                                          Text data
                                                                                                                                          A block of text. Anything that doesn't fit into the other 7 categories. When found, SGMLParser calls handle_data with the text.
                                                                                                                                          ImportantPython 2.0 had a bug where SGMLParser would not recognize declarations at all (handle_decl would never be called), which meant that DOCTYPEs were silently ignored. This is fixed in Python 2.1.

                                                                                                                                          sgmllib.py comes with a test suite to illustrate this. You can run sgmllib.py, passing the name of an HTML file on the command line, and it will print out the tags and other elements as it parses them. It does this by subclassing the SGMLParser class and defining unknown_starttag, unknown_endtag, handle_data and other methods which simply print their arguments.

                                                                                                                                          TipIn the ActivePython IDE on Windows, you can specify command line arguments in the “Run script” dialog. Separate multiple arguments with spaces.

                                                                                                                                          Example 8.4. Sample test of sgmllib.py

                                                                                                                                          Here is a snippet from the table of contents of the HTML version of this book. Of course your paths may vary. (If you haven't downloaded the HTML version of the book, you can do so at http://diveintopython3.org/.

                                                                                                                                          c:\python23\lib> type "c:\downloads\diveintopython3\html\toc\index.html"
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          <!DOCTYPE html
                                                                                                                                            PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
                                                                                                                                          <html>
                                                                                                                                             <head>
                                                                                                                                                <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                <title>Dive Into Python</title>
                                                                                                                                                <link rel="stylesheet" href="diveintopython3.css" type="text/css">
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          ... rest of file omitted for brevity ...
                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                          Running this through the test suite of sgmllib.py yields this output:

                                                                                                                                          c:\python23\lib> python sgmllib.py "c:\downloads\diveintopython3\html\toc\index.html"
                                                                                                                                          data: '\n\n'
                                                                                                                                          start tag: <html >
                                                                                                                                          data: '\n   '
                                                                                                                                          start tag: <head>
                                                                                                                                          data: '\n      '
                                                                                                                                          start tag: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" >
                                                                                                                                          data: '\n   \n      '
                                                                                                                                          start tag: <title>
                                                                                                                                          data: 'Dive Into Python'
                                                                                                                                          end tag: </title>
                                                                                                                                          data: '\n      '
                                                                                                                                          start tag: <link rel="stylesheet" href="diveintopython3.css" type="text/css" >
                                                                                                                                          data: '\n      '
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          ... rest of output omitted for brevity ...
                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                          Here's the roadmap for the rest of the chapter:

                                                                                                                                          • Subclass SGMLParser to create classes that extract interesting data out of HTML documents.
                                                                                                                                          • Subclass SGMLParser to create BaseHTMLProcessor, which overrides all 8 handler methods and uses them to reconstruct the original HTML from the pieces.
                                                                                                                                          • Subclass BaseHTMLProcessor to create Dialectizer, which adds some methods to process specific HTML tags specially, and overrides the handle_data method to provide a framework for processing the text blocks between the HTML tags.
                                                                                                                                          • Subclass Dialectizer to create classes that define text processing rules used by Dialectizer.handle_data.
                                                                                                                                          • Write a test suite that grabs a real web page from http://diveintopython3.org/ and processes it.

                                                                                                                                          Along the way, you'll also learn about locals, globals, and dictionary-based string formatting.

                                                                                                                                          8.3. Extracting data from HTML documents

                                                                                                                                          To extract data from HTML documents, subclass the SGMLParser class and define methods for each tag or entity you want to capture.

                                                                                                                                          The first step to extracting data from an HTML document is getting some HTML. If you have some HTML lying around on your hard drive, you can use file functions to read it, but the real fun begins when you get HTML from live web pages.

                                                                                                                                          Example 8.5. Introducing urllib

                                                                                                                                          >>> import urllib   
                                                                                                                                          >>> sock = urllib.urlopen("http://diveintopython3.org/") 
                                                                                                                                          >>> htmlSource = sock.read()          
                                                                                                                                          >>> sock.close()    
                                                                                                                                          >>> print htmlSource
                                                                                                                                          <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"><html><head>
                                                                                                                                                <meta http-equiv='Content-Type' content='text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1'>
                                                                                                                                             <title>Dive Into Python</title>
                                                                                                                                          <link rel='stylesheet' href='diveintopython3.css' type='text/css'>
                                                                                                                                          <link rev='made' href='mailto:mark@diveintopython3.org'>
                                                                                                                                          <meta name='keywords' content='Python, Dive Into Python, tutorial, object-oriented, programming, documentation, book, free'>
                                                                                                                                          <meta name='description' content='a free Python tutorial for experienced programmers'>
                                                                                                                                          </head>
                                                                                                                                          <body bgcolor='white' text='black' link='#0000FF' vlink='#840084' alink='#0000FF'>
                                                                                                                                          <table cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0' width='100%'>
                                                                                                                                          <tr><td class='header' width='1%' valign='top'>diveintopython3.org</td>
                                                                                                                                          <td width='99%' align='right'><hr size='1' noshade></td></tr>
                                                                                                                                          <tr><td class='tagline' colspan='2'>Python&nbsp;for&nbsp;experienced&nbsp;programmers</td></tr>
                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                          [...snip...]
                                                                                                                                          1. The urllib module is part of the standard Python library. It contains functions for getting information about and actually retrieving data from Internet-based URLs (mainly web pages).
                                                                                                                                          2. The simplest use of urllib is to retrieve the entire text of a web page using the urlopen function. Opening a URL is similar to opening a file. The return value of urlopen is a file-like object, which has some of the same methods as a file object.
                                                                                                                                          3. The simplest thing to do with the file-like object returned by urlopen is read, which reads the entire HTML of the web page into a single string. The object also supports readlines, which reads the text line by line into a list.
                                                                                                                                          4. When you're done with the object, make sure to close it, just like a normal file object.
                                                                                                                                          5. You now have the complete HTML of the home page of http://diveintopython3.org/ in a string, and you're ready to parse it.

                                                                                                                                            If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                            from sgmllib import SGMLParser
                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                            class URLLister(SGMLParser):
                                                                                                                                                def reset(self):            
                                                                                                                                                    SGMLParser.reset(self)
                                                                                                                                                    self.urls = []
                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                def start_a(self, attrs):   
                                                                                                                                                    href = [v for k, v in attrs if k=='href']  
                                                                                                                                                    if href:
                                                                                                                                                        self.urls.extend(href)
                                                                                                                                            1. reset is called by the __init__ method of SGMLParser, and it can also be called manually once an instance of the parser has been created. So if you need to do any initialization, do it in reset, not in __init__, so that it will be re-initialized properly when someone re-uses a parser instance.
                                                                                                                                            2. start_a is called by SGMLParser whenever it finds an <a> tag. The tag may contain an href attribute, and/or other attributes, like name or title. The attrs parameter is a list of tuples, [(attribute, value), (attribute, value), ...]. Or it may be just an <a>, a valid (if useless) HTML tag, in which case attrs would be an empty list.
                                                                                                                                            3. You can find out whether this <a> tag has an href attribute with a simple multi-variable list comprehension.
                                                                                                                                            4. String comparisons like k=='href' are always case-sensitive, but that's safe in this case, because SGMLParser converts attribute names to lowercase while building attrs.

                                                                                                                                              Example 8.7. Using urllister.py

                                                                                                                                              >>> import urllib, urllister
                                                                                                                                              >>> usock = urllib.urlopen("http://diveintopython3.org/")
                                                                                                                                              >>> parser = urllister.URLLister()
                                                                                                                                              >>> parser.feed(usock.read())         
                                                                                                                                              >>> usock.close()   
                                                                                                                                              >>> parser.close()  
                                                                                                                                              >>> for url in parser.urls: print url 
                                                                                                                                              toc/index.html
                                                                                                                                              #download
                                                                                                                                              #languages
                                                                                                                                              toc/index.html
                                                                                                                                              appendix/history.html
                                                                                                                                              download/diveintopython3-html-5.0.zip
                                                                                                                                              download/diveintopython3-pdf-5.0.zip
                                                                                                                                              download/diveintopython3-word-5.0.zip
                                                                                                                                              download/diveintopython3-text-5.0.zip
                                                                                                                                              download/diveintopython3-html-flat-5.0.zip
                                                                                                                                              download/diveintopython3-xml-5.0.zip
                                                                                                                                              download/diveintopython3-common-5.0.zip
                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                              ... rest of output omitted for brevity ...
                                                                                                                                              1. Call the feed method, defined in SGMLParser, to get HTML into the parser. [1] It takes a string, which is what usock.read() returns.
                                                                                                                                              2. Like files, you should close your URL objects as soon as you're done with them.
                                                                                                                                              3. You should close your parser object, too, but for a different reason. You've read all the data and fed it to the parser, but the feed method isn't guaranteed to have actually processed all the HTML you give it; it may buffer it, waiting for more. Be sure to call close to flush the buffer and force everything to be fully parsed.
                                                                                                                                              4. Once the parser is closed, the parsing is complete, and parser.urls contains a list of all the linked URLs in the HTML document. (Your output may look different, if the download links have been updated by the time you read this.)

                                                                                                                                                8.4. Introducing BaseHTMLProcessor.py

                                                                                                                                                SGMLParser doesn't produce anything by itself. It parses and parses and parses, and it calls a method for each interesting thing it finds, but the methods don't do anything. SGMLParser is an HTML consumer: it takes HTML and breaks it down into small, structured pieces. As you saw in the previous section, you can subclass SGMLParser to define classes that catch specific tags and produce useful things, like a list of all the links on a web page. Now you'll take this one step further by defining a class that catches everything SGMLParser throws at it and reconstructs the complete HTML document. In technical terms, this class will be an HTML producer.

                                                                                                                                                BaseHTMLProcessor subclasses SGMLParser and provides all 8 essential handler methods: unknown_starttag, unknown_endtag, handle_charref, handle_entityref, handle_comment, handle_pi, handle_decl, and handle_data.

                                                                                                                                                Example 8.8. Introducing BaseHTMLProcessor

                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                class BaseHTMLProcessor(SGMLParser):
                                                                                                                                                    def reset(self):      
                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces = []
                                                                                                                                                        SGMLParser.reset(self)
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                    def unknown_starttag(self, tag, attrs): 
                                                                                                                                                        strattrs = "".join([' %s="%s"' % (key, value) for key, value in attrs])
                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append("<%(tag)s%(strattrs)s>" % locals())
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                    def unknown_endtag(self, tag):          
                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append("</%(tag)s>" % locals())
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                    def handle_charref(self, ref):          
                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append("&#%(ref)s;" % locals())
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                    def handle_entityref(self, ref):        
                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append("&%(ref)s" % locals())
                                                                                                                                                        if htmlentitydefs.entitydefs.has_key(ref):
                                                                                                                                                            self.pieces.append(";")
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                    def handle_data(self, text):            
                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append(text)
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                    def handle_comment(self, text):         
                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append("<!--%(text)s-->" % locals())
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                    def handle_pi(self, text):              
                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append("<?%(text)s>" % locals())
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                    def handle_decl(self, text):
                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append("<!%(text)s>" % locals())
                                                                                                                                                1. reset, called by SGMLParser.__init__, initializes self.pieces as an empty list before calling the ancestor method. self.pieces is a data attribute which will hold the pieces of the HTML document you're constructing. Each handler method will reconstruct the HTML that SGMLParser parsed, and each method will append that string to self.pieces. Note that self.pieces is a list. You might be tempted to define it as a string and just keep appending each piece to it. That would work, but Python is much more efficient at dealing with lists. [2]
                                                                                                                                                2. Since BaseHTMLProcessor does not define any methods for specific tags (like the start_a method in URLLister), SGMLParser will call unknown_starttag for every start tag. This method takes the tag (tag) and the list of attribute name/value pairs (attrs), reconstructs the original HTML, and appends it to self.pieces. The string formatting here is a little strange; you'll untangle that (and also the odd-looking locals function) later in this chapter.
                                                                                                                                                3. Reconstructing end tags is much simpler; just take the tag name and wrap it in the </...> brackets.
                                                                                                                                                4. When SGMLParser finds a character reference, it calls handle_charref with the bare reference. If the HTML document contains the reference &#160;, ref will be 160. Reconstructing the original complete character reference just involves wrapping ref in &#...; characters.
                                                                                                                                                5. Entity references are similar to character references, but without the hash mark. Reconstructing the original entity reference requires wrapping ref in &...; characters. (Actually, as an erudite reader pointed out to me, it's slightly more complicated than this. Only certain standard HTML entites end in a semicolon; other similar-looking entities do not. Luckily for us, the set of standard HTML entities is defined in a dictionary in a Python module called htmlentitydefs. Hence the extra if statement.)
                                                                                                                                                6. Blocks of text are simply appended to self.pieces unaltered.
                                                                                                                                                7. HTML comments are wrapped in <!--...--> characters.
                                                                                                                                                8. Processing instructions are wrapped in <?...> characters.
                                                                                                                                                  ImportantThe HTML specification requires that all non-HTML (like client-side JavaScript) must be enclosed in HTML comments, but not all web pages do this properly (and all modern web browsers are forgiving if they don't). BaseHTMLProcessor is not forgiving; if script is improperly embedded, it will be parsed as if it were HTML. For instance, if the script contains less-than and equals signs, SGMLParser may incorrectly think that it has found tags and attributes. SGMLParser always converts tags and attribute names to lowercase, which may break the script, and BaseHTMLProcessor always encloses attribute values in double quotes (even if the original HTML document used single quotes or no quotes), which will certainly break the script. Always protect your client-side script within HTML comments.

                                                                                                                                                  Example 8.9. BaseHTMLProcessor output

                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                      def output(self):               
                                                                                                                                                          """Return processed HTML as a single string"""
                                                                                                                                                          return "".join(self.pieces) 
                                                                                                                                                  1. This is the one method in BaseHTMLProcessor that is never called by the ancestor SGMLParser. Since the other handler methods store their reconstructed HTML in self.pieces, this function is needed to join all those pieces into one string. As noted before, Python is great at lists and mediocre at strings, so you only create the complete string when somebody explicitly asks for it.
                                                                                                                                                  2. If you prefer, you could use the join method of the string module instead: string.join(self.pieces, "")

                                                                                                                                                    Further reading

                                                                                                                                                    8.5. locals and globals

                                                                                                                                                    Let's digress from HTML processing for a minute and talk about how Python handles variables. Python has two built-in functions, locals and globals, which provide dictionary-based access to local and global variables.

                                                                                                                                                    Remember locals? You first saw it here:

                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                        def unknown_starttag(self, tag, attrs):
                                                                                                                                                            strattrs = "".join([' %s="%s"' % (key, value) for key, value in attrs])
                                                                                                                                                            self.pieces.append("<%(tag)s%(strattrs)s>" % locals())
                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                                                    No, wait, you can't learn about locals yet. First, you need to learn about namespaces. This is dry stuff, but it's important, so pay attention.

                                                                                                                                                    Python uses what are called namespaces to keep track of variables. A namespace is just like a dictionary where the keys are names of variables and the dictionary values are the values of those variables. In fact, you can access a namespace as a Python dictionary, as you'll see in a minute.

                                                                                                                                                    At any particular point in a Python program, there are several namespaces available. Each function has its own namespace, called the local namespace, which keeps track of the function's variables, including function arguments and locally defined variables. Each module has its own namespace, called the global namespace, which keeps track of the module's variables, including functions, classes, any other imported modules, and module-level variables and constants. And there is the built-in namespace, accessible from any module, which holds built-in functions and exceptions.

                                                                                                                                                    When a line of code asks for the value of a variable x, Python will search for that variable in all the available namespaces, in order:

                                                                                                                                                    1. local namespace - specific to the current function or class method. If the function defines a local variable x, or has an argument x, Python will use this and stop searching.
                                                                                                                                                    2. global namespace - specific to the current module. If the module has defined a variable, function, or class called x, Python will use that and stop searching.
                                                                                                                                                    3. built-in namespace - global to all modules. As a last resort, Python will assume that x is the name of built-in function or variable.

                                                                                                                                                    If Python doesn't find x in any of these namespaces, it gives up and raises a NameError with the message There is no variable named 'x', which you saw back in Example 3.18, “Referencing an Unbound Variable”, but you didn't appreciate how much work Python was doing before giving you that error.

                                                                                                                                                    ImportantPython 2.2 introduced a subtle but important change that affects the namespace search order: nested scopes. In versions of Python prior to 2.2, when you reference a variable within a nested function or lambda function, Python will search for that variable in the current (nested or lambda) function's namespace, then in the module's namespace. Python 2.2 will search for the variable in the current (nested or lambda) function's namespace, then in the parent function's namespace, then in the module's namespace. Python 2.1 can work either way; by default, it works like Python 2.0, but you can add the following line of code at the top of your module to make your module work like Python 2.2:
                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                    from __future__ import nested_scopes

                                                                                                                                                    Are you confused yet? Don't despair! This is really cool, I promise. Like many things in Python, namespaces are directly accessible at run-time. How? Well, the local namespace is accessible via the built-in locals function, and the global (module level) namespace is accessible via the built-in globals function.

                                                                                                                                                    Example 8.10. Introducing locals

                                                                                                                                                    >>> def foo(arg): 
                                                                                                                                                    ...    x = 1
                                                                                                                                                    ...    print locals()
                                                                                                                                                    ...    
                                                                                                                                                    >>> foo(7)        
                                                                                                                                                    {'arg': 7, 'x': 1}
                                                                                                                                                    >>> foo('bar')    
                                                                                                                                                    {'arg': 'bar', 'x': 1}
                                                                                                                                                    1. The function foo has two variables in its local namespace: arg, whose value is passed in to the function, and x, which is defined within the function.
                                                                                                                                                    2. locals returns a dictionary of name/value pairs. The keys of this dictionary are the names of the variables as strings; the values of the dictionary are the actual values of the variables. So calling foo with 7 prints the dictionary containing the function's two local variables: arg (7) and x (1).
                                                                                                                                                    3. Remember, Python has dynamic typing, so you could just as easily pass a string in for arg; the function (and the call to locals) would still work just as well. locals works with all variables of all datatypes.

                                                                                                                                                      What locals does for the local (function) namespace, globals does for the global (module) namespace. globals is more exciting, though, because a module's namespace is more exciting. [3] Not only does the module's namespace include module-level variables and constants, it includes all the functions and classes defined in the module. Plus, it includes anything that was imported into the module.

                                                                                                                                                      Remember the difference between from module import and import module? With import module, the module itself is imported, but it retains its own namespace, which is why you need to use the module name to access any of its functions or attributes: module.function. But with from module import, you're actually importing specific functions and attributes from another module into your own namespace, which is why you access them directly without referencing the original module they came from. With the globals function, you can actually see this happen.

                                                                                                                                                      Example 8.11. Introducing globals

                                                                                                                                                      Look at the following block of code at the bottom of BaseHTMLProcessor.py:

                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                      if __name__ == "__main__":
                                                                                                                                                          for k, v in globals().items():             
                                                                                                                                                              print k, "=", v
                                                                                                                                                      1. Just so you don't get intimidated, remember that you've seen all this before. The globals function returns a dictionary, and you're iterating through the dictionary using the items method and multi-variable assignment. The only thing new here is the globals function.

                                                                                                                                                        Now running the script from the command line gives this output (note that your output may be slightly different, depending on your platform and where you installed Python):

                                                                                                                                                        c:\docbook\dip\py> python BaseHTMLProcessor.py
                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                        SGMLParser = sgmllib.SGMLParser                
                                                                                                                                                        htmlentitydefs = <module 'htmlentitydefs' from 'C:\Python23\lib\htmlentitydefs.py'> 
                                                                                                                                                        BaseHTMLProcessor = __main__.BaseHTMLProcessor 
                                                                                                                                                        __name__ = __main__          
                                                                                                                                                        ... rest of output omitted for brevity...
                                                                                                                                                        1. SGMLParser was imported from sgmllib, using from module import. That means that it was imported directly into the module's namespace, and here it is.
                                                                                                                                                        2. Contrast this with htmlentitydefs, which was imported using import. That means that the htmlentitydefs module itself is in the namespace, but the entitydefs variable defined within htmlentitydefs is not.
                                                                                                                                                        3. This module only defines one class, BaseHTMLProcessor, and here it is. Note that the value here is the class itself, not a specific instance of the class.
                                                                                                                                                        4. Remember the if __name__ trick? When running a module (as opposed to importing it from another module), the built-in __name__ attribute is a special value, __main__. Since you ran this module as a script from the command line, __name__ is __main__, which is why the little test code to print the globals got executed.
                                                                                                                                                          NoteUsing the locals and globals functions, you can get the value of arbitrary variables dynamically, providing the variable name as a string. This mirrors the functionality of the getattr function, which allows you to access arbitrary functions dynamically by providing the function name as a string.

                                                                                                                                                          There is one other important difference between the locals and globals functions, which you should learn now before it bites you. It will bite you anyway, but at least then you'll remember learning it.

                                                                                                                                                          Example 8.12. locals is read-only, globals is not

                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                          def foo(arg):
                                                                                                                                                              x = 1
                                                                                                                                                              print locals()    
                                                                                                                                                              locals()["x"] = 2 
                                                                                                                                                              print "x=",x      
                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                          z = 7
                                                                                                                                                          print "z=",z
                                                                                                                                                          foo(3)
                                                                                                                                                          globals()["z"] = 8    
                                                                                                                                                          print "z=",z          
                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                          1. Since foo is called with 3, this will print {'arg': 3, 'x': 1}. This should not be a surprise.
                                                                                                                                                          2. locals is a function that returns a dictionary, and here you are setting a value in that dictionary. You might think that this would change the value of the local variable x to 2, but it doesn't. locals does not actually return the local namespace, it returns a copy. So changing it does nothing to the value of the variables in the local namespace.
                                                                                                                                                          3. This prints x= 1, not x= 2.
                                                                                                                                                          4. After being burned by locals, you might think that this wouldn't change the value of z, but it does. Due to internal differences in how Python is implemented (which I'd rather not go into, since I don't fully understand them myself), globals returns the actual global namespace, not a copy: the exact opposite behavior of locals. So any changes to the dictionary returned by globals directly affect your global variables.
                                                                                                                                                          5. This prints z= 8, not z= 7.

                                                                                                                                                            8.6. Dictionary-based string formatting

                                                                                                                                                            Why did you learn about locals and globals? So you can learn about dictionary-based string formatting. As you recall, regular string formatting provides an easy way to insert values into strings. Values are listed in a tuple and inserted in order into the string in place of each formatting marker. While this is efficient, it is not always the easiest code to read, especially when multiple values are being inserted. You can't simply scan through the string in one pass and understand what the result will be; you're constantly switching between reading the string and reading the tuple of values.

                                                                                                                                                            There is an alternative form of string formatting that uses dictionaries instead of tuples of values.

                                                                                                                                                            Example 8.13. Introducing dictionary-based string formatting

                                                                                                                                                            >>> params = {"server":"mpilgrim", "database":"master", "uid":"sa", "pwd":"secret"}
                                                                                                                                                            >>> "%(pwd)s" % params
                                                                                                                                                            'secret'
                                                                                                                                                            >>> "%(pwd)s is not a good password for %(uid)s" % params 
                                                                                                                                                            'secret is not a good password for sa'
                                                                                                                                                            >>> "%(database)s of mind, %(database)s of body" % params 
                                                                                                                                                            'master of mind, master of body'
                                                                                                                                                            1. Instead of a tuple of explicit values, this form of string formatting uses a dictionary, params. And instead of a simple %s marker in the string, the marker contains a name in parentheses. This name is used as a key in the params dictionary and subsitutes the corresponding value, secret, in place of the %(pwd)s marker.
                                                                                                                                                            2. Dictionary-based string formatting works with any number of named keys. Each key must exist in the given dictionary, or the formatting will fail with a KeyError.
                                                                                                                                                            3. You can even specify the same key twice; each occurrence will be replaced with the same value.

                                                                                                                                                              So why would you use dictionary-based string formatting? Well, it does seem like overkill to set up a dictionary of keys and values simply to do string formatting in the next line; it's really most useful when you happen to have a dictionary of meaningful keys and values already. Like locals.

                                                                                                                                                              Example 8.14. Dictionary-based string formatting in BaseHTMLProcessor.py

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                  def handle_comment(self, text):        
                                                                                                                                                                      self.pieces.append("<!--%(text)s-->" % locals()) 
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              1. Using the built-in locals function is the most common use of dictionary-based string formatting. It means that you can use the names of local variables within your string (in this case, text, which was passed to the class method as an argument) and each named variable will be replaced by its value. If text is 'Begin page footer', the string formatting "<!--%(text)s-->" % locals() will resolve to the string '<!--Begin page footer-->'.

                                                                                                                                                                Example 8.15. More dictionary-based string formatting

                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                    def unknown_starttag(self, tag, attrs):
                                                                                                                                                                        strattrs = "".join([' %s="%s"' % (key, value) for key, value in attrs]) 
                                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append("<%(tag)s%(strattrs)s>" % locals())    
                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                1. When this method is called, attrs is a list of key/value tuples, just like the items of a dictionary, which means you can use multi-variable assignment to iterate through it. This should be a familiar pattern by now, but there's a lot going on here, so let's break it down:
                                                                                                                                                                  1. Suppose attrs is [('href', 'index.html'), ('title', 'Go to home page')].
                                                                                                                                                                  2. In the first round of the list comprehension, key will get 'href', and value will get 'index.html'.
                                                                                                                                                                  3. The string formatting ' %s="%s"' % (key, value) will resolve to ' href="index.html"'. This string becomes the first element of the list comprehension's return value.
                                                                                                                                                                  4. In the second round, key will get 'title', and value will get 'Go to home page'.
                                                                                                                                                                  5. The string formatting will resolve to ' title="Go to home page"'.
                                                                                                                                                                  6. The list comprehension returns a list of these two resolved strings, and strattrs will join both elements of this list together to form ' href="index.html" title="Go to home page"'.
                                                                                                                                                                2. Now, using dictionary-based string formatting, you insert the value of tag and strattrs into a string. So if tag is 'a', the final result would be '<a href="index.html" title="Go to home page">', and that is what gets appended to self.pieces.
                                                                                                                                                                  ImportantUsing dictionary-based string formatting with locals is a convenient way of making complex string formatting expressions more readable, but it comes with a price. There is a slight performance hit in making the call to locals, since locals builds a copy of the local namespace.

                                                                                                                                                                  8.7. Quoting attribute values

                                                                                                                                                                  A common question on comp.lang.python is “I have a bunch of HTML documents with unquoted attribute values, and I want to properly quote them all. How can I do this?”[4] (This is generally precipitated by a project manager who has found the HTML-is-a-standard religion joining a large project and proclaiming that all pages must validate against an HTML validator. Unquoted attribute values are a common violation of the HTML standard.) Whatever the reason, unquoted attribute values are easy to fix by feeding HTML through BaseHTMLProcessor.

                                                                                                                                                                  BaseHTMLProcessor consumes HTML (since it's descended from SGMLParser) and produces equivalent HTML, but the HTML output is not identical to the input. Tags and attribute names will end up in lowercase, even if they started in uppercase or mixed case, and attribute values will be enclosed in double quotes, even if they started in single quotes or with no quotes at all. It is this last side effect that you can take advantage of.

                                                                                                                                                                  Example 8.16. Quoting attribute values

                                                                                                                                                                  >>> htmlSource = """        
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    <html>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    <head>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    <title>Test page</title>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    </head>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    <body>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    <ul>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    <li><a href=index.html>Home</a></li>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    <li><a href=toc.html>Table of contents</a></li>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    <li><a href=history.html>Revision history</a></li>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    </body>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    </html>
                                                                                                                                                                  ...    """
                                                                                                                                                                  >>> from BaseHTMLProcessor import BaseHTMLProcessor
                                                                                                                                                                  >>> parser = BaseHTMLProcessor()
                                                                                                                                                                  >>> parser.feed(htmlSource) 
                                                                                                                                                                  >>> print parser.output()   
                                                                                                                                                                  <html>
                                                                                                                                                                  <head>
                                                                                                                                                                  <title>Test page</title>
                                                                                                                                                                  </head>
                                                                                                                                                                  <body>
                                                                                                                                                                  <ul>
                                                                                                                                                                  <li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
                                                                                                                                                                  <li><a href="toc.html">Table of contents</a></li>
                                                                                                                                                                  <li><a href="history.html">Revision history</a></li>
                                                                                                                                                                  </body>
                                                                                                                                                                  </html>
                                                                                                                                                                  1. Note that the attribute values of the href attributes in the <a> tags are not properly quoted. (Also note that you're using triple quotes for something other than a docstring. And directly in the IDE, no less. They're very useful.)
                                                                                                                                                                  2. Feed the parser.
                                                                                                                                                                  3. Using the output function defined in BaseHTMLProcessor, you get the output as a single string, complete with quoted attribute values. While this may seem anti-climactic, think about how much has actually happened here: SGMLParser parsed the entire HTML document, breaking it down into tags, refs, data, and so forth; BaseHTMLProcessor used those elements to reconstruct pieces of HTML (which are still stored in parser.pieces, if you want to see them); finally, you called parser.output, which joined all the pieces of HTML into one string.

                                                                                                                                                                    8.8. Introducing dialect.py

                                                                                                                                                                    Dialectizer is a simple (and silly) descendant of BaseHTMLProcessor. It runs blocks of text through a series of substitutions, but it makes sure that anything within a <pre>...</pre> block passes through unaltered.

                                                                                                                                                                    To handle the <pre> blocks, you define two methods in Dialectizer: start_pre and end_pre.

                                                                                                                                                                    Example 8.17. Handling specific tags

                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                        def start_pre(self, attrs):             
                                                                                                                                                                            self.verbatim += 1
                                                                                                                                                                            self.unknown_starttag("pre", attrs) 
                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                        def end_pre(self):    
                                                                                                                                                                            self.unknown_endtag("pre")          
                                                                                                                                                                            self.verbatim -= 1
                                                                                                                                                                    1. start_pre is called every time SGMLParser finds a <pre> tag in the HTML source. (In a minute, you'll see exactly how this happens.) The method takes a single parameter, attrs, which contains the attributes of the tag (if any). attrs is a list of key/value tuples, just like unknown_starttag takes.
                                                                                                                                                                    2. In the reset method, you initialize a data attribute that serves as a counter for <pre> tags. Every time you hit a <pre> tag, you increment the counter; every time you hit a </pre> tag, you'll decrement the counter. (You could just use this as a flag and set it to 1 and reset it to 0, but it's just as easy to do it this way, and this handles the odd (but possible) case of nested <pre> tags.) In a minute, you'll see how this counter is put to good use.
                                                                                                                                                                    3. That's it, that's the only special processing you do for <pre> tags. Now you pass the list of attributes along to unknown_starttag so it can do the default processing.
                                                                                                                                                                    4. end_pre is called every time SGMLParser finds a </pre> tag. Since end tags can not contain attributes, the method takes no parameters.
                                                                                                                                                                    5. First, you want to do the default processing, just like any other end tag.
                                                                                                                                                                    6. Second, you decrement your counter to signal that this <pre> block has been closed.

                                                                                                                                                                      At this point, it's worth digging a little further into SGMLParser. I've claimed repeatedly (and you've taken it on faith so far) that SGMLParser looks for and calls specific methods for each tag, if they exist. For instance, you just saw the definition of start_pre and end_pre to handle <pre> and </pre>. But how does this happen? Well, it's not magic, it's just good Python coding.

                                                                                                                                                                      Example 8.18. SGMLParser

                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                          def finish_starttag(self, tag, attrs):               
                                                                                                                                                                              try:        
                                                                                                                                                                                  method = getattr(self, 'start_' + tag)       
                                                                                                                                                                              except AttributeError:         
                                                                                                                                                                                  try:    
                                                                                                                                                                                      method = getattr(self, 'do_' + tag)      
                                                                                                                                                                                  except AttributeError:    
                                                                                                                                                                                      self.unknown_starttag(tag, attrs)        
                                                                                                                                                                                      return -1             
                                                                                                                                                                                  else:   
                                                                                                                                                                                      self.handle_starttag(tag, method, attrs) 
                                                                                                                                                                                      return 0              
                                                                                                                                                                              else:       
                                                                                                                                                                                  self.stack.append(tag)    
                                                                                                                                                                                  self.handle_starttag(tag, method, attrs)    
                                                                                                                                                                                  return 1 
                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                          def handle_starttag(self, tag, method, attrs):      
                                                                                                                                                                              method(attrs)
                                                                                                                                                                      1. At this point, SGMLParser has already found a start tag and parsed the attribute list. The only thing left to do is figure out whether there is a specific handler method for this tag, or whether you should fall back on the default method (unknown_starttag).
                                                                                                                                                                      2. The “magic” of SGMLParser is nothing more than your old friend, getattr. What you may not have realized before is that getattr will find methods defined in descendants of an object as well as the object itself. Here the object is self, the current instance. So if tag is 'pre', this call to getattr will look for a start_pre method on the current instance, which is an instance of the Dialectizer class.
                                                                                                                                                                      3. getattr raises an AttributeError if the method it's looking for doesn't exist in the object (or any of its descendants), but that's okay, because you wrapped the call to getattr inside a try...except block and explicitly caught the AttributeError.
                                                                                                                                                                      4. Since you didn't find a start_xxx method, you'll also look for a do_xxx method before giving up. This alternate naming scheme is generally used for standalone tags, like <br>, which have no corresponding end tag. But you can use either naming scheme; as you can see, SGMLParser tries both for every tag. (You shouldn't define both a start_xxx and do_xxx handler method for the same tag, though; only the start_xxx method will get called.)
                                                                                                                                                                      5. Another AttributeError, which means that the call to getattr failed with do_xxx. Since you found neither a start_xxx nor a do_xxx method for this tag, you catch the exception and fall back on the default method, unknown_starttag.
                                                                                                                                                                      6. Remember, try...except blocks can have an else clause, which is called if no exception is raised during the try...except block. Logically, that means that you did find a do_xxx method for this tag, so you're going to call it.
                                                                                                                                                                      7. By the way, don't worry about these different return values; in theory they mean something, but they're never actually used. Don't worry about the self.stack.append(tag) either; SGMLParser keeps track internally of whether your start tags are balanced by appropriate end tags, but it doesn't do anything with this information either. In theory, you could use this module to validate that your tags were fully balanced, but it's probably not worth it, and it's beyond the scope of this chapter. You have better things to worry about right now.
                                                                                                                                                                      8. start_xxx and do_xxx methods are not called directly; the tag, method, and attributes are passed to this function, handle_starttag, so that descendants can override it and change the way all start tags are dispatched. You don't need that level of control, so you just let this method do its thing, which is to call the method (start_xxx or do_xxx) with the list of attributes. Remember, method is a function, returned from getattr, and functions are objects. (I know you're getting tired of hearing it, and I promise I'll stop saying it as soon as I run out of ways to use it to my advantage.) Here, the function object is passed into this dispatch method as an argument, and this method turns around and calls the function. At this point, you don't need to know what the function is, what it's named, or where it's defined; the only thing you need to know about the function is that it is called with one argument, attrs.

                                                                                                                                                                        Now back to our regularly scheduled program: Dialectizer. When you left, you were in the process of defining specific handler methods for <pre> and </pre> tags. There's only one thing left to do, and that is to process text blocks with the pre-defined substitutions. For that, you need to override the handle_data method.

                                                                                                                                                                        Example 8.19. Overriding the handle_data method

                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                            def handle_data(self, text):     
                                                                                                                                                                                self.pieces.append(self.verbatim and text or self.process(text)) 
                                                                                                                                                                        1. handle_data is called with only one argument, the text to process.
                                                                                                                                                                        2. In the ancestor BaseHTMLProcessor, the handle_data method simply appended the text to the output buffer, self.pieces. Here the logic is only slightly more complicated. If you're in the middle of a <pre>...</pre> block, self.verbatim will be some value greater than 0, and you want to put the text in the output buffer unaltered. Otherwise, you will call a separate method to process the substitutions, then put the result of that into the output buffer. In Python, this is a one-liner, using the and-or trick.

                                                                                                                                                                          You're close to completely understanding Dialectizer. The only missing link is the nature of the text substitutions themselves. If you know any Perl, you know that when complex text substitutions are required, the only real solution is regular expressions. The classes later in dialect.py define a series of regular expressions that operate on the text between the HTML tags. But you just had a whole chapter on regular expressions. You don't really want to slog through regular expressions again, do you? God knows I don't. I think you've learned enough for one chapter.

                                                                                                                                                                          8.9. Putting it all together

                                                                                                                                                                          It's time to put everything you've learned so far to good use. I hope you were paying attention.

                                                                                                                                                                          Example 8.20. The translate function, part 1

                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                          def translate(url, dialectName="chef"): 
                                                                                                                                                                              import urllib     
                                                                                                                                                                              sock = urllib.urlopen(url)          
                                                                                                                                                                              htmlSource = sock.read()           
                                                                                                                                                                              sock.close()     
                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                          1. The translate function has an optional argument dialectName, which is a string that specifies the dialect you'll be using. You'll see how this is used in a minute.
                                                                                                                                                                          2. Hey, wait a minute, there's an import statement in this function! That's perfectly legal in Python. You're used to seeing import statements at the top of a program, which means that the imported module is available anywhere in the program. But you can also import modules within a function, which means that the imported module is only available within the function. If you have a module that is only ever used in one function, this is an easy way to make your code more modular. (When you find that your weekend hack has turned into an 800-line work of art and decide to split it up into a dozen reusable modules, you'll appreciate this.)
                                                                                                                                                                          3. Now you get the source of the given URL.

                                                                                                                                                                            Example 8.21. The translate function, part 2: curiouser and curiouser

                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                parserName = "%sDialectizer" % dialectName.capitalize() 
                                                                                                                                                                                parserClass = globals()[parserName]   
                                                                                                                                                                                parser = parserClass()                
                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                            1. capitalize is a string method you haven't seen before; it simply capitalizes the first letter of a string and forces everything else to lowercase. Combined with some string formatting, you've taken the name of a dialect and transformed it into the name of the corresponding Dialectizer class. If dialectName is the string 'chef', parserName will be the string 'ChefDialectizer'.
                                                                                                                                                                            2. You have the name of a class as a string (parserName), and you have the global namespace as a dictionary (globals()). Combined, you can get a reference to the class which the string names. (Remember, classes are objects, and they can be assigned to variables just like any other object.) If parserName is the string 'ChefDialectizer', parserClass will be the class ChefDialectizer.
                                                                                                                                                                            3. Finally, you have a class object (parserClass), and you want an instance of the class. Well, you already know how to do that: call the class like a function. The fact that the class is being stored in a local variable makes absolutely no difference; you just call the local variable like a function, and out pops an instance of the class. If parserClass is the class ChefDialectizer, parser will be an instance of the class ChefDialectizer.

                                                                                                                                                                              Why bother? After all, there are only 3 Dialectizer classes; why not just use a case statement? (Well, there's no case statement in Python, but why not just use a series of if statements?) One reason: extensibility. The translate function has absolutely no idea how many Dialectizer classes you've defined. Imagine if you defined a new FooDialectizer tomorrow; translate would work by passing 'foo' as the dialectName.

                                                                                                                                                                              Even better, imagine putting FooDialectizer in a separate module, and importing it with from module import. You've already seen that this includes it in globals(), so translate would still work without modification, even though FooDialectizer was in a separate file.

                                                                                                                                                                              Now imagine that the name of the dialect is coming from somewhere outside the program, maybe from a database or from a user-inputted value on a form. You can use any number of server-side Python scripting architectures to dynamically generate web pages; this function could take a URL and a dialect name (both strings) in the query string of a web page request, and output the “translated” web page.

                                                                                                                                                                              Finally, imagine a Dialectizer framework with a plug-in architecture. You could put each Dialectizer class in a separate file, leaving only the translate function in dialect.py. Assuming a consistent naming scheme, the translate function could dynamic import the appropiate class from the appropriate file, given nothing but the dialect name. (You haven't seen dynamic importing yet, but I promise to cover it in a later chapter.) To add a new dialect, you would simply add an appropriately-named file in the plug-ins directory (like foodialect.py which contains the FooDialectizer class). Calling the translate function with the dialect name 'foo' would find the module foodialect.py, import the class FooDialectizer, and away you go.

                                                                                                                                                                              Example 8.22. The translate function, part 3

                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                  parser.feed(htmlSource) 
                                                                                                                                                                                  parser.close()          
                                                                                                                                                                                  return parser.output()  
                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                              1. After all that imagining, this is going to seem pretty boring, but the feed function is what does the entire transformation. You had the entire HTML source in a single string, so you only had to call feed once. However, you can call feed as often as you want, and the parser will just keep parsing. So if you were worried about memory usage (or you knew you were going to be dealing with very large HTML pages), you could set this up in a loop, where you read a few bytes of HTML and fed it to the parser. The result would be the same.
                                                                                                                                                                              2. Because feed maintains an internal buffer, you should always call the parser's close method when you're done (even if you fed it all at once, like you did). Otherwise you may find that your output is missing the last few bytes.
                                                                                                                                                                              3. Remember, output is the function you defined on BaseHTMLProcessor that joins all the pieces of output you've buffered and returns them in a single string.

                                                                                                                                                                                And just like that, you've “translated” a web page, given nothing but a URL and the name of a dialect.

                                                                                                                                                                                Further reading

                                                                                                                                                                                • You thought I was kidding about the server-side scripting idea. So did I, until I found this web-based dialectizer. Unfortunately, source code does not appear to be available.

                                                                                                                                                                                8.10. Summary

                                                                                                                                                                                Python provides you with a powerful tool, sgmllib.py, to manipulate HTML by turning its structure into an object model. You can use this tool in many different ways.

                                                                                                                                                                                • parsing the HTML looking for something specific
                                                                                                                                                                                • aggregating the results, like the URL lister
                                                                                                                                                                                • altering the structure along the way, like the attribute quoter
                                                                                                                                                                                • transforming the HTML into something else by manipulating the text while leaving the tags alone, like the Dialectizer

                                                                                                                                                                                Along with these examples, you should be comfortable doing all of the following things:



                                                                                                                                                                                [1] The technical term for a parser like SGMLParser is a consumer: it consumes HTML and breaks it down. Presumably, the name feed was chosen to fit into the whole “consumer” motif. Personally, it makes me think of an exhibit in the zoo where there's just a dark cage with no trees or plants or evidence of life of any kind, but if you stand perfectly still and look really closely you can make out two beady eyes staring back at you from the far left corner, but you convince yourself that that's just your mind playing tricks on you, and the only way you can tell that the whole thing isn't just an empty cage is a small innocuous sign on the railing that reads, “Do not feed the parser.” But maybe that's just me. In any event, it's an interesting mental image.

                                                                                                                                                                                [2] The reason Python is better at lists than strings is that lists are mutable but strings are immutable. This means that appending to a list just adds the element and updates the index. Since strings can not be changed after they are created, code like s = s + newpiece will create an entirely new string out of the concatenation of the original and the new piece, then throw away the original string. This involves a lot of expensive memory management, and the amount of effort involved increases as the string gets longer, so doing s = s + newpiece in a loop is deadly. In technical terms, appending n items to a list is O(n), while appending n items to a string is O(n2).

                                                                                                                                                                                [3] I don't get out much.

                                                                                                                                                                                [4] All right, it's not that common a question. It's not up there with “What editor should I use to write Python code?” (answer: Emacs) or “Is Python better or worse than Perl?” (answer: “Perl is worse than Python because people wanted it worse.” -Larry Wall, 10/14/1998) But questions about HTML processing pop up in one form or another about once a month, and among those questions, this is a popular one.

                                                                                                                                                                                Chapter 9. XML Processing

                                                                                                                                                                                9.1. Diving in

                                                                                                                                                                                These next two chapters are about XML processing in Python. It would be helpful if you already knew what an XML document looks like, that it's made up of structured tags to form a hierarchy of elements, and so on. If this doesn't make sense to you, there are many XML tutorials that can explain the basics.

                                                                                                                                                                                If you're not particularly interested in XML, you should still read these chapters, which cover important topics like Python packages, Unicode, command line arguments, and how to use getattr for method dispatching.

                                                                                                                                                                                Being a philosophy major is not required, although if you have ever had the misfortune of being subjected to the writings of Immanuel Kant, you will appreciate the example program a lot more than if you majored in something useful, like computer science.

                                                                                                                                                                                There are two basic ways to work with XML. One is called SAX (“Simple API for XML”), and it works by reading the XML a little bit at a time and calling a method for each element it finds. (If you read Chapter 8, HTML Processing, this should sound familiar, because that's how the sgmllib module works.) The other is called DOM (“Document Object Model”), and it works by reading in the entire XML document at once and creating an internal representation of it using native Python classes linked in a tree structure. Python has standard modules for both kinds of parsing, but this chapter will only deal with using the DOM.

                                                                                                                                                                                The following is a complete Python program which generates pseudo-random output based on a context-free grammar defined in an XML format. Don't worry yet if you don't understand what that means; you'll examine both the program's input and its output in more depth throughout these next two chapters.

                                                                                                                                                                                Example 9.1. kgp.py

                                                                                                                                                                                If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                """Kant Generator for Python
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                Generates mock philosophy based on a context-free grammar
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                Usage: python kgp.py [options] [source]
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                Options:
                                                                                                                                                                                  -g ..., --grammar=...  use specified grammar file or URL
                                                                                                                                                                                  -h, --help              show this help
                                                                                                                                                                                  -d    show debugging information while parsing
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                Examples:
                                                                                                                                                                                  kgp.pygenerates several paragraphs of Kantian philosophy
                                                                                                                                                                                  kgp.py -g husserl.xml   generates several paragraphs of Husserl
                                                                                                                                                                                  kpg.py "<xref id='paragraph'/>"  generates a paragraph of Kant
                                                                                                                                                                                  kgp.py template.xml     reads from template.xml to decide what to generate
                                                                                                                                                                                """
                                                                                                                                                                                from xml.dom import minidom
                                                                                                                                                                                import random
                                                                                                                                                                                import toolbox
                                                                                                                                                                                import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                import getopt
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                _debug = 0
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                class NoSourceError(Exception): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                class KantGenerator:
                                                                                                                                                                                    """generates mock philosophy based on a context-free grammar"""
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def __init__(self, grammar, source=None):
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.loadGrammar(grammar)
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.loadSource(source and source or self.getDefaultSource())
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.refresh()
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def _load(self, source):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """load XML input source, return parsed XML document
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                        - a URL of a remote XML file ("http://diveintopython3.org/kant.xml")
                                                                                                                                                                                        - a filename of a local XML file ("~/diveintopython3/common/py/kant.xml")
                                                                                                                                                                                        - standard input ("-")
                                                                                                                                                                                        - the actual XML document, as a string
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        sock = toolbox.openAnything(source)
                                                                                                                                                                                        xmldoc = minidom.parse(sock).documentElement
                                                                                                                                                                                        sock.close()
                                                                                                                                                                                        return xmldoc
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def loadGrammar(self, grammar):       
                                                                                                                                                                                        """load context-free grammar"""   
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.grammar = self._load(grammar)
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.refs = {}  
                                                                                                                                                                                        for ref in self.grammar.getElementsByTagName("ref"):
                                                                                                                                                                                            self.refs[ref.attributes["id"].value] = ref     
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def loadSource(self, source):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """load source"""
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.source = self._load(source)
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def getDefaultSource(self):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """guess default source of the current grammar
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        The default source will be one of the <ref>s that is not
                                                                                                                                                                                        cross-referenced. This sounds complicated but it's not.
                                                                                                                                                                                        Example: The default source for kant.xml is
                                                                                                                                                                                        "<xref id='section'/>", because 'section' is the one <ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                        that is not <xref>'d anywhere in the grammar.
                                                                                                                                                                                        In most grammars, the default source will produce the
                                                                                                                                                                                        longest (and most interesting) output.
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        xrefs = {}
                                                                                                                                                                                        for xref in self.grammar.getElementsByTagName("xref"):
                                                                                                                                                                                            xrefs[xref.attributes["id"].value] = 1
                                                                                                                                                                                        xrefs = xrefs.keys()
                                                                                                                                                                                        standaloneXrefs = [e for e in self.refs.keys() if e not in xrefs]
                                                                                                                                                                                        if not standaloneXrefs:
                                                                                                                                                                                            raise NoSourceError, "can't guess source, and no source specified"
                                                                                                                                                                                        return '<xref id="%s"/>' % random.choice(standaloneXrefs)
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                    def reset(self):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """reset parser"""
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces = []
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.capitalizeNextWord = 0
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def refresh(self):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """reset output buffer, re-parse entire source file, and return output
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        Since parsing involves a good deal of randomness, this is an
                                                                                                                                                                                        easy way to get new output without having to reload a grammar file
                                                                                                                                                                                        each time.
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.reset()
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.parse(self.source)
                                                                                                                                                                                        return self.output()
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def output(self):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """output generated text"""
                                                                                                                                                                                        return "".join(self.pieces)
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def randomChildElement(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """choose a random child element of a node
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        This is a utility method used by do_xref and do_choice.
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        choices = [e for e in node.childNodes
                                                                                                                                                                                 if e.nodeType == e.ELEMENT_NODE]
                                                                                                                                                                                        chosen = random.choice(choices)            
                                                                                                                                                                                        if _debug:               
                                                                                                                                                                                            sys.stderr.write('%s available choices: %s\n' % \
                                                                                                                                                                                                (len(choices), [e.toxml() for e in choices]))
                                                                                                                                                                                            sys.stderr.write('Chosen: %s\n' % chosen.toxml())
                                                                                                                                                                                        return chosen            
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def parse(self, node):         
                                                                                                                                                                                        """parse a single XML node
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        A parsed XML document (from minidom.parse) is a tree of nodes
                                                                                                                                                                                        of various types. Each node is represented by an instance of the
                                                                                                                                                                                        corresponding Python class (Element for a tag, Text for
                                                                                                                                                                                        text data, Document for the top-level document). The following
                                                                                                                                                                                        statement constructs the name of a class method based on the type
                                                                                                                                                                                        of node we're parsing ("parse_Element" for an Element node,
                                                                                                                                                                                        "parse_Text" for a Text node, etc.) and then calls the method.
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        parseMethod = getattr(self, "parse_%s" % node.__class__.__name__)
                                                                                                                                                                                        parseMethod(node)
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def parse_Document(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """parse the document node
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        The document node by itself isn't interesting (to us), but
                                                                                                                                                                                        its only child, node.documentElement, is: it's the root node
                                                                                                                                                                                        of the grammar.
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.parse(node.documentElement)
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def parse_Text(self, node):    
                                                                                                                                                                                        """parse a text node
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        The text of a text node is usually added to the output buffer
                                                                                                                                                                                        verbatim. The one exception is that <p class='sentence'> sets
                                                                                                                                                                                        a flag to capitalize the first letter of the next word. If
                                                                                                                                                                                        that flag is set, we capitalize the text and reset the flag.
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        text = node.data
                                                                                                                                                                                        if self.capitalizeNextWord:
                                                                                                                                                                                            self.pieces.append(text[0].upper())
                                                                                                                                                                                            self.pieces.append(text[1:])
                                                                                                                                                                                            self.capitalizeNextWord = 0
                                                                                                                                                                                        else:
                                                                                                                                                                                            self.pieces.append(text)
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def parse_Element(self, node): 
                                                                                                                                                                                        """parse an element
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        An XML element corresponds to an actual tag in the source:
                                                                                                                                                                                        <xref id='...'>, <p chance='...'>, <choice>, etc.
                                                                                                                                                                                        Each element type is handled in its own method. Like we did in
                                                                                                                                                                                        parse(), we construct a method name based on the name of the
                                                                                                                                                                                        element ("do_xref" for an <xref> tag, etc.) and
                                                                                                                                                                                        call the method.
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        handlerMethod = getattr(self, "do_%s" % node.tagName)
                                                                                                                                                                                        handlerMethod(node)
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def parse_Comment(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """parse a comment
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        The grammar can contain XML comments, but we ignore them
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        pass
                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                    def do_xref(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """handle <xref id='...'> tag
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        An <xref id='...'> tag is a cross-reference to a <ref id='...'>
                                                                                                                                                                                        tag. <xref id='sentence'/> evaluates to a randomly chosen child of
                                                                                                                                                                                        <ref id='sentence'>.
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        id = node.attributes["id"].value
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.parse(self.randomChildElement(self.refs[id]))
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def do_p(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """handle <p> tag
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        The <p> tag is the core of the grammar. It can contain almost
                                                                                                                                                                                        anything: freeform text, <choice> tags, <xref> tags, even other
                                                                                                                                                                                        <p> tags. If a "class='sentence'" attribute is found, a flag
                                                                                                                                                                                        is set and the next word will be capitalized. If a "chance='X'"
                                                                                                                                                                                        attribute is found, there is an X% chance that the tag will be
                                                                                                                                                                                        evaluated (and therefore a (100-X)% chance that it will be
                                                                                                                                                                                        completely ignored)
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        keys = node.attributes.keys()
                                                                                                                                                                                        if "class" in keys:
                                                                                                                                                                                            if node.attributes["class"].value == "sentence":
                                                                                                                                                                                                self.capitalizeNextWord = 1
                                                                                                                                                                                        if "chance" in keys:
                                                                                                                                                                                            chance = int(node.attributes["chance"].value)
                                                                                                                                                                                            doit = (chance > random.randrange(100))
                                                                                                                                                                                        else:
                                                                                                                                                                                            doit = 1
                                                                                                                                                                                        if doit:
                                                                                                                                                                                            for child in node.childNodes: self.parse(child)
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    def do_choice(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                        """handle <choice> tag
                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                        A <choice> tag contains one or more <p> tags. One <p> tag
                                                                                                                                                                                        is chosen at random and evaluated; the rest are ignored.
                                                                                                                                                                                        """
                                                                                                                                                                                        self.parse(self.randomChildElement(node))
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                def usage():
                                                                                                                                                                                    print __doc__
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                def main(argv):       
                                                                                                                                                                                    grammar = "kant.xml"                
                                                                                                                                                                                    try:              
                                                                                                                                                                                        opts, args = getopt.getopt(argv, "hg:d", ["help", "grammar="])
                                                                                                                                                                                    except getopt.GetoptError:          
                                                                                                                                                                                        usage()       
                                                                                                                                                                                        sys.exit(2)   
                                                                                                                                                                                    for opt, arg in opts:               
                                                                                                                                                                                        if opt in ("-h", "--help"):     
                                                                                                                                                                                            usage()   
                                                                                                                                                                                            sys.exit()
                                                                                                                                                                                        elif opt == '-d':               
                                                                                                                                                                                            global _debug               
                                                                                                                                                                                            _debug = 1
                                                                                                                                                                                        elif opt in ("-g", "--grammar"):
                                                                                                                                                                                            grammar = arg               
                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                    source = "".join(args)              
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    k = KantGenerator(grammar, source)
                                                                                                                                                                                    print k.output()
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                if __name__ == "__main__":
                                                                                                                                                                                    main(sys.argv[1:])
                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                Example 9.2. toolbox.py

                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                """Miscellaneous utility functions"""
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                def openAnything(source):            
                                                                                                                                                                                    """URI, filename, or string --> stream
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    This function lets you define parsers that take any input source
                                                                                                                                                                                    (URL, pathname to local or network file, or actual data as a string)
                                                                                                                                                                                    and deal with it in a uniform manner. Returned object is guaranteed
                                                                                                                                                                                    to have all the basic stdio read methods (read, readline, readlines).
                                                                                                                                                                                    Just .close() the object when you're done with it.
                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                    Examples:
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> from xml.dom import minidom
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> sock = openAnything("http://localhost/kant.xml")
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> doc = minidom.parse(sock)
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> sock.close()
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> sock = openAnything("c:\\inetpub\\wwwroot\\kant.xml")
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> doc = minidom.parse(sock)
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> sock.close()
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> sock = openAnything("<ref id='conjunction'><text>and</text><text>or</text></ref>")
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> doc = minidom.parse(sock)
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> sock.close()
                                                                                                                                                                                    """
                                                                                                                                                                                    if hasattr(source, "read"):
                                                                                                                                                                                        return source
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    if source == '-':
                                                                                                                                                                                        import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                        return sys.stdin
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                    # try to open with urllib (if source is http, ftp, or file URL)
                                                                                                                                                                                    import urllib       
                                                                                                                                                                                    try:                
                                                                                                                                                                                        return urllib.urlopen(source)     
                                                                                                                                                                                    except (IOError, OSError):            
                                                                                                                                                                                        pass            
                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                    # try to open with native open function (if source is pathname)
                                                                                                                                                                                    try:                
                                                                                                                                                                                        return open(source)               
                                                                                                                                                                                    except (IOError, OSError):            
                                                                                                                                                                                        pass            
                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                    # treat source as string
                                                                                                                                                                                    import StringIO     
                                                                                                                                                                                    return StringIO.StringIO(str(source)) 
                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                Run the program kgp.py by itself, and it will parse the default XML-based grammar, in kant.xml, and print several paragraphs worth of philosophy in the style of Immanuel Kant.

                                                                                                                                                                                Example 9.3. Sample output of kgp.py

                                                                                                                                                                                [you@localhost kgp]$ python kgp.py
                                                                                                                                                                                     As is shown in the writings of Hume, our a priori concepts, in
                                                                                                                                                                                reference to ends, abstract from all content of knowledge; in the study
                                                                                                                                                                                of space, the discipline of human reason, in accordance with the
                                                                                                                                                                                principles of philosophy, is the clue to the discovery of the
                                                                                                                                                                                Transcendental Deduction. The transcendental aesthetic, in all
                                                                                                                                                                                theoretical sciences, occupies part of the sphere of human reason
                                                                                                                                                                                concerning the existence of our ideas in general; still, the
                                                                                                                                                                                never-ending regress in the series of empirical conditions constitutes
                                                                                                                                                                                the whole content for the transcendental unity of apperception. What
                                                                                                                                                                                we have alone been able to show is that, even as this relates to the
                                                                                                                                                                                architectonic of human reason, the Ideal may not contradict itself, but
                                                                                                                                                                                it is still possible that it may be in contradictions with the
                                                                                                                                                                                employment of the pure employment of our hypothetical judgements, but
                                                                                                                                                                                natural causes (and I assert that this is the case) prove the validity
                                                                                                                                                                                of the discipline of pure reason. As we have already seen, time (and
                                                                                                                                                                                it is obvious that this is true) proves the validity of time, and the
                                                                                                                                                                                architectonic of human reason, in the full sense of these terms,
                                                                                                                                                                                abstracts from all content of knowledge. I assert, in the case of the
                                                                                                                                                                                discipline of practical reason, that the Antinomies are just as
                                                                                                                                                                                necessary as natural causes, since knowledge of the phenomena is a
                                                                                                                                                                                posteriori.
                                                                                                                                                                                    The discipline of human reason, as I have elsewhere shown, is by
                                                                                                                                                                                its very nature contradictory, but our ideas exclude the possibility of
                                                                                                                                                                                the Antinomies. We can deduce that, on the contrary, the pure
                                                                                                                                                                                employment of philosophy, on the contrary, is by its very nature
                                                                                                                                                                                contradictory, but our sense perceptions are a representation of, in
                                                                                                                                                                                the case of space, metaphysics. The thing in itself is a
                                                                                                                                                                                representation of philosophy. Applied logic is the clue to the
                                                                                                                                                                                discovery of natural causes. However, what we have alone been able to
                                                                                                                                                                                show is that our ideas, in other words, should only be used as a canon
                                                                                                                                                                                for the Ideal, because of our necessary ignorance of the conditions.
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                [...snip...]

                                                                                                                                                                                This is, of course, complete gibberish. Well, not complete gibberish. It is syntactically and grammatically correct (although very verbose -- Kant wasn't what you would call a get-to-the-point kind of guy). Some of it may actually be true (or at least the sort of thing that Kant would have agreed with), some of it is blatantly false, and most of it is simply incoherent. But all of it is in the style of Immanuel Kant.

                                                                                                                                                                                Let me repeat that this is much, much funnier if you are now or have ever been a philosophy major.

                                                                                                                                                                                The interesting thing about this program is that there is nothing Kant-specific about it. All the content in the previous example was derived from the grammar file, kant.xml. If you tell the program to use a different grammar file (which you can specify on the command line), the output will be completely different.

                                                                                                                                                                                Example 9.4. Simpler output from kgp.py

                                                                                                                                                                                [you@localhost kgp]$ python kgp.py -g binary.xml
                                                                                                                                                                                00101001
                                                                                                                                                                                [you@localhost kgp]$ python kgp.py -g binary.xml
                                                                                                                                                                                10110100

                                                                                                                                                                                You will take a closer look at the structure of the grammar file later in this chapter. For now, all you need to know is that the grammar file defines the structure of the output, and the kgp.py program reads through the grammar and makes random decisions about which words to plug in where.

                                                                                                                                                                                9.2. Packages

                                                                                                                                                                                Actually parsing an XML document is very simple: one line of code. However, before you get to that line of code, you need to take a short detour to talk about packages.

                                                                                                                                                                                Example 9.5. Loading an XML document (a sneak peek)

                                                                                                                                                                                >>> from xml.dom import minidom 
                                                                                                                                                                                >>> xmldoc = minidom.parse('~/diveintopython3/common/py/kgp/binary.xml')
                                                                                                                                                                                1. This is a syntax you haven't seen before. It looks almost like the from module import you know and love, but the "." gives it away as something above and beyond a simple import. In fact, xml is what is known as a package, dom is a nested package within xml, and minidom is a module within xml.dom.

                                                                                                                                                                                  That sounds complicated, but it's really not. Looking at the actual implementation may help. Packages are little more than directories of modules; nested packages are subdirectories. The modules within a package (or a nested package) are still just .py files, like always, except that they're in a subdirectory instead of the main lib/ directory of your Python installation.

                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 9.6. File layout of a package

                                                                                                                                                                                  Python21/           root Python installation (home of the executable)
                                                                                                                                                                                  |
                                                                                                                                                                                  +--lib/             library directory (home of the standard library modules)
                                                                                                                                                                                     |
                                                                                                                                                                                     +-- xml/         xml package (really just a directory with other stuff in it)
                                                                                                                                                                                         |
                                                                                                                                                                                         +--sax/      xml.sax package (again, just a directory)
                                                                                                                                                                                         |
                                                                                                                                                                                         +--dom/      xml.dom package (contains minidom.py)
                                                                                                                                                                                         |
                                                                                                                                                                                         +--parsers/  xml.parsers package (used internally)

                                                                                                                                                                                  So when you say from xml.dom import minidom, Python figures out that that means “look in the xml directory for a dom directory, and look in that for the minidom module, and import it as minidom”. But Python is even smarter than that; not only can you import entire modules contained within a package, you can selectively import specific classes or functions from a module contained within a package. You can also import the package itself as a module. The syntax is all the same; Python figures out what you mean based on the file layout of the package, and automatically does the right thing.

                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 9.7. Packages are modules, too

                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> from xml.dom import minidom         
                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> minidom
                                                                                                                                                                                  <module 'xml.dom.minidom' from 'C:\Python21\lib\xml\dom\minidom.pyc'>
                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> minidom.Element
                                                                                                                                                                                  <class xml.dom.minidom.Element at 01095744>
                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> from xml.dom.minidom import Element 
                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> Element
                                                                                                                                                                                  <class xml.dom.minidom.Element at 01095744>
                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> minidom.Element
                                                                                                                                                                                  <class xml.dom.minidom.Element at 01095744>
                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> from xml import dom                 
                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> dom
                                                                                                                                                                                  <module 'xml.dom' from 'C:\Python21\lib\xml\dom\__init__.pyc'>
                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> import xml        
                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> xml
                                                                                                                                                                                  <module 'xml' from 'C:\Python21\lib\xml\__init__.pyc'>
                                                                                                                                                                                  1. Here you're importing a module (minidom) from a nested package (xml.dom). The result is that minidom is imported into your namespace, and in order to reference classes within the minidom module (like Element), you need to preface them with the module name.
                                                                                                                                                                                  2. Here you are importing a class (Element) from a module (minidom) from a nested package (xml.dom). The result is that Element is imported directly into your namespace. Note that this does not interfere with the previous import; the Element class can now be referenced in two ways (but it's all still the same class).
                                                                                                                                                                                  3. Here you are importing the dom package (a nested package of xml) as a module in and of itself. Any level of a package can be treated as a module, as you'll see in a moment. It can even have its own attributes and methods, just the modules you've seen before.
                                                                                                                                                                                  4. Here you are importing the root level xml package as a module.

                                                                                                                                                                                    So how can a package (which is just a directory on disk) be imported and treated as a module (which is always a file on disk)? The answer is the magical __init__.py file. You see, packages are not simply directories; they are directories with a specific file, __init__.py, inside. This file defines the attributes and methods of the package. For instance, xml.dom contains a Node class, which is defined in xml/dom/__init__.py. When you import a package as a module (like dom from xml), you're really importing its __init__.py file.

                                                                                                                                                                                    NoteA package is a directory with the special __init__.py file in it. The __init__.py file defines the attributes and methods of the package. It doesn't need to define anything; it can just be an empty file, but it has to exist. But if __init__.py doesn't exist, the directory is just a directory, not a package, and it can't be imported or contain modules or nested packages.

                                                                                                                                                                                    So why bother with packages? Well, they provide a way to logically group related modules. Instead of having an xml package with sax and dom packages inside, the authors could have chosen to put all the sax functionality in xmlsax.py and all the dom functionality in xmldom.py, or even put all of it in a single module. But that would have been unwieldy (as of this writing, the XML package has over 3000 lines of code) and difficult to manage (separate source files mean multiple people can work on different areas simultaneously).

                                                                                                                                                                                    If you ever find yourself writing a large subsystem in Python (or, more likely, when you realize that your small subsystem has grown into a large one), invest some time designing a good package architecture. It's one of the many things Python is good at, so take advantage of it.

                                                                                                                                                                                    9.3. Parsing XML

                                                                                                                                                                                    As I was saying, actually parsing an XML document is very simple: one line of code. Where you go from there is up to you.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 9.8. Loading an XML document (for real this time)

                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> from xml.dom import minidom      
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> xmldoc = minidom.parse('~/diveintopython3/common/py/kgp/binary.xml')  
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> xmldoc         
                                                                                                                                                                                    <xml.dom.minidom.Document instance at 010BE87C>
                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> print xmldoc.toxml()             
                                                                                                                                                                                    <?xml version="1.0" ?>
                                                                                                                                                                                    <grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                    <ref id="bit">
                                                                                                                                                                                      <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                      <p>1</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                    </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                    <ref id="byte">
                                                                                                                                                                                      <p><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/>\
                                                                                                                                                                                    <xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/></p>
                                                                                                                                                                                    </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                    </grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                    1. As you saw in the previous section, this imports the minidom module from the xml.dom package.
                                                                                                                                                                                    2. Here is the one line of code that does all the work: minidom.parse takes one argument and returns a parsed representation of the XML document. The argument can be many things; in this case, it's simply a filename of an XML document on my local disk. (To follow along, you'll need to change the path to point to your downloaded examples directory.) But you can also pass a file object, or even a file-like object. You'll take advantage of this flexibility later in this chapter.
                                                                                                                                                                                    3. The object returned from minidom.parse is a Document object, a descendant of the Node class. This Document object is the root level of a complex tree-like structure of interlocking Python objects that completely represent the XML document you passed to minidom.parse.
                                                                                                                                                                                    4. toxml is a method of the Node class (and is therefore available on the Document object you got from minidom.parse). toxml prints out the XML that this Node represents. For the Document node, this prints out the entire XML document.

                                                                                                                                                                                      Now that you have an XML document in memory, you can start traversing through it.

                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 9.9. Getting child nodes

                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> xmldoc.childNodes    
                                                                                                                                                                                      [<DOM Element: grammar at 17538908>]
                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> xmldoc.childNodes[0] 
                                                                                                                                                                                      <DOM Element: grammar at 17538908>
                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> xmldoc.firstChild    
                                                                                                                                                                                      <DOM Element: grammar at 17538908>
                                                                                                                                                                                      1. Every Node has a childNodes attribute, which is a list of the Node objects. A Document always has only one child node, the root element of the XML document (in this case, the grammar element).
                                                                                                                                                                                      2. To get the first (and in this case, the only) child node, just use regular list syntax. Remember, there is nothing special going on here; this is just a regular Python list of regular Python objects.
                                                                                                                                                                                      3. Since getting the first child node of a node is a useful and common activity, the Node class has a firstChild attribute, which is synonymous with childNodes[0]. (There is also a lastChild attribute, which is synonymous with childNodes[-1].)

                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 9.10. toxml works on any node

                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> grammarNode = xmldoc.firstChild
                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> print grammarNode.toxml() 
                                                                                                                                                                                        <grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                        <ref id="bit">
                                                                                                                                                                                          <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                          <p>1</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                        </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                        <ref id="byte">
                                                                                                                                                                                          <p><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/>\
                                                                                                                                                                                        <xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/></p>
                                                                                                                                                                                        </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                        </grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                        1. Since the toxml method is defined in the Node class, it is available on any XML node, not just the Document element.

                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 9.11. Child nodes can be text

                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> grammarNode.childNodes
                                                                                                                                                                                          [<DOM Text node "\n">, <DOM Element: ref at 17533332>, \
                                                                                                                                                                                          <DOM Text node "\n">, <DOM Element: ref at 17549660>, <DOM Text node "\n">]
                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> print grammarNode.firstChild.toxml()    
                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> print grammarNode.childNodes[1].toxml() 
                                                                                                                                                                                          <ref id="bit">
                                                                                                                                                                                            <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                            <p>1</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                          </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> print grammarNode.childNodes[3].toxml() 
                                                                                                                                                                                          <ref id="byte">
                                                                                                                                                                                            <p><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/>\
                                                                                                                                                                                          <xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/></p>
                                                                                                                                                                                          </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> print grammarNode.lastChild.toxml()     
                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                          1. Looking at the XML in binary.xml, you might think that the grammar has only two child nodes, the two ref elements. But you're missing something: the carriage returns! After the '<grammar>' and before the first '<ref>' is a carriage return, and this text counts as a child node of the grammar element. Similarly, there is a carriage return after each '</ref>'; these also count as child nodes. So grammar.childNodes is actually a list of 5 objects: 3 Text objects and 2 Element objects.
                                                                                                                                                                                          2. The first child is a Text object representing the carriage return after the '<grammar>' tag and before the first '<ref>' tag.
                                                                                                                                                                                          3. The second child is an Element object representing the first ref element.
                                                                                                                                                                                          4. The fourth child is an Element object representing the second ref element.
                                                                                                                                                                                          5. The last child is a Text object representing the carriage return after the '</ref>' end tag and before the '</grammar>' end tag.

                                                                                                                                                                                            Example 9.12. Drilling down all the way to text

                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> grammarNode
                                                                                                                                                                                            <DOM Element: grammar at 19167148>
                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> refNode = grammarNode.childNodes[1] 
                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> refNode
                                                                                                                                                                                            <DOM Element: ref at 17987740>
                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> refNode.childNodes
                                                                                                                                                                                            [<DOM Text node "\n">, <DOM Text node "  ">, <DOM Element: p at 19315844>, \
                                                                                                                                                                                            <DOM Text node "\n">, <DOM Text node "  ">, \
                                                                                                                                                                                            <DOM Element: p at 19462036>, <DOM Text node "\n">]
                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> pNode = refNode.childNodes[2]
                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> pNode
                                                                                                                                                                                            <DOM Element: p at 19315844>
                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> print pNode.toxml()                 
                                                                                                                                                                                            <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> pNode.firstChild  
                                                                                                                                                                                            <DOM Text node "0">
                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> pNode.firstChild.data               
                                                                                                                                                                                            u'0'
                                                                                                                                                                                            1. As you saw in the previous example, the first ref element is grammarNode.childNodes[1], since childNodes[0] is a Text node for the carriage return.
                                                                                                                                                                                            2. The ref element has its own set of child nodes, one for the carriage return, a separate one for the spaces, one for the p element, and so forth.
                                                                                                                                                                                            3. You can even use the toxml method here, deeply nested within the document.
                                                                                                                                                                                            4. The p element has only one child node (you can't tell that from this example, but look at pNode.childNodes if you don't believe me), and it is a Text node for the single character '0'.
                                                                                                                                                                                            5. The .data attribute of a Text node gives you the actual string that the text node represents. But what is that 'u' in front of the string? The answer to that deserves its own section. (Unicode stuff was here)

                                                                                                                                                                                              Remember I said Python usually converted unicode to ASCII whenever it needed to make a regular string out of a unicode string? Well, this default encoding scheme is an option which you can customize.

                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 9.15. sitecustomize.py

                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                              # sitecustomize.py 
                                                                                                                                                                                              # this file can be anywhere in your Python path,
                                                                                                                                                                                              # but it usually goes in ${pythondir}/lib/site-packages/
                                                                                                                                                                                              import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                              sys.setdefaultencoding('iso-8859-1') 
                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                              1. sitecustomize.py is a special script; Python will try to import it on startup, so any code in it will be run automatically. As the comment mentions, it can go anywhere (as long as import can find it), but it usually goes in the site-packages directory within your Python lib directory.
                                                                                                                                                                                              2. setdefaultencoding function sets, well, the default encoding. This is the encoding scheme that Python will try to use whenever it needs to auto-coerce a unicode string into a regular string.

                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 9.16. Effects of setting the default encoding

                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> sys.getdefaultencoding() 
                                                                                                                                                                                                'iso-8859-1'
                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> s = u'La Pe\xf1a'
                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> print s
                                                                                                                                                                                                La Peña
                                                                                                                                                                                                1. This example assumes that you have made the changes listed in the previous example to your sitecustomize.py file, and restarted Python. If your default encoding still says 'ascii', you didn't set up your sitecustomize.py properly, or you didn't restart Python. The default encoding can only be changed during Python startup; you can't change it later. (Due to some wacky programming tricks that I won't get into right now, you can't even call sys.setdefaultencoding after Python has started up. Dig into site.py and search for “setdefaultencoding” to find out how.)
                                                                                                                                                                                                2. Now that the default encoding scheme includes all the characters you use in your string, Python has no problem auto-coercing the string and printing it. (More Unicode stuff was here)

                                                                                                                                                                                                  9.5. Searching for elements

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Traversing XML documents by stepping through each node can be tedious. If you're looking for something in particular, buried deep within your XML document, there is a shortcut you can use to find it quickly: getElementsByTagName.

                                                                                                                                                                                                  For this section, you'll be using the binary.xml grammar file, which looks like this:

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 9.20. binary.xml

                                                                                                                                                                                                  <?xml version="1.0"?>
                                                                                                                                                                                                  <!DOCTYPE grammar PUBLIC "-//diveintopython3.org//DTD Kant Generator Pro v1.0//EN" "kgp.dtd">
                                                                                                                                                                                                  <grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                                  <ref id="bit">
                                                                                                                                                                                                    <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                    <p>1</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                  </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                                  <ref id="byte">
                                                                                                                                                                                                    <p><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/>\
                                                                                                                                                                                                  <xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/></p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                  </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                                  </grammar>

                                                                                                                                                                                                  It has two refs, 'bit' and 'byte'. A bit is either a '0' or '1', and a byte is 8 bits.

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 9.21. Introducing getElementsByTagName

                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> from xml.dom import minidom
                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> xmldoc = minidom.parse('binary.xml')
                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> reflist = xmldoc.getElementsByTagName('ref') 
                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> reflist
                                                                                                                                                                                                  [<DOM Element: ref at 136138108>, <DOM Element: ref at 136144292>]
                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> print reflist[0].toxml()
                                                                                                                                                                                                  <ref id="bit">
                                                                                                                                                                                                    <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                    <p>1</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                  </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> print reflist[1].toxml()
                                                                                                                                                                                                  <ref id="byte">
                                                                                                                                                                                                    <p><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/>\
                                                                                                                                                                                                  <xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/></p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                  </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. getElementsByTagName takes one argument, the name of the element you wish to find. It returns a list of Element objects, corresponding to the XML elements that have that name. In this case, you find two ref elements.

                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 9.22. Every element is searchable

                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> firstref = reflist[0]    
                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> print firstref.toxml()
                                                                                                                                                                                                    <ref id="bit">
                                                                                                                                                                                                      <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                      <p>1</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                    </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> plist = firstref.getElementsByTagName("p") 
                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> plist
                                                                                                                                                                                                    [<DOM Element: p at 136140116>, <DOM Element: p at 136142172>]
                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> print plist[0].toxml()   
                                                                                                                                                                                                    <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> print plist[1].toxml()
                                                                                                                                                                                                    <p>1</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. Continuing from the previous example, the first object in your reflist is the 'bit' ref element.
                                                                                                                                                                                                    2. You can use the same getElementsByTagName method on this Element to find all the <p> elements within the 'bit' ref element.
                                                                                                                                                                                                    3. Just as before, the getElementsByTagName method returns a list of all the elements it found. In this case, you have two, one for each bit.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 9.23. Searching is actually recursive

                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> plist = xmldoc.getElementsByTagName("p") 
                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> plist
                                                                                                                                                                                                      [<DOM Element: p at 136140116>, <DOM Element: p at 136142172>, <DOM Element: p at 136146124>]
                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> plist[0].toxml()       
                                                                                                                                                                                                      '<p>0</p>'
                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> plist[1].toxml()
                                                                                                                                                                                                      '<p>1</p>'
                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> plist[2].toxml()       
                                                                                                                                                                                                      '<p><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/>\
                                                                                                                                                                                                      <xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/></p>'
                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. Note carefully the difference between this and the previous example. Previously, you were searching for p elements within firstref, but here you are searching for p elements within xmldoc, the root-level object that represents the entire XML document. This does find the p elements nested within the ref elements within the root grammar element.
                                                                                                                                                                                                      2. The first two p elements are within the first ref (the 'bit' ref).
                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. The last p element is the one within the second ref (the 'byte' ref).

                                                                                                                                                                                                        9.6. Accessing element attributes

                                                                                                                                                                                                        XML elements can have one or more attributes, and it is incredibly simple to access them once you have parsed an XML document.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        For this section, you'll be using the binary.xml grammar file that you saw in the previous section.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        NoteThis section may be a little confusing, because of some overlapping terminology. Elements in an XML document have attributes, and Python objects also have attributes. When you parse an XML document, you get a bunch of Python objects that represent all the pieces of the XML document, and some of these Python objects represent attributes of the XML elements. But the (Python) objects that represent the (XML) attributes also have (Python) attributes, which are used to access various parts of the (XML) attribute that the object represents. I told you it was confusing. I am open to suggestions on how to distinguish these more clearly.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 9.24. Accessing element attributes

                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> xmldoc = minidom.parse('binary.xml')
                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> reflist = xmldoc.getElementsByTagName('ref')
                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> bitref = reflist[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> print bitref.toxml()
                                                                                                                                                                                                        <ref id="bit">
                                                                                                                                                                                                          <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                          <p>1</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                        </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> bitref.attributes          
                                                                                                                                                                                                        <xml.dom.minidom.NamedNodeMap instance at 0x81e0c9c>
                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> bitref.attributes.keys()    
                                                                                                                                                                                                        [u'id']
                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> bitref.attributes.values() 
                                                                                                                                                                                                        [<xml.dom.minidom.Attr instance at 0x81d5044>]
                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> bitref.attributes["id"]    
                                                                                                                                                                                                        <xml.dom.minidom.Attr instance at 0x81d5044>
                                                                                                                                                                                                        1. Each Element object has an attribute called attributes, which is a NamedNodeMap object. This sounds scary, but it's not, because a NamedNodeMap is an object that acts like a dictionary, so you already know how to use it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        2. Treating the NamedNodeMap as a dictionary, you can get a list of the names of the attributes of this element by using attributes.keys(). This element has only one attribute, 'id'.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        3. Attribute names, like all other text in an XML document, are stored in unicode.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        4. Again treating the NamedNodeMap as a dictionary, you can get a list of the values of the attributes by using attributes.values(). The values are themselves objects, of type Attr. You'll see how to get useful information out of this object in the next example.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        5. Still treating the NamedNodeMap as a dictionary, you can access an individual attribute by name, using normal dictionary syntax. (Readers who have been paying extra-close attention will already know how the NamedNodeMap class accomplishes this neat trick: by defining a __getitem__ special method. Other readers can take comfort in the fact that they don't need to understand how it works in order to use it effectively.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 9.25. Accessing individual attributes

                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> a = bitref.attributes["id"]
                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> a
                                                                                                                                                                                                          <xml.dom.minidom.Attr instance at 0x81d5044>
                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> a.name  
                                                                                                                                                                                                          u'id'
                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> a.value 
                                                                                                                                                                                                          u'bit'
                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. The Attr object completely represents a single XML attribute of a single XML element. The name of the attribute (the same name as you used to find this object in the bitref.attributes NamedNodeMap pseudo-dictionary) is stored in a.name.
                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. The actual text value of this XML attribute is stored in a.value.
                                                                                                                                                                                                            NoteLike a dictionary, attributes of an XML element have no ordering. Attributes may happen to be listed in a certain order in the original XML document, and the Attr objects may happen to be listed in a certain order when the XML document is parsed into Python objects, but these orders are arbitrary and should carry no special meaning. You should always access individual attributes by name, like the keys of a dictionary.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            9.7. Segue

                                                                                                                                                                                                            OK, that's it for the hard-core XML stuff. The next chapter will continue to use these same example programs, but focus on other aspects that make the program more flexible: using streams for input processing, using getattr for method dispatching, and using command-line flags to allow users to reconfigure the program without changing the code.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Before moving on to the next chapter, you should be comfortable doing all of these things:



                                                                                                                                                                                                            [5] This, sadly, is still an oversimplification. Unicode now has been extended to handle ancient Chinese, Korean, and Japanese texts, which had so many different characters that the 2-byte unicode system could not represent them all. But Python doesn't currently support that out of the box, and I don't know if there is a project afoot to add it. You've reached the limits of my expertise, sorry.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Chapter 10. Scripts and Streams

                                                                                                                                                                                                            10.1. Abstracting input sources

                                                                                                                                                                                                            One of Python's greatest strengths is its dynamic binding, and one powerful use of dynamic binding is the file-like object.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Many functions which require an input source could simply take a filename, go open the file for reading, read it, and close it when they're done. But they don't. Instead, they take a file-like object.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            In the simplest case, a file-like object is any object with a read method with an optional size parameter, which returns a string. When called with no size parameter, it reads everything there is to read from the input source and returns all the data as a single string. When called with a size parameter, it reads that much from the input source and returns that much data; when called again, it picks up where it left off and returns the next chunk of data.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            This is how reading from real files works; the difference is that you're not limiting yourself to real files. The input source could be anything: a file on disk, a web page, even a hard-coded string. As long as you pass a file-like object to the function, and the function simply calls the object's read method, the function can handle any kind of input source without specific code to handle each kind.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            In case you were wondering how this relates to XML processing, minidom.parse is one such function which can take a file-like object.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Example 10.1. Parsing XML from a file

                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> from xml.dom import minidom
                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> fsock = open('binary.xml')    
                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> xmldoc = minidom.parse(fsock) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> fsock.close()                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> print xmldoc.toxml()          
                                                                                                                                                                                                            <?xml version="1.0" ?>
                                                                                                                                                                                                            <grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                                            <ref id="bit">
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <p>1</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                            </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                                            <ref id="byte">
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <p><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/>\
                                                                                                                                                                                                            <xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/></p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                            </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                                            </grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. First, you open the file on disk. This gives you a file object.
                                                                                                                                                                                                            2. You pass the file object to minidom.parse, which calls the read method of fsock and reads the XML document from the file on disk.
                                                                                                                                                                                                            3. Be sure to call the close method of the file object after you're done with it. minidom.parse will not do this for you.
                                                                                                                                                                                                            4. Calling the toxml() method on the returned XML document prints out the entire thing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                              Well, that all seems like a colossal waste of time. After all, you've already seen that minidom.parse can simply take the filename and do all the opening and closing nonsense automatically. And it's true that if you know you're just going to be parsing a local file, you can pass the filename and minidom.parse is smart enough to Do The Right Thing™. But notice how similar -- and easy -- it is to parse an XML document straight from the Internet.

                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 10.2. Parsing XML from a URL

                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> import urllib
                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> usock = urllib.urlopen('http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rdf') 
                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> xmldoc = minidom.parse(usock)            
                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> usock.close()          
                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> print xmldoc.toxml()   
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <?xml version="1.0" ?>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <rdf:RDF xmlns="http://my.netscape.com/rdf/simple/0.9/"
                                                                                                                                                                                                               xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <channel>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <title>Slashdot</title>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <link>http://slashdot.org/</link>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <description>News for nerds, stuff that matters</description>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              </channel>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <image>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <title>Slashdot</title>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <url>http://images.slashdot.org/topics/topicslashdot.gif</url>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <link>http://slashdot.org/</link>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              </image>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <item>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <title>To HDTV or Not to HDTV?</title>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              <link>http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/28/0421241</link>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              </item>
                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                              [...snip...]
                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. As you saw in a previous chapter, urlopen takes a web page URL and returns a file-like object. Most importantly, this object has a read method which returns the HTML source of the web page.
                                                                                                                                                                                                              2. Now you pass the file-like object to minidom.parse, which obediently calls the read method of the object and parses the XML data that the read method returns. The fact that this XML data is now coming straight from a web page is completely irrelevant. minidom.parse doesn't know about web pages, and it doesn't care about web pages; it just knows about file-like objects.
                                                                                                                                                                                                              3. As soon as you're done with it, be sure to close the file-like object that urlopen gives you.
                                                                                                                                                                                                              4. By the way, this URL is real, and it really is XML. It's an XML representation of the current headlines on Slashdot, a technical news and gossip site.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 10.3. Parsing XML from a string (the easy but inflexible way)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> contents = "<grammar><ref id='bit'><p>0</p><p>1</p></ref></grammar>"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> xmldoc = minidom.parseString(contents) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> print xmldoc.toxml()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                <?xml version="1.0" ?>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                <grammar><ref id="bit"><p>0</p><p>1</p></ref></grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                1. minidom has a method, parseString, which takes an entire XML document as a string and parses it. You can use this instead of minidom.parse if you know you already have your entire XML document in a string.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  OK, so you can use the minidom.parse function for parsing both local files and remote URLs, but for parsing strings, you use... a different function. That means that if you want to be able to take input from a file, a URL, or a string, you'll need special logic to check whether it's a string, and call the parseString function instead. How unsatisfying.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  If there were a way to turn a string into a file-like object, then you could simply pass this object to minidom.parse. And in fact, there is a module specifically designed for doing just that: StringIO.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 10.4. Introducing StringIO

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> contents = "<grammar><ref id='bit'><p>0</p><p>1</p></ref></grammar>"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> import StringIO
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> ssock = StringIO.StringIO(contents)   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> ssock.read()        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  "<grammar><ref id='bit'><p>0</p><p>1</p></ref></grammar>"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> ssock.read()        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ''
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> ssock.seek(0)       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> ssock.read(15)      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  '<grammar><ref i'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> ssock.read(15)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  "d='bit'><p>0</p"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> ssock.read()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  '><p>1</p></ref></grammar>'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> ssock.close()       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. The StringIO module contains a single class, also called StringIO, which allows you to turn a string into a file-like object. The StringIO class takes the string as a parameter when creating an instance.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  2. Now you have a file-like object, and you can do all sorts of file-like things with it. Like read, which returns the original string.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  3. Calling read again returns an empty string. This is how real file objects work too; once you read the entire file, you can't read any more without explicitly seeking to the beginning of the file. The StringIO object works the same way.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  4. You can explicitly seek to the beginning of the string, just like seeking through a file, by using the seek method of the StringIO object.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  5. You can also read the string in chunks, by passing a size parameter to the read method.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  6. At any time, read will return the rest of the string that you haven't read yet. All of this is exactly how file objects work; hence the term file-like object.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 10.5. Parsing XML from a string (the file-like object way)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> contents = "<grammar><ref id='bit'><p>0</p><p>1</p></ref></grammar>"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> ssock = StringIO.StringIO(contents)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> xmldoc = minidom.parse(ssock) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> ssock.close()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> print xmldoc.toxml()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    <?xml version="1.0" ?>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    <grammar><ref id="bit"><p>0</p><p>1</p></ref></grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. Now you can pass the file-like object (really a StringIO) to minidom.parse, which will call the object's read method and happily parse away, never knowing that its input came from a hard-coded string.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      So now you know how to use a single function, minidom.parse, to parse an XML document stored on a web page, in a local file, or in a hard-coded string. For a web page, you use urlopen to get a file-like object; for a local file, you use open; and for a string, you use StringIO. Now let's take it one step further and generalize these differences as well.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 10.6. openAnything

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      def openAnything(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          # try to open with urllib (if source is http, ftp, or file URL)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          import urllib       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          try:                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return urllib.urlopen(source)      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          except (IOError, OSError):            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              pass            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          # try to open with native open function (if source is pathname)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          try:                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return open(source)                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          except (IOError, OSError):            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              pass            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          # treat source as string
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          import StringIO     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          return StringIO.StringIO(str(source))  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. The openAnything function takes a single parameter, source, and returns a file-like object. source is a string of some sort; it can either be a URL (like 'http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rdf'), a full or partial pathname to a local file (like 'binary.xml'), or a string that contains actual XML data to be parsed.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      2. First, you see if source is a URL. You do this through brute force: you try to open it as a URL and silently ignore errors caused by trying to open something which is not a URL. This is actually elegant in the sense that, if urllib ever supports new types of URLs in the future, you will also support them without recoding. If urllib is able to open source, then the return kicks you out of the function immediately and the following try statements never execute.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. On the other hand, if urllib yelled at you and told you that source wasn't a valid URL, you assume it's a path to a file on disk and try to open it. Again, you don't do anything fancy to check whether source is a valid filename or not (the rules for valid filenames vary wildly between different platforms anyway, so you'd probably get them wrong anyway). Instead, you just blindly open the file, and silently trap any errors.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      4. By this point, you need to assume that source is a string that has hard-coded data in it (since nothing else worked), so you use StringIO to create a file-like object out of it and return that. (In fact, since you're using the str function, source doesn't even need to be a string; it could be any object, and you'll use its string representation, as defined by its __str__ special method.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Now you can use this openAnything function in conjunction with minidom.parse to make a function that takes a source that refers to an XML document somehow (either as a URL, or a local filename, or a hard-coded XML document in a string) and parses it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 10.7. Using openAnything in kgp.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        class KantGenerator:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            def _load(self, source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                sock = toolbox.openAnything(source)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                xmldoc = minidom.parse(sock).documentElement
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                sock.close()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                return xmldoc

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        10.2. Standard input, output, and error

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        UNIX users are already familiar with the concept of standard input, standard output, and standard error. This section is for the rest of you.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Standard output and standard error (commonly abbreviated stdout and stderr) are pipes that are built into every UNIX system. When you print something, it goes to the stdout pipe; when your program crashes and prints out debugging information (like a traceback in Python), it goes to the stderr pipe. Both of these pipes are ordinarily just connected to the terminal window where you are working, so when a program prints, you see the output, and when a program crashes, you see the debugging information. (If you're working on a system with a window-based Python IDE, stdout and stderr default to your “Interactive Window”.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 10.8. Introducing stdout and stderr

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> for i in range(3):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ...    print 'Dive in'             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Dive in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Dive in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Dive in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> for i in range(3):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ...    sys.stdout.write('Dive in') 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Dive inDive inDive in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> for i in range(3):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ...    sys.stderr.write('Dive in') 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Dive inDive inDive in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        1. As you saw in Example 6.9, “Simple Counters”, you can use Python's built-in range function to build simple counter loops that repeat something a set number of times.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        2. stdout is a file-like object; calling its write function will print out whatever string you give it. In fact, this is what the print function really does; it adds a carriage return to the end of the string you're printing, and calls sys.stdout.write.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        3. In the simplest case, stdout and stderr send their output to the same place: the Python IDE (if you're in one), or the terminal (if you're running Python from the command line). Like stdout, stderr does not add carriage returns for you; if you want them, add them yourself.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          stdout and stderr are both file-like objects, like the ones you discussed in Section 10.1, “Abstracting input sources”, but they are both write-only. They have no read method, only write. Still, they are file-like objects, and you can assign any other file- or file-like object to them to redirect their output.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 10.9. Redirecting output

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          [you@localhost kgp]$ python stdout.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Dive in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          [you@localhost kgp]$ cat out.log
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          This message will be logged instead of displayed

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          (On Windows, you can use type instead of cat to display the contents of a file.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          #stdout.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          print 'Dive in'      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          saveout = sys.stdout 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          fsock = open('out.log', 'w')           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          sys.stdout = fsock   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          print 'This message will be logged instead of displayed' 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          sys.stdout = saveout 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          fsock.close()        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. This will print to the IDE “Interactive Window” (or the terminal, if running the script from the command line).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. Always save stdout before redirecting it, so you can set it back to normal later.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          3. Open a file for writing. If the file doesn't exist, it will be created. If the file does exist, it will be overwritten.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          4. Redirect all further output to the new file you just opened.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          5. This will be “printed” to the log file only; it will not be visible in the IDE window or on the screen.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          6. Set stdout back to the way it was before you mucked with it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          7. Close the log file.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Redirecting stderr works exactly the same way, using sys.stderr instead of sys.stdout.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Example 10.10. Redirecting error information

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            [you@localhost kgp]$ python stderr.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            [you@localhost kgp]$ cat error.log
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Traceback (most recent line last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "stderr.py", line 5, in ?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                raise Exception, 'this error will be logged'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Exception: this error will be logged

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            #stderr.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            fsock = open('error.log', 'w')               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            sys.stderr = fsock         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise Exception, 'this error will be logged'  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. Open the log file where you want to store debugging information.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            2. Redirect standard error by assigning the file object of the newly-opened log file to stderr.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            3. Raise an exception. Note from the screen output that this does not print anything on screen. All the normal traceback information has been written to error.log.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            4. Also note that you're not explicitly closing your log file, nor are you setting stderr back to its original value. This is fine, since once the program crashes (because of the exception), Python will clean up and close the file for us, and it doesn't make any difference that stderr is never restored, since, as I mentioned, the program crashes and Python ends. Restoring the original is more important for stdout, if you expect to go do other stuff within the same script afterwards.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Since it is so common to write error messages to standard error, there is a shorthand syntax that can be used instead of going through the hassle of redirecting it outright.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 10.11. Printing to stderr

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> print 'entering function'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              entering function
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> print >> sys.stderr, 'entering function' 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              entering function
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. This shorthand syntax of the print statement can be used to write to any open file, or file-like object. In this case, you can redirect a single print statement to stderr without affecting subsequent print statements.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Standard input, on the other hand, is a read-only file object, and it represents the data flowing into the program from some previous program. This will likely not make much sense to classic Mac OS users, or even Windows users unless you were ever fluent on the MS-DOS command line. The way it works is that you can construct a chain of commands in a single line, so that one program's output becomes the input for the next program in the chain. The first program simply outputs to standard output (without doing any special redirecting itself, just doing normal print statements or whatever), and the next program reads from standard input, and the operating system takes care of connecting one program's output to the next program's input.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 10.12. Chaining commands

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [you@localhost kgp]$ python kgp.py -g binary.xml         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                01100111
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [you@localhost kgp]$ cat binary.xml    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <?xml version="1.0"?>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <!DOCTYPE grammar PUBLIC "-//diveintopython3.org//DTD Kant Generator Pro v1.0//EN" "kgp.dtd">
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <ref id="bit">
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  <p>0</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  <p>1</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <ref id="byte">
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  <p><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/>\
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/><xref id="bit"/></p>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                </ref>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                </grammar>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [you@localhost kgp]$ cat binary.xml | python kgp.py -g -  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                10110001
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1. As you saw in Section 9.1, “Diving in”, this will print a string of eight random bits, 0 or 1.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2. This simply prints out the entire contents of binary.xml. (Windows users should use type instead of cat.)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                3. This prints the contents of binary.xml, but the “|” character, called the “pipe” character, means that the contents will not be printed to the screen. Instead, they will become the standard input of the next command, which in this case calls your Python script.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                4. Instead of specifying a module (like binary.xml), you specify “-”, which causes your script to load the grammar from standard input instead of from a specific file on disk. (More on how this happens in the next example.) So the effect is the same as the first syntax, where you specified the grammar filename directly, but think of the expansion possibilities here. Instead of simply doing cat binary.xml, you could run a script that dynamically generates the grammar, then you can pipe it into your script. It could come from anywhere: a database, or some grammar-generating meta-script, or whatever. The point is that you don't need to change your kgp.py script at all to incorporate any of this functionality. All you need to do is be able to take grammar files from standard input, and you can separate all the other logic into another program.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  So how does the script “know” to read from standard input when the grammar file is “-”? It's not magic; it's just code.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 10.13. Reading from standard input in kgp.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  def openAnything(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      if source == "-":    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          return sys.stdin
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      # try to open with urllib (if source is http, ftp, or file URL)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      import urllib
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      try:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  [... snip ...]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. This is the openAnything function from toolbox.py, which you previously examined in Section 10.1, “Abstracting input sources”. All you've done is add three lines of code at the beginning of the function to check if the source is “-”; if so, you return sys.stdin. Really, that's it! Remember, stdin is a file-like object with a read method, so the rest of the code (in kgp.py, where you call openAnything) doesn't change a bit.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    10.3. Caching node lookups

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    kgp.py employs several tricks which may or may not be useful to you in your XML processing. The first one takes advantage of the consistent structure of the input documents to build a cache of nodes.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    A grammar file defines a series of ref elements. Each ref contains one or more p elements, which can contain a lot of different things, including xrefs. Whenever you encounter an xref, you look for a corresponding ref element with the same id attribute, and choose one of the ref element's children and parse it. (You'll see how this random choice is made in the next section.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    This is how you build up the grammar: define ref elements for the smallest pieces, then define ref elements which "include" the first ref elements by using xref, and so forth. Then you parse the "largest" reference and follow each xref, and eventually output real text. The text you output depends on the (random) decisions you make each time you fill in an xref, so the output is different each time.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    This is all very flexible, but there is one downside: performance. When you find an xref and need to find the corresponding ref element, you have a problem. The xref has an id attribute, and you want to find the ref element that has that same id attribute, but there is no easy way to do that. The slow way to do it would be to get the entire list of ref elements each time, then manually loop through and look at each id attribute. The fast way is to do that once and build a cache, in the form of a dictionary.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 10.14. loadGrammar

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        def loadGrammar(self, grammar):       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.grammar = self._load(grammar)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.refs = {}   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            for ref in self.grammar.getElementsByTagName("ref"): 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                self.refs[ref.attributes["id"].value] = ref       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. Start by creating an empty dictionary, self.refs.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    2. As you saw in Section 9.5, “Searching for elements”, getElementsByTagName returns a list of all the elements of a particular name. You easily can get a list of all the ref elements, then simply loop through that list.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    3. As you saw in Section 9.6, “Accessing element attributes”, you can access individual attributes of an element by name, using standard dictionary syntax. So the keys of the self.refs dictionary will be the values of the id attribute of each ref element.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    4. The values of the self.refs dictionary will be the ref elements themselves. As you saw in Section 9.3, “Parsing XML”, each element, each node, each comment, each piece of text in a parsed XML document is an object.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Once you build this cache, whenever you come across an xref and need to find the ref element with the same id attribute, you can simply look it up in self.refs.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 10.15. Using the ref element cache

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def do_xref(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              id = node.attributes["id"].value
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              self.parse(self.randomChildElement(self.refs[id]))

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      You'll explore the randomChildElement function in the next section.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      10.4. Finding direct children of a node

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Another useful techique when parsing XML documents is finding all the direct child elements of a particular element. For instance, in the grammar files, a ref element can have several p elements, each of which can contain many things, including other p elements. You want to find just the p elements that are children of the ref, not p elements that are children of other p elements.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      You might think you could simply use getElementsByTagName for this, but you can't. getElementsByTagName searches recursively and returns a single list for all the elements it finds. Since p elements can contain other p elements, you can't use getElementsByTagName, because it would return nested p elements that you don't want. To find only direct child elements, you'll need to do it yourself.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 10.16. Finding direct child elements

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def randomChildElement(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              choices = [e for e in node.childNodes
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       if e.nodeType == e.ELEMENT_NODE]   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              chosen = random.choice(choices)             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return chosen            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. As you saw in Example 9.9, “Getting child nodes”, the childNodes attribute returns a list of all the child nodes of an element.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      2. However, as you saw in Example 9.11, “Child nodes can be text”, the list returned by childNodes contains all different types of nodes, including text nodes. That's not what you're looking for here. You only want the children that are elements.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. Each node has a nodeType attribute, which can be ELEMENT_NODE, TEXT_NODE, COMMENT_NODE, or any number of other values. The complete list of possible values is in the __init__.py file in the xml.dom package. (See Section 9.2, “Packages” for more on packages.) But you're just interested in nodes that are elements, so you can filter the list to only include those nodes whose nodeType is ELEMENT_NODE.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      4. Once you have a list of actual elements, choosing a random one is easy. Python comes with a module called random which includes several useful functions. The random.choice function takes a list of any number of items and returns a random item. For example, if the ref elements contains several p elements, then choices would be a list of p elements, and chosen would end up being assigned exactly one of them, selected at random.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        10.5. Creating separate handlers by node type

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        The third useful XML processing tip involves separating your code into logical functions, based on node types and element names. Parsed XML documents are made up of various types of nodes, each represented by a Python object. The root level of the document itself is represented by a Document object. The Document then contains one or more Element objects (for actual XML tags), each of which may contain other Element objects, Text objects (for bits of text), or Comment objects (for embedded comments). Python makes it easy to write a dispatcher to separate the logic for each node type.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 10.17. Class names of parsed XML objects

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> from xml.dom import minidom
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> xmldoc = minidom.parse('kant.xml') 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> xmldoc
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <xml.dom.minidom.Document instance at 0x01359DE8>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> xmldoc.__class__ 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <class xml.dom.minidom.Document at 0x01105D40>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> xmldoc.__class__.__name__          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        'Document'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        1. Assume for a moment that kant.xml is in the current directory.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        2. As you saw in Section 9.2, “Packages”, the object returned by parsing an XML document is a Document object, as defined in the minidom.py in the xml.dom package. As you saw in Section 5.4, “Instantiating Classes”, __class__ is built-in attribute of every Python object.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        3. Furthermore, __name__ is a built-in attribute of every Python class, and it is a string. This string is not mysterious; it's the same as the class name you type when you define a class yourself. (See Section 5.3, “Defining Classes”.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Fine, so now you can get the class name of any particular XML node (since each XML node is represented as a Python object). How can you use this to your advantage to separate the logic of parsing each node type? The answer is getattr, which you first saw in Section 4.4, “Getting Object References With getattr”.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 10.18. parse, a generic XML node dispatcher

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              def parse(self, node):          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  parseMethod = getattr(self, "parse_%s" % node.__class__.__name__)  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  parseMethod(node) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. First off, notice that you're constructing a larger string based on the class name of the node you were passed (in the node argument). So if you're passed a Document node, you're constructing the string 'parse_Document', and so forth.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. Now you can treat that string as a function name, and get a reference to the function itself using getattr
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          3. Finally, you can call that function and pass the node itself as an argument. The next example shows the definitions of each of these functions.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Example 10.19. Functions called by the parse dispatcher

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def parse_Document(self, node): 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    self.parse(node.documentElement)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def parse_Text(self, node):    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    text = node.data
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    if self.capitalizeNextWord:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append(text[0].upper())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append(text[1:])
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.capitalizeNextWord = 0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    else:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.pieces.append(text)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def parse_Comment(self, node): 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def parse_Element(self, node): 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    handlerMethod = getattr(self, "do_%s" % node.tagName)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    handlerMethod(node)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. parse_Document is only ever called once, since there is only one Document node in an XML document, and only one Document object in the parsed XML representation. It simply turns around and parses the root element of the grammar file.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            2. parse_Text is called on nodes that represent bits of text. The function itself does some special processing to handle automatic capitalization of the first word of a sentence, but otherwise simply appends the represented text to a list.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            3. parse_Comment is just a pass, since you don't care about embedded comments in the grammar files. Note, however, that you still need to define the function and explicitly make it do nothing. If the function did not exist, the generic parse function would fail as soon as it stumbled on a comment, because it would try to find the non-existent parse_Comment function. Defining a separate function for every node type, even ones you don't use, allows the generic parse function to stay simple and dumb.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            4. The parse_Element method is actually itself a dispatcher, based on the name of the element's tag. The basic idea is the same: take what distinguishes elements from each other (their tag names) and dispatch to a separate function for each of them. You construct a string like 'do_xref' (for an <xref> tag), find a function of that name, and call it. And so forth for each of the other tag names that might be found in the course of parsing a grammar file (<p> tags, <choice> tags).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              In this example, the dispatch functions parse and parse_Element simply find other methods in the same class. If your processing is very complex (or you have many different tag names), you could break up your code into separate modules, and use dynamic importing to import each module and call whatever functions you needed. Dynamic importing will be discussed in Chapter 16, Functional Programming.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              10.6. Handling command-line arguments

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Python fully supports creating programs that can be run on the command line, complete with command-line arguments and either short- or long-style flags to specify various options. None of this is XML-specific, but this script makes good use of command-line processing, so it seemed like a good time to mention it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              It's difficult to talk about command-line processing without understanding how command-line arguments are exposed to your Python program, so let's write a simple program to see them.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 10.20. Introducing sys.argv

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              #argecho.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              for arg in sys.argv: 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  print arg
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. Each command-line argument passed to the program will be in sys.argv, which is just a list. Here you are printing each argument on a separate line.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 10.21. The contents of sys.argv

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [you@localhost py]$ python argecho.py             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                argecho.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [you@localhost py]$ python argecho.py abc def     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                argecho.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                abc
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [you@localhost py]$ python argecho.py --help      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                argecho.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                --help
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [you@localhost py]$ python argecho.py -m kant.xml 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                argecho.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                -m
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                kant.xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1. The first thing to know about sys.argv is that it contains the name of the script you're calling. You will actually use this knowledge to your advantage later, in Chapter 16, Functional Programming. Don't worry about it for now.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2. Command-line arguments are separated by spaces, and each shows up as a separate element in the sys.argv list.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                3. Command-line flags, like --help, also show up as their own element in the sys.argv list.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                4. To make things even more interesting, some command-line flags themselves take arguments. For instance, here you have a flag (-m) which takes an argument (kant.xml). Both the flag itself and the flag's argument are simply sequential elements in the sys.argv list. No attempt is made to associate one with the other; all you get is a list.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  So as you can see, you certainly have all the information passed on the command line, but then again, it doesn't look like it's going to be all that easy to actually use it. For simple programs that only take a single argument and have no flags, you can simply use sys.argv[1] to access the argument. There's no shame in this; I do it all the time. For more complex programs, you need the getopt module.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 10.22. Introducing getopt

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  def main(argv):       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      grammar = "kant.xml"                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      try:              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          opts, args = getopt.getopt(argv, "hg:d", ["help", "grammar="]) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      except getopt.GetoptError:           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          usage()        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          sys.exit(2)   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  if __name__ == "__main__":
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      main(sys.argv[1:])
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. First off, look at the bottom of the example and notice that you're calling the main function with sys.argv[1:]. Remember, sys.argv[0] is the name of the script that you're running; you don't care about that for command-line processing, so you chop it off and pass the rest of the list.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  2. This is where all the interesting processing happens. The getopt function of the getopt module takes three parameters: the argument list (which you got from sys.argv[1:]), a string containing all the possible single-character command-line flags that this program accepts, and a list of longer command-line flags that are equivalent to the single-character versions. This is quite confusing at first glance, and is explained in more detail below.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  3. If anything goes wrong trying to parse these command-line flags, getopt will raise an exception, which you catch. You told getopt all the flags you understand, so this probably means that the end user passed some command-line flag that you don't understand.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  4. As is standard practice in the UNIX world, when the script is passed flags it doesn't understand, you print out a summary of proper usage and exit gracefully. Note that I haven't shown the usage function here. You would still need to code that somewhere and have it print out the appropriate summary; it's not automatic.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    So what are all those parameters you pass to the getopt function? Well, the first one is simply the raw list of command-line flags and arguments (not including the first element, the script name, which you already chopped off before calling the main function). The second is the list of short command-line flags that the script accepts.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    "hg:d"

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    -h
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    print usage summary
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    -g ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    use specified grammar file or URL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    -d
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    show debugging information while parsing

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The first and third flags are simply standalone flags; you specify them or you don't, and they do things (print help) or change state (turn on debugging). However, the second flag (-g) must be followed by an argument, which is the name of the grammar file to read from. In fact it can be a filename or a web address, and you don't know which yet (you'll figure it out later), but you know it has to be something. So you tell getopt this by putting a colon after the g in that second parameter to the getopt function.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    To further complicate things, the script accepts either short flags (like -h) or long flags (like --help), and you want them to do the same thing. This is what the third parameter to getopt is for, to specify a list of the long flags that correspond to the short flags you specified in the second parameter.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ["help", "grammar="]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    --help
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    print usage summary
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    --grammar ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    use specified grammar file or URL

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Three things of note here:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. All long flags are preceded by two dashes on the command line, but you don't include those dashes when calling getopt. They are understood.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    2. The --grammar flag must always be followed by an additional argument, just like the -g flag. This is notated by an equals sign, "grammar=".
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    3. The list of long flags is shorter than the list of short flags, because the -d flag does not have a corresponding long version. This is fine; only -d will turn on debugging. But the order of short and long flags needs to be the same, so you'll need to specify all the short flags that do have corresponding long flags first, then all the rest of the short flags.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Confused yet? Let's look at the actual code and see if it makes sense in context.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 10.23. Handling command-line arguments in kgp.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    def main(argv):        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        grammar = "kant.xml"                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        try:              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            opts, args = getopt.getopt(argv, "hg:d", ["help", "grammar="])
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        except getopt.GetoptError:          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            usage()       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            sys.exit(2)   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        for opt, arg in opts:                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            if opt in ("-h", "--help"):      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                usage()   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                sys.exit()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            elif opt == '-d':                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                global _debug               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                _debug = 1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            elif opt in ("-g", "--grammar"): 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                grammar = arg               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        source = "".join(args)               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        k = KantGenerator(grammar, source)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        print k.output()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. The grammar variable will keep track of the grammar file you're using. You initialize it here in case it's not specified on the command line (using either the -g or the --grammar flag).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    2. The opts variable that you get back from getopt contains a list of tuples: flag and argument. If the flag doesn't take an argument, then arg will simply be None. This makes it easier to loop through the flags.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    3. getopt validates that the command-line flags are acceptable, but it doesn't do any sort of conversion between short and long flags. If you specify the -h flag, opt will contain "-h"; if you specify the --help flag, opt will contain "--help". So you need to check for both.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    4. Remember, the -d flag didn't have a corresponding long flag, so you only need to check for the short form. If you find it, you set a global variable that you'll refer to later to print out debugging information. (I used this during the development of the script. What, you thought all these examples worked on the first try?)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    5. If you find a grammar file, either with a -g flag or a --grammar flag, you save the argument that followed it (stored in arg) into the grammar variable, overwriting the default that you initialized at the top of the main function.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    6. That's it. You've looped through and dealt with all the command-line flags. That means that anything left must be command-line arguments. These come back from the getopt function in the args variable. In this case, you're treating them as source material for the parser. If there are no command-line arguments specified, args will be an empty list, and source will end up as the empty string.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      10.7. Putting it all together

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      You've covered a lot of ground. Let's step back and see how all the pieces fit together.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      To start with, this is a script that takes its arguments on the command line, using the getopt module.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      def main(argv):       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          try:              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              opts, args = getopt.getopt(argv, "hg:d", ["help", "grammar="])
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          except getopt.GetoptError:          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          for opt, arg in opts:               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      You create a new instance of the KantGenerator class, and pass it the grammar file and source that may or may not have been specified on the command line.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          k = KantGenerator(grammar, source)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The KantGenerator instance automatically loads the grammar, which is an XML file. You use your custom openAnything function to open the file (which could be stored in a local file or a remote web server), then use the built-in minidom parsing functions to parse the XML into a tree of Python objects.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def _load(self, source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              sock = toolbox.openAnything(source)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              xmldoc = minidom.parse(sock).documentElement
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              sock.close()

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Oh, and along the way, you take advantage of your knowledge of the structure of the XML document to set up a little cache of references, which are just elements in the XML document.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def loadGrammar(self, grammar):       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              for ref in self.grammar.getElementsByTagName("ref"):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  self.refs[ref.attributes["id"].value] = ref     

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      If you specified some source material on the command line, you use that; otherwise you rip through the grammar looking for the "top-level" reference (that isn't referenced by anything else) and use that as a starting point.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def getDefaultSource(self):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              xrefs = {}
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              for xref in self.grammar.getElementsByTagName("xref"):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  xrefs[xref.attributes["id"].value] = 1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              xrefs = xrefs.keys()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              standaloneXrefs = [e for e in self.refs.keys() if e not in xrefs]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return '<xref id="%s"/>' % random.choice(standaloneXrefs)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Now you rip through the source material. The source material is also XML, and you parse it one node at a time. To keep the code separated and more maintainable, you use separate handlers for each node type.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def parse_Element(self, node): 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              handlerMethod = getattr(self, "do_%s" % node.tagName)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              handlerMethod(node)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      You bounce through the grammar, parsing all the children of each p element,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def do_p(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              if doit:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  for child in node.childNodes: self.parse(child)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      replacing choice elements with a random child,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def do_choice(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              self.parse(self.randomChildElement(node))

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      and replacing xref elements with a random child of the corresponding ref element, which you previously cached.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def do_xref(self, node):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              id = node.attributes["id"].value
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              self.parse(self.randomChildElement(self.refs[id]))

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Eventually, you parse your way down to plain text,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def parse_Text(self, node):    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              text = node.data
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  self.pieces.append(text)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      which you print out.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      def main(argv):       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          k = KantGenerator(grammar, source)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          print k.output()

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      10.8. Summary

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Python comes with powerful libraries for parsing and manipulating XML documents. The minidom takes an XML file and parses it into Python objects, providing for random access to arbitrary elements. Furthermore, this chapter shows how Python can be used to create a "real" standalone command-line script, complete with command-line flags, command-line arguments, error handling, even the ability to take input from the piped result of a previous program.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Before moving on to the next chapter, you should be comfortable doing all of these things:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Chapter 11. HTTP Web Services

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      11.1. Diving in

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      You've learned about HTML processing and XML processing, and along the way you saw how to download a web page and how to parse XML from a URL, but let's dive into the more general topic of HTTP web services.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Simply stated, HTTP web services are programmatic ways of sending and receiving data from remote servers using the operations of HTTP directly. If you want to get data from the server, use a straight HTTP GET; if you want to send new data to the server, use HTTP POST. (Some more advanced HTTP web service APIs also define ways of modifying existing data and deleting data, using HTTP PUT and HTTP DELETE.) In other words, the “verbs” built into the HTTP protocol (GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE) map directly to application-level operations for receiving, sending, modifying, and deleting data.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The main advantage of this approach is simplicity, and its simplicity has proven popular with a lot of different sites. Data -- usually XML data -- can be built and stored statically, or generated dynamically by a server-side script, and all major languages include an HTTP library for downloading it. Debugging is also easier, because you can load up the web service in any web browser and see the raw data. Modern browsers will even nicely format and pretty-print XML data for you, to allow you to quickly navigate through it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Examples of pure XML-over-HTTP web services:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      In later chapters, you'll explore APIs which use HTTP as a transport for sending and receiving data, but don't map application semantics to the underlying HTTP semantics. (They tunnel everything over HTTP POST.) But this chapter will concentrate on using HTTP GET to get data from a remote server, and you'll explore several HTTP features you can use to get the maximum benefit out of pure HTTP web services.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Here is a more advanced version of the openanything module that you saw in the previous chapter:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 11.1. openanything.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      import urllib2, urlparse, gzip
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from StringIO import StringIO
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      USER_AGENT = 'OpenAnything/1.0 +http://diveintopython3.org/http_web_services/'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      class SmartRedirectHandler(urllib2.HTTPRedirectHandler):    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def http_error_301(self, req, fp, code, msg, headers):  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result = urllib2.HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_301(
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  self, req, fp, code, msg, headers)              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result.status = code              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return result   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def http_error_302(self, req, fp, code, msg, headers):  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result = urllib2.HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_302(
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  self, req, fp, code, msg, headers)              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result.status = code              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return result   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      class DefaultErrorHandler(urllib2.HTTPDefaultErrorHandler):   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          def http_error_default(self, req, fp, code, msg, headers):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result = urllib2.HTTPError(         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  req.get_full_url(), code, msg, headers, fp)       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result.status = code                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return result     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      def openAnything(source, etag=None, lastmodified=None, agent=USER_AGENT):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          '''URL, filename, or string --> stream
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          This function lets you define parsers that take any input source
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          (URL, pathname to local or network file, or actual data as a string)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          and deal with it in a uniform manner. Returned object is guaranteed
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          to have all the basic stdio read methods (read, readline, readlines).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Just .close() the object when you're done with it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          If the etag argument is supplied, it will be used as the value of an
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          If-None-Match request header.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          If the lastmodified argument is supplied, it must be a formatted
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          date/time string in GMT (as returned in the Last-Modified header of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          a previous request). The formatted date/time will be used
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          as the value of an If-Modified-Since request header.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          If the agent argument is supplied, it will be used as the value of a
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          User-Agent request header.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          '''
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          if hasattr(source, 'read'):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return source
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          if source == '-':
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return sys.stdin
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          if urlparse.urlparse(source)[0] == 'http':  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              # open URL with urllib2                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              request = urllib2.Request(source)       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              request.add_header('User-Agent', agent) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              if etag:              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  request.add_header('If-None-Match', etag)             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              if lastmodified:      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  request.add_header('If-Modified-Since', lastmodified) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              request.add_header('Accept-encoding', 'gzip')             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              opener = urllib2.build_opener(SmartRedirectHandler(), DefaultErrorHandler())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return opener.open(request)             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          # try to open with native open function (if source is a filename)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          try:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              return open(source)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          except (IOError, OSError):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          # treat source as string
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          return StringIO(str(source))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      def fetch(source, etag=None, last_modified=None, agent=USER_AGENT):  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          '''Fetch data and metadata from a URL, file, stream, or string'''
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          result = {}
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          f = openAnything(source, etag, last_modified, agent)             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          result['data'] = f.read()    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          if hasattr(f, 'headers'):    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              # save ETag, if the server sent one        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result['etag'] = f.headers.get('ETag')     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              # save Last-Modified header, if the server sent one          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result['lastmodified'] = f.headers.get('Last-Modified')      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              if f.headers.get('content-encoding', '') == 'gzip':          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # data came back gzip-compressed, decompress it          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  result['data'] = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=StringIO(result['data']])).read()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          if hasattr(f, 'url'):        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result['url'] = f.url    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result['status'] = 200   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          if hasattr(f, 'status'):     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result['status'] = f.status                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          f.close()  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          return result                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Further reading

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      11.2. How not to fetch data over HTTP

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Let's say you want to download a resource over HTTP, such as a syndicated Atom feed. But you don't just want to download it once; you want to download it over and over again, every hour, to get the latest news from the site that's offering the news feed. Let's do it the quick-and-dirty way first, and then see how you can do better.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 11.2. Downloading a feed the quick-and-dirty way

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> import urllib
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> data = urllib.urlopen('http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml').read()    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> print data
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      <feed version="0.3"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        xmlns="http://purl.org/atom/ns#"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        xml:lang="en">
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <title mode="escaped">dive into mark</title>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://diveintomark.org/"/>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <-- rest of feed omitted for brevity -->
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. Downloading anything over HTTP is incredibly easy in Python; in fact, it's a one-liner. The urllib module has a handy urlopen function that takes the address of the page you want, and returns a file-like object that you can just read() from to get the full contents of the page. It just can't get much easier.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        So what's wrong with this? Well, for a quick one-off during testing or development, there's nothing wrong with it. I do it all the time. I wanted the contents of the feed, and I got the contents of the feed. The same technique works for any web page. But once you start thinking in terms of a web service that you want to access on a regular basis -- and remember, you said you were planning on retrieving this syndicated feed once an hour -- then you're being inefficient, and you're being rude.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Let's talk about some of the basic features of HTTP.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        11.3. Features of HTTP

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        There are five important features of HTTP which you should support.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        11.3.1. User-Agent

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        The User-Agent is simply a way for a client to tell a server who it is when it requests a web page, a syndicated feed, or any sort of web service over HTTP. When the client requests a resource, it should always announce who it is, as specifically as possible. This allows the server-side administrator to get in touch with the client-side developer if anything is going fantastically wrong.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        By default, Python sends a generic User-Agent: Python-urllib/1.15. In the next section, you'll see how to change this to something more specific.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        11.3.2. Redirects

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Sometimes resources move around. Web sites get reorganized, pages move to new addresses. Even web services can reorganize. A syndicated feed at http://example.com/index.xml might be moved to http://example.com/xml/atom.xml. Or an entire domain might move, as an organization expands and reorganizes; for instance, http://www.example.com/index.xml might be redirected to http://server-farm-1.example.com/index.xml.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Every time you request any kind of resource from an HTTP server, the server includes a status code in its response. Status code 200 means “everything's normal, here's the page you asked for”. Status code 404 means “page not found”. (You've probably seen 404 errors while browsing the web.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        HTTP has two different ways of signifying that a resource has moved. Status code 302 is a temporary redirect; it means “oops, that got moved over here temporarily” (and then gives the temporary address in a Location: header). Status code 301 is a permanent redirect; it means “oops, that got moved permanently” (and then gives the new address in a Location: header). If you get a 302 status code and a new address, the HTTP specification says you should use the new address to get what you asked for, but the next time you want to access the same resource, you should retry the old address. But if you get a 301 status code and a new address, you're supposed to use the new address from then on.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        urllib.urlopen will automatically “follow” redirects when it receives the appropriate status code from the HTTP server, but unfortunately, it doesn't tell you when it does so. You'll end up getting data you asked for, but you'll never know that the underlying library “helpfully” followed a redirect for you. So you'll continue pounding away at the old address, and each time you'll get redirected to the new address. That's two round trips instead of one: not very efficient! Later in this chapter, you'll see how to work around this so you can deal with permanent redirects properly and efficiently.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        11.3.3. Last-Modified/If-Modified-Since

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Some data changes all the time. The home page of CNN.com is constantly updating every few minutes. On the other hand, the home page of Google.com only changes once every few weeks (when they put up a special holiday logo, or advertise a new service). Web services are no different; usually the server knows when the data you requested last changed, and HTTP provides a way for the server to include this last-modified date along with the data you requested.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        If you ask for the same data a second time (or third, or fourth), you can tell the server the last-modified date that you got last time: you send an If-Modified-Since header with your request, with the date you got back from the server last time. If the data hasn't changed since then, the server sends back a special HTTP status code 304, which means “this data hasn't changed since the last time you asked for it”. Why is this an improvement? Because when the server sends a 304, it doesn't re-send the data. All you get is the status code. So you don't need to download the same data over and over again if it hasn't changed; the server assumes you have the data cached locally.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        All modern web browsers support last-modified date checking. If you've ever visited a page, re-visited the same page a day later and found that it hadn't changed, and wondered why it loaded so quickly the second time -- this could be why. Your web browser cached the contents of the page locally the first time, and when you visited the second time, your browser automatically sent the last-modified date it got from the server the first time. The server simply says 304: Not Modified, so your browser knows to load the page from its cache. Web services can be this smart too.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Python's URL library has no built-in support for last-modified date checking, but since you can add arbitrary headers to each request and read arbitrary headers in each response, you can add support for it yourself.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        11.3.4. ETag/If-None-Match

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ETags are an alternate way to accomplish the same thing as the last-modified date checking: don't re-download data that hasn't changed. The way it works is, the server sends some sort of hash of the data (in an ETag header) along with the data you requested. Exactly how this hash is determined is entirely up to the server. The second time you request the same data, you include the ETag hash in an If-None-Match: header, and if the data hasn't changed, the server will send you back a 304 status code. As with the last-modified date checking, the server just sends the 304; it doesn't send you the same data a second time. By including the ETag hash in your second request, you're telling the server that there's no need to re-send the same data if it still matches this hash, since you still have the data from the last time.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Python's URL library has no built-in support for ETags, but you'll see how to add it later in this chapter.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        11.3.5. Compression

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        The last important HTTP feature is gzip compression. When you talk about HTTP web services, you're almost always talking about moving XML back and forth over the wire. XML is text, and quite verbose text at that, and text generally compresses well. When you request a resource over HTTP, you can ask the server that, if it has any new data to send you, to please send it in compressed format. You include the Accept-encoding: gzip header in your request, and if the server supports compression, it will send you back gzip-compressed data and mark it with a Content-encoding: gzip header.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Python's URL library has no built-in support for gzip compression per se, but you can add arbitrary headers to the request. And Python comes with a separate gzip module, which has functions you can use to decompress the data yourself.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Note that our little one-line script to download a syndicated feed did not support any of these HTTP features. Let's see how you can improve it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        11.4. Debugging HTTP web services

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        First, let's turn on the debugging features of Python's HTTP library and see what's being sent over the wire. This will be useful throughout the chapter, as you add more and more features.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 11.3. Debugging HTTP

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> import httplib
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> httplib.HTTPConnection.debuglevel = 1             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> import urllib
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> feeddata = urllib.urlopen('http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml').read()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        connect: (diveintomark.org, 80)     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        send: '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        GET /xml/atom.xml HTTP/1.0          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Host: diveintomark.org              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        User-agent: Python-urllib/1.15      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        reply: 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n'        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        header: Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 22:27:30 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        header: Server: Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        header: Content-Type: application/atom+xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        header: Last-Modified: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 22:14:38 GMT  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        header: ETag: "e8284-68e0-4de30f80" 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        header: Accept-Ranges: bytes
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        header: Content-Length: 26848
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        header: Connection: close
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        1. urllib relies on another standard Python library, httplib. Normally you don't need to import httplib directly (urllib does that automatically), but you will here so you can set the debugging flag on the HTTPConnection class that urllib uses internally to connect to the HTTP server. This is an incredibly useful technique. Some other Python libraries have similar debug flags, but there's no particular standard for naming them or turning them on; you need to read the documentation of each library to see if such a feature is available.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        2. Now that the debugging flag is set, information on the the HTTP request and response is printed out in real time. The first thing it tells you is that you're connecting to the server diveintomark.org on port 80, which is the standard port for HTTP.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        3. When you request the Atom feed, urllib sends three lines to the server. The first line specifies the HTTP verb you're using, and the path of the resource (minus the domain name). All the requests in this chapter will use GET, but in the next chapter on SOAP, you'll see that it uses POST for everything. The basic syntax is the same, regardless of the verb.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        4. The second line is the Host header, which specifies the domain name of the service you're accessing. This is important, because a single HTTP server can host multiple separate domains. My server currently hosts 12 domains; other servers can host hundreds or even thousands.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        5. The third line is the User-Agent header. What you see here is the generic User-Agent that the urllib library adds by default. In the next section, you'll see how to customize this to be more specific.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        6. The server replies with a status code and a bunch of headers (and possibly some data, which got stored in the feeddata variable). The status code here is 200, meaning “everything's normal, here's the data you requested”. The server also tells you the date it responded to your request, some information about the server itself, and the content type of the data it's giving you. Depending on your application, this might be useful, or not. It's certainly reassuring that you thought you were asking for an Atom feed, and lo and behold, you're getting an Atom feed (application/atom+xml, which is the registered content type for Atom feeds).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        7. The server tells you when this Atom feed was last modified (in this case, about 13 minutes ago). You can send this date back to the server the next time you request the same feed, and the server can do last-modified checking.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        8. The server also tells you that this Atom feed has an ETag hash of "e8284-68e0-4de30f80". The hash doesn't mean anything by itself; there's nothing you can do with it, except send it back to the server the next time you request this same feed. Then the server can use it to tell you if the data has changed or not.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          11.5. Setting the User-Agent

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The first step to improving your HTTP web services client is to identify yourself properly with a User-Agent. To do that, you need to move beyond the basic urllib and dive into urllib2.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 11.4. Introducing urllib2

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> import httplib
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> httplib.HTTPConnection.debuglevel = 1           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> import urllib2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> request = urllib2.Request('http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml') 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> opener = urllib2.build_opener()                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> feeddata = opener.open(request).read()          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          connect: (diveintomark.org, 80)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          send: '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          GET /xml/atom.xml HTTP/1.0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Host: diveintomark.org
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          User-agent: Python-urllib/2.1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          reply: 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 23:23:12 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Server: Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Content-Type: application/atom+xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Last-Modified: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 22:14:38 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: ETag: "e8284-68e0-4de30f80"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Accept-Ranges: bytes
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Content-Length: 26848
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Connection: close
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. If you still have your Python IDE open from the previous section's example, you can skip this, but this turns on HTTP debugging so you can see what you're actually sending over the wire, and what gets sent back.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. Fetching an HTTP resource with urllib2 is a three-step process, for good reasons that will become clear shortly. The first step is to create a Request object, which takes the URL of the resource you'll eventually get around to retrieving. Note that this step doesn't actually retrieve anything yet.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          3. The second step is to build a URL opener. This can take any number of handlers, which control how responses are handled. But you can also build an opener without any custom handlers, which is what you're doing here. You'll see how to define and use custom handlers later in this chapter when you explore redirects.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          4. The final step is to tell the opener to open the URL, using the Request object you created. As you can see from all the debugging information that gets printed, this step actually retrieves the resource and stores the returned data in feeddata.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Example 11.5. Adding headers with the Request

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> request            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            <urllib2.Request instance at 0x00250AA8>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> request.get_full_url()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> request.add_header('User-Agent',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ...    'OpenAnything/1.0 +http://diveintopython3.org/')    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> feeddata = opener.open(request).read()                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            connect: (diveintomark.org, 80)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            send: '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            GET /xml/atom.xml HTTP/1.0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Host: diveintomark.org
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            User-agent: OpenAnything/1.0 +http://diveintopython3.org/   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            reply: 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 23:45:17 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Server: Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Content-Type: application/atom+xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Last-Modified: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 22:14:38 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: ETag: "e8284-68e0-4de30f80"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Accept-Ranges: bytes
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Content-Length: 26848
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Connection: close
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. You're continuing from the previous example; you've already created a Request object with the URL you want to access.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            2. Using the add_header method on the Request object, you can add arbitrary HTTP headers to the request. The first argument is the header, the second is the value you're providing for that header. Convention dictates that a User-Agent should be in this specific format: an application name, followed by a slash, followed by a version number. The rest is free-form, and you'll see a lot of variations in the wild, but somewhere it should include a URL of your application. The User-Agent is usually logged by the server along with other details of your request, and including a URL of your application allows server administrators looking through their access logs to contact you if something is wrong.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            3. The opener object you created before can be reused too, and it will retrieve the same feed again, but with your custom User-Agent header.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            4. And here's you sending your custom User-Agent, in place of the generic one that Python sends by default. If you look closely, you'll notice that you defined a User-Agent header, but you actually sent a User-agent header. See the difference? urllib2 changed the case so that only the first letter was capitalized. It doesn't really matter; HTTP specifies that header field names are completely case-insensitive.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              11.6. Handling Last-Modified and ETag

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Now that you know how to add custom HTTP headers to your web service requests, let's look at adding support for Last-Modified and ETag headers.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              These examples show the output with debugging turned off. If you still have it turned on from the previous section, you can turn it off by setting httplib.HTTPConnection.debuglevel = 0. Or you can just leave debugging on, if that helps you.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 11.6. Testing Last-Modified

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> import urllib2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> request = urllib2.Request('http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> opener = urllib2.build_opener()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> firstdatastream = opener.open(request)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> firstdatastream.headers.dict     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              {'date': 'Thu, 15 Apr 2004 20:42:41 GMT', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               'server': 'Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               'content-type': 'application/atom+xml',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               'last-modified': 'Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:45:21 GMT', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               'etag': '"e842a-3e53-55d97640"',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               'content-length': '15955', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               'accept-ranges': 'bytes', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               'connection': 'close'}
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> request.add_header('If-Modified-Since',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              ...    firstdatastream.headers.get('Last-Modified'))  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> seconddatastream = opener.open(request)            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                File "c:\python23\lib\urllib2.py", line 326, in open
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  '_open', req)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                File "c:\python23\lib\urllib2.py", line 306, in _call_chain
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  result = func(*args)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                File "c:\python23\lib\urllib2.py", line 901, in http_open
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  return self.do_open(httplib.HTTP, req)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                File "c:\python23\lib\urllib2.py", line 895, in do_open
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  return self.parent.error('http', req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                File "c:\python23\lib\urllib2.py", line 352, in error
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  return self._call_chain(*args)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                File "c:\python23\lib\urllib2.py", line 306, in _call_chain
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  result = func(*args)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                File "c:\python23\lib\urllib2.py", line 412, in http_error_default
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  raise HTTPError(req.get_full_url(), code, msg, hdrs, fp)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              urllib2.HTTPError: HTTP Error 304: Not Modified
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. Remember all those HTTP headers you saw printed out when you turned on debugging? This is how you can get access to them programmatically: firstdatastream.headers is an object that acts like a dictionary and allows you to get any of the individual headers returned from the HTTP server.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              2. On the second request, you add the If-Modified-Since header with the last-modified date from the first request. If the data hasn't changed, the server should return a 304 status code.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              3. Sure enough, the data hasn't changed. You can see from the traceback that urllib2 throws a special exception, HTTPError, in response to the 304 status code. This is a little unusual, and not entirely helpful. After all, it's not an error; you specifically asked the server not to send you any data if it hadn't changed, and the data didn't change, so the server told you it wasn't sending you any data. That's not an error; that's exactly what you were hoping for.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                urllib2 also raises an HTTPError exception for conditions that you would think of as errors, such as 404 (page not found). In fact, it will raise HTTPError for any status code other than 200 (OK), 301 (permanent redirect), or 302 (temporary redirect). It would be more helpful for your purposes to capture the status code and simply return it, without throwing an exception. To do that, you'll need to define a custom URL handler.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 11.7. Defining URL handlers

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                This custom URL handler is part of openanything.py.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                class DefaultErrorHandler(urllib2.HTTPDefaultErrorHandler):    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    def http_error_default(self, req, fp, code, msg, headers): 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        result = urllib2.HTTPError(         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            req.get_full_url(), code, msg, headers, fp)       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        result.status = code                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        return result     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1. urllib2 is designed around URL handlers. Each handler is just a class that can define any number of methods. When something happens -- like an HTTP error, or even a 304 code -- urllib2 introspects into the list of defined handlers for a method that can handle it. You used a similar introspection in Chapter 9, XML Processing to define handlers for different node types, but urllib2 is more flexible, and introspects over as many handlers as are defined for the current request.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2. urllib2 searches through the defined handlers and calls the http_error_default method when it encounters a 304 status code from the server. By defining a custom error handler, you can prevent urllib2 from raising an exception. Instead, you create the HTTPError object, but return it instead of raising it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                3. This is the key part: before returning, you save the status code returned by the HTTP server. This will allow you easy access to it from the calling program.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 11.8. Using custom URL handlers

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> request.headers         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  {'If-modified-since': 'Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:45:21 GMT'}
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> import openanything
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> opener = urllib2.build_opener(
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ...    openanything.DefaultErrorHandler())   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> seconddatastream = opener.open(request)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> seconddatastream.status 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  304
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> seconddatastream.read() 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ''
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. You're continuing the previous example, so the Request object is already set up, and you've already added the If-Modified-Since header.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  2. This is the key: now that you've defined your custom URL handler, you need to tell urllib2 to use it. Remember how I said that urllib2 broke up the process of accessing an HTTP resource into three steps, and for good reason? This is why building the URL opener is its own step, because you can build it with your own custom URL handlers that override urllib2's default behavior.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  3. Now you can quietly open the resource, and what you get back is an object that, along with the usual headers (use seconddatastream.headers.dict to acess them), also contains the HTTP status code. In this case, as you expected, the status is 304, meaning this data hasn't changed since the last time you asked for it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  4. Note that when the server sends back a 304 status code, it doesn't re-send the data. That's the whole point: to save bandwidth by not re-downloading data that hasn't changed. So if you actually want that data, you'll need to cache it locally the first time you get it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Handling ETag works much the same way, but instead of checking for Last-Modified and sending If-Modified-Since, you check for ETag and send If-None-Match. Let's start with a fresh IDE session.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 11.9. Supporting ETag/If-None-Match

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> import urllib2, openanything
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> request = urllib2.Request('http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> opener = urllib2.build_opener(
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ...    openanything.DefaultErrorHandler())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> firstdatastream = opener.open(request)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> firstdatastream.headers.get('ETag')        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    '"e842a-3e53-55d97640"'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> firstdata = firstdatastream.read()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> print firstdata          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    <feed version="0.3"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      xmlns="http://purl.org/atom/ns#"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      xml:lang="en">
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      <title mode="escaped">dive into mark</title>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://diveintomark.org/"/>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      <-- rest of feed omitted for brevity -->
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> request.add_header('If-None-Match',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ...    firstdatastream.headers.get('ETag'))   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> seconddatastream = opener.open(request)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> seconddatastream.status  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    304
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> seconddatastream.read()  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ''
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. Using the firstdatastream.headers pseudo-dictionary, you can get the ETag returned from the server. (What happens if the server didn't send back an ETag? Then this line would return None.)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    2. OK, you got the data.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    3. Now set up the second call by setting the If-None-Match header to the ETag you got from the first call.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    4. The second call succeeds quietly (without throwing an exception), and once again you see that the server has sent back a 304 status code. Based on the ETag you sent the second time, it knows that the data hasn't changed.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    5. Regardless of whether the 304 is triggered by Last-Modified date checking or ETag hash matching, you'll never get the data along with the 304. That's the whole point.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      NoteIn these examples, the HTTP server has supported both Last-Modified and ETag headers, but not all servers do. As a web services client, you should be prepared to support both, but you must code defensively in case a server only supports one or the other, or neither.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      11.7. Handling redirects

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      You can support permanent and temporary redirects using a different kind of custom URL handler.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      First, let's see why a redirect handler is necessary in the first place.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 11.10. Accessing web services without a redirect handler

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> import urllib2, httplib
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> httplib.HTTPConnection.debuglevel = 1           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> request = urllib2.Request(
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...    'http://diveintomark.org/redir/example301.xml') 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> opener = urllib2.build_opener()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> f = opener.open(request)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      connect: (diveintomark.org, 80)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      send: '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      GET /redir/example301.xml HTTP/1.0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Host: diveintomark.org
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      User-agent: Python-urllib/2.1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      reply: 'HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently\r\n'             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:06:25 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Server: Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Location: http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Content-Length: 338
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Connection: close
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      connect: (diveintomark.org, 80)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      send: '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      GET /xml/atom.xml HTTP/1.0            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Host: diveintomark.org
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      User-agent: Python-urllib/2.1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      reply: 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:06:25 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Server: Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Last-Modified: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:45:21 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: ETag: "e842a-3e53-55d97640"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Accept-Ranges: bytes
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Content-Length: 15955
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Connection: close
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      header: Content-Type: application/atom+xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> f.url           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> f.headers.dict
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      {'content-length': '15955', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'accept-ranges': 'bytes', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'server': 'Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'last-modified': 'Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:45:21 GMT', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'connection': 'close', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'etag': '"e842a-3e53-55d97640"', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'date': 'Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:06:25 GMT', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'content-type': 'application/atom+xml'}
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> f.status
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      AttributeError: addinfourl instance has no attribute 'status'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. You'll be better able to see what's happening if you turn on debugging.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      2. This is a URL which I have set up to permanently redirect to my Atom feed at http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. Sure enough, when you try to download the data at that address, the server sends back a 301 status code, telling you that the resource has moved permanently.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      4. The server also sends back a Location: header that gives the new address of this data.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      5. urllib2 notices the redirect status code and automatically tries to retrieve the data at the new location specified in the Location: header.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      6. The object you get back from the opener contains the new permanent address and all the headers returned from the second request (retrieved from the new permanent address). But the status code is missing, so you have no way of knowing programmatically whether this redirect was temporary or permanent. And that matters very much: if it was a temporary redirect, then you should continue to ask for the data at the old location. But if it was a permanent redirect (as this was), you should ask for the data at the new location from now on.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        This is suboptimal, but easy to fix. urllib2 doesn't behave exactly as you want it to when it encounters a 301 or 302, so let's override its behavior. How? With a custom URL handler, just like you did to handle 304 codes.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 11.11. Defining the redirect handler

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        This class is defined in openanything.py.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        class SmartRedirectHandler(urllib2.HTTPRedirectHandler):     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            def http_error_301(self, req, fp, code, msg, headers):  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                result = urllib2.HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_301( 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    self, req, fp, code, msg, headers)              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                result.status = code               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                return result   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            def http_error_302(self, req, fp, code, msg, headers):   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                result = urllib2.HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_302(
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    self, req, fp, code, msg, headers)              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                result.status = code              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                return result   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        1. Redirect behavior is defined in urllib2 in a class called HTTPRedirectHandler. You don't want to completely override the behavior, you just want to extend it a little, so you'll subclass HTTPRedirectHandler so you can call the ancestor class to do all the hard work.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        2. When it encounters a 301 status code from the server, urllib2 will search through its handlers and call the http_error_301 method. The first thing ours does is just call the http_error_301 method in the ancestor, which handles the grunt work of looking for the Location: header and following the redirect to the new address.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        3. Here's the key: before you return, you store the status code (301), so that the calling program can access it later.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        4. Temporary redirects (status code 302) work the same way: override the http_error_302 method, call the ancestor, and save the status code before returning.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          So what has this bought us? You can now build a URL opener with the custom redirect handler, and it will still automatically follow redirects, but now it will also expose the redirect status code.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 11.12. Using the redirect handler to detect permanent redirects

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> request = urllib2.Request('http://diveintomark.org/redir/example301.xml')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> import openanything, httplib
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> httplib.HTTPConnection.debuglevel = 1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> opener = urllib2.build_opener(
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ...    openanything.SmartRedirectHandler())           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> f = opener.open(request)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          connect: (diveintomark.org, 80)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          send: 'GET /redir/example301.xml HTTP/1.0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Host: diveintomark.org
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          User-agent: Python-urllib/2.1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          reply: 'HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently\r\n'            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:13:21 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Server: Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Location: http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Content-Length: 338
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Connection: close
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          connect: (diveintomark.org, 80)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          send: '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          GET /xml/atom.xml HTTP/1.0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Host: diveintomark.org
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          User-agent: Python-urllib/2.1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          reply: 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:13:21 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Server: Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Last-Modified: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:45:21 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: ETag: "e842a-3e53-55d97640"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Accept-Ranges: bytes
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Content-Length: 15955
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Connection: close
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          header: Content-Type: application/atom+xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> f.status       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          301
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> f.url
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          'http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. First, build a URL opener with the redirect handler you just defined.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. You sent off a request, and you got a 301 status code in response. At this point, the http_error_301 method gets called. You call the ancestor method, which follows the redirect and sends a request at the new location (http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          3. This is the payoff: now, not only do you have access to the new URL, but you have access to the redirect status code, so you can tell that this was a permanent redirect. The next time you request this data, you should request it from the new location (http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml, as specified in f.url). If you had stored the location in a configuration file or a database, you need to update that so you don't keep pounding the server with requests at the old address. It's time to update your address book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The same redirect handler can also tell you that you shouldn't update your address book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Example 11.13. Using the redirect handler to detect temporary redirects

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> request = urllib2.Request(
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ...    'http://diveintomark.org/redir/example302.xml')   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> f = opener.open(request)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            connect: (diveintomark.org, 80)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            send: '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            GET /redir/example302.xml HTTP/1.0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Host: diveintomark.org
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            User-agent: Python-urllib/2.1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            reply: 'HTTP/1.1 302 Found\r\n'         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:18:21 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Server: Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Location: http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Content-Length: 314
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Connection: close
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            connect: (diveintomark.org, 80)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            send: '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            GET /xml/atom.xml HTTP/1.0              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Host: diveintomark.org
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            User-agent: Python-urllib/2.1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            reply: 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:18:21 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Server: Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Last-Modified: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:45:21 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: ETag: "e842a-3e53-55d97640"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Accept-Ranges: bytes
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Content-Length: 15955
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Connection: close
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            header: Content-Type: application/atom+xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> f.status          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            302
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            >>> f.url
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. This is a sample URL I've set up that is configured to tell clients to temporarily redirect to http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            2. The server sends back a 302 status code, indicating a temporary redirect. The temporary new location of the data is given in the Location: header.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            3. urllib2 calls your http_error_302 method, which calls the ancestor method of the same name in urllib2.HTTPRedirectHandler, which follows the redirect to the new location. Then your http_error_302 method stores the status code (302) so the calling application can get it later.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            4. And here you are, having successfully followed the redirect to http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml. f.status tells you that this was a temporary redirect, which means that you should continue to request data from the original address (http://diveintomark.org/redir/example302.xml). Maybe it will redirect next time too, but maybe not. Maybe it will redirect to a different address. It's not for you to say. The server said this redirect was only temporary, so you should respect that. And now you're exposing enough information that the calling application can respect that.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              11.8. Handling compressed data

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The last important HTTP feature you want to support is compression. Many web services have the ability to send data compressed, which can cut down the amount of data sent over the wire by 60% or more. This is especially true of XML web services, since XML data compresses very well.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Servers won't give you compressed data unless you tell them you can handle it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 11.14. Telling the server you would like compressed data

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> import urllib2, httplib
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> httplib.HTTPConnection.debuglevel = 1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> request = urllib2.Request('http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> request.add_header('Accept-encoding', 'gzip')        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> opener = urllib2.build_opener()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> f = opener.open(request)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              connect: (diveintomark.org, 80)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              send: '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              GET /xml/atom.xml HTTP/1.0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Host: diveintomark.org
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              User-agent: Python-urllib/2.1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Accept-encoding: gzip
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              reply: 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              header: Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:24:39 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              header: Server: Apache/2.0.49 (Debian GNU/Linux)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              header: Last-Modified: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:45:21 GMT
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              header: ETag: "e842a-3e53-55d97640"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              header: Accept-Ranges: bytes
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              header: Vary: Accept-Encoding
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              header: Content-Encoding: gzip         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              header: Content-Length: 6289           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              header: Connection: close
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              header: Content-Type: application/atom+xml
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. This is the key: once you've created your Request object, add an Accept-encoding header to tell the server you can accept gzip-encoded data. gzip is the name of the compression algorithm you're using. In theory there could be other compression algorithms, but gzip is the compression algorithm used by 99% of web servers.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              2. There's your header going across the wire.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              3. And here's what the server sends back: the Content-Encoding: gzip header means that the data you're about to receive has been gzip-compressed.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              4. The Content-Length header is the length of the compressed data, not the uncompressed data. As you'll see in a minute, the actual length of the uncompressed data was 15955, so gzip compression cut your bandwidth by over 60%!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 11.15. Decompressing the data

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> compresseddata = f.read()            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> len(compresseddata)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                6289
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> import StringIO
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> compressedstream = StringIO.StringIO(compresseddata)   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> import gzip
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> gzipper = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=compressedstream)      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> data = gzipper.read()                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> print data         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <feed version="0.3"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  xmlns="http://purl.org/atom/ns#"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  xml:lang="en">
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  <title mode="escaped">dive into mark</title>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://diveintomark.org/"/>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  <-- rest of feed omitted for brevity -->
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> len(data)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                15955
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1. Continuing from the previous example, f is the file-like object returned from the URL opener. Using its read() method would ordinarily get you the uncompressed data, but since this data has been gzip-compressed, this is just the first step towards getting the data you really want.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2. OK, this step is a little bit of messy workaround. Python has a gzip module, which reads (and actually writes) gzip-compressed files on disk. But you don't have a file on disk, you have a gzip-compressed buffer in memory, and you don't want to write out a temporary file just so you can uncompress it. So what you're going to do is create a file-like object out of the in-memory data (compresseddata), using the StringIO module. You first saw the StringIO module in the previous chapter, but now you've found another use for it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                3. Now you can create an instance of GzipFile, and tell it that its “file” is the file-like object compressedstream.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                4. This is the line that does all the actual work: “reading” from GzipFile will decompress the data. Strange? Yes, but it makes sense in a twisted kind of way. gzipper is a file-like object which represents a gzip-compressed file. That “file” is not a real file on disk, though; gzipper is really just “reading” from the file-like object you created with StringIO to wrap the compressed data, which is only in memory in the variable compresseddata. And where did that compressed data come from? You originally downloaded it from a remote HTTP server by “reading” from the file-like object you built with urllib2.build_opener. And amazingly, this all just works. Every step in the chain has no idea that the previous step is faking it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                5. Look ma, real data. (15955 bytes of it, in fact.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  “But wait!” I hear you cry. “This could be even easier!” I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that opener.open returns a file-like object, so why not cut out the StringIO middleman and just pass f directly to GzipFile? OK, maybe you weren't thinking that, but don't worry about it, because it doesn't work.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 11.16. Decompressing the data directly from the server

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> f = opener.open(request)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> f.headers.get('Content-Encoding')         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  'gzip'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> data = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=f).read()    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "c:\python23\lib\gzip.py", line 217, in read
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      self._read(readsize)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "c:\python23\lib\gzip.py", line 252, in _read
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      pos = self.fileobj.tell()   # Save current position
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  AttributeError: addinfourl instance has no attribute 'tell'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. Continuing from the previous example, you already have a Request object set up with an Accept-encoding: gzip header.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  2. Simply opening the request will get you the headers (though not download any data yet). As you can see from the returned Content-Encoding header, this data has been sent gzip-compressed.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  3. Since opener.open returns a file-like object, and you know from the headers that when you read it, you're going to get gzip-compressed data, why not simply pass that file-like object directly to GzipFile? As you “read” from the GzipFile instance, it will “read” compressed data from the remote HTTP server and decompress it on the fly. It's a good idea, but unfortunately it doesn't work. Because of the way gzip compression works, GzipFile needs to save its position and move forwards and backwards through the compressed file. This doesn't work when the “file” is a stream of bytes coming from a remote server; all you can do with it is retrieve bytes one at a time, not move back and forth through the data stream. So the inelegant hack of using StringIO is the best solution: download the compressed data, create a file-like object out of it with StringIO, and then decompress the data from that.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    11.9. Putting it all together

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    You've seen all the pieces for building an intelligent HTTP web services client. Now let's see how they all fit together.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 11.17. The openanything function

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    This function is defined in openanything.py.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    def openAnything(source, etag=None, lastmodified=None, agent=USER_AGENT):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        # non-HTTP code omitted for brevity
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        if urlparse.urlparse(source)[0] == 'http':   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            # open URL with urllib2                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            request = urllib2.Request(source)       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            request.add_header('User-Agent', agent)  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            if etag:              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                request.add_header('If-None-Match', etag)              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            if lastmodified:      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                request.add_header('If-Modified-Since', lastmodified)  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            request.add_header('Accept-encoding', 'gzip')              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            opener = urllib2.build_opener(SmartRedirectHandler(), DefaultErrorHandler()) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            return opener.open(request)              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. urlparse is a handy utility module for, you guessed it, parsing URLs. It's primary function, also called urlparse, takes a URL and splits it into a tuple of (scheme, domain, path, params, query string parameters, and fragment identifier). Of these, the only thing you care about is the scheme, to make sure that you're dealing with an HTTP URL (which urllib2 can handle).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    2. You identify yourself to the HTTP server with the User-Agent passed in by the calling function. If no User-Agent was specified, you use a default one defined earlier in the openanything.py module. You never use the default one defined by urllib2.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    3. If an ETag hash was given, send it in the If-None-Match header.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    4. If a last-modified date was given, send it in the If-Modified-Since header.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    5. Tell the server you would like compressed data if possible.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    6. Build a URL opener that uses both of the custom URL handlers: SmartRedirectHandler for handling 301 and 302 redirects, and DefaultErrorHandler for handling 304, 404, and other error conditions gracefully.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    7. That's it! Open the URL and return a file-like object to the caller.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 11.18. The fetch function

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      This function is defined in openanything.py.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      def fetch(source, etag=None, last_modified=None, agent=USER_AGENT):  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          '''Fetch data and metadata from a URL, file, stream, or string'''
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          result = {}
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          f = openAnything(source, etag, last_modified, agent)              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          result['data'] = f.read()     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          if hasattr(f, 'headers'):    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              # save ETag, if the server sent one        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result['etag'] = f.headers.get('ETag')      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              # save Last-Modified header, if the server sent one          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result['lastmodified'] = f.headers.get('Last-Modified')       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              if f.headers.get('content-encoding', '') == 'gzip':           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # data came back gzip-compressed, decompress it          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  result['data'] = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=StringIO(result['data']])).read()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          if hasattr(f, 'url'):         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result['url'] = f.url    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result['status'] = 200   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          if hasattr(f, 'status'):      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result['status'] = f.status                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          f.close()  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          return result                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. First, you call the openAnything function with a URL, ETag hash, Last-Modified date, and User-Agent.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      2. Read the actual data returned from the server. This may be compressed; if so, you'll decompress it later.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. Save the ETag hash returned from the server, so the calling application can pass it back to you next time, and you can pass it on to openAnything, which can stick it in the If-None-Match header and send it to the remote server.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      4. Save the Last-Modified date too.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      5. If the server says that it sent compressed data, decompress it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      6. If you got a URL back from the server, save it, and assume that the status code is 200 until you find out otherwise.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      7. If one of the custom URL handlers captured a status code, then save that too.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 11.19. Using openanything.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> import openanything
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> useragent = 'MyHTTPWebServicesApp/1.0'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> url = 'http://diveintopython3.org/redir/example301.xml'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> params = openanything.fetch(url, agent=useragent)              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> params   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        {'url': 'http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        'lastmodified': 'Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:45:21 GMT', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        'etag': '"e842a-3e53-55d97640"', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        'status': 301,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        'data': '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <feed version="0.3"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <-- rest of data omitted for brevity -->'}
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> if params['status'] == 301:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ...    url = params['url']
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> newparams = openanything.fetch(
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ...    url, params['etag'], params['lastmodified'], useragent)    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> newparams
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        {'url': 'http://diveintomark.org/xml/atom.xml', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        'lastmodified': None, 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        'etag': '"e842a-3e53-55d97640"', 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        'status': 304,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        'data': ''}  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        1. The very first time you fetch a resource, you don't have an ETag hash or Last-Modified date, so you'll leave those out. (They're optional parameters.)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        2. What you get back is a dictionary of several useful headers, the HTTP status code, and the actual data returned from the server. openanything handles the gzip compression internally; you don't care about that at this level.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        3. If you ever get a 301 status code, that's a permanent redirect, and you need to update your URL to the new address.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        4. The second time you fetch the same resource, you have all sorts of information to pass back: a (possibly updated) URL, the ETag from the last time, the Last-Modified date from the last time, and of course your User-Agent.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        5. What you get back is again a dictionary, but the data hasn't changed, so all you got was a 304 status code and no data.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          11.10. Summary

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The openanything.py and its functions should now make perfect sense.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          There are 5 important features of HTTP web services that every client should support:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Chapter 13. Unit Testing

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          13.1. Introduction to Roman numerals

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          In previous chapters, you “dived in” by immediately looking at code and trying to understand it as quickly as possible. Now that you have some Python under your belt, you're going to step back and look at the steps that happen before the code gets written.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          In the next few chapters, you're going to write, debug, and optimize a set of utility functions to convert to and from Roman numerals. You saw the mechanics of constructing and validating Roman numerals in Section 7.3, “Case Study: Roman Numerals”, but now let's step back and consider what it would take to expand that into a two-way utility.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The rules for Roman numerals lead to a number of interesting observations:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. There is only one correct way to represent a particular number as Roman numerals.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. The converse is also true: if a string of characters is a valid Roman numeral, it represents only one number (i.e. it can only be read one way).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          3. There is a limited range of numbers that can be expressed as Roman numerals, specifically 1 through 3999. (The Romans did have several ways of expressing larger numbers, for instance by having a bar over a numeral to represent that its normal value should be multiplied by 1000, but you're not going to deal with that. For the purposes of this chapter, let's stipulate that Roman numerals go from 1 to 3999.)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          4. There is no way to represent 0 in Roman numerals. (Amazingly, the ancient Romans had no concept of 0 as a number. Numbers were for counting things you had; how can you count what you don't have?)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          5. There is no way to represent negative numbers in Roman numerals.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          6. There is no way to represent fractions or non-integer numbers in Roman numerals.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Given all of this, what would you expect out of a set of functions to convert to and from Roman numerals?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          roman.py requirements

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. to_roman() should return the Roman numeral representation for all integers 1 to 3999.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. to_roman() should fail when given an integer outside the range 1 to 3999.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          3. to_roman() should fail when given a non-integer number.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          4. from_roman() should take a valid Roman numeral and return the number that it represents.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          5. from_roman() should fail when given an invalid Roman numeral.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          6. If you take a number, convert it to Roman numerals, then convert that back to a number, you should end up with the number you started with. So from_roman(to_roman(n)) == n for all n in 1..3999.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          7. to_roman() should always return a Roman numeral using uppercase letters.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          8. from_roman() should only accept uppercase Roman numerals (i.e. it should fail when given lowercase input).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Further reading

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          • This site has more on Roman numerals, including a fascinating history of how Romans and other civilizations really used them (short answer: haphazardly and inconsistently).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          13.5. Testing for failure

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          It is not enough to test that functions succeed when given good input; you must also test that they fail when given bad input. And not just any sort of failure; they must fail in the way you expect.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Remember the other requirements for to_roman():

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. to_roman() should fail when given an integer outside the range 1 to 3999.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. to_roman() should fail when given a non-integer number.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          In Python, functions indicate failure by raising exceptions, and the unittest module provides methods for testing whether a function raises a particular exception when given bad input.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 13.3. Testing bad input to to_roman()

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          class ToRomanBadInput(unittest.TestCase):          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              def testTooLarge(self):      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  """to_roman should fail with large input""" 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  self.assertRaises(roman.OutOfRangeError, roman.to_roman, 4000) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              def testZero(self):          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  """to_roman should fail with 0 input"""     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  self.assertRaises(roman.OutOfRangeError, roman.to_roman, 0)    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              def testNegative(self):      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  """to_roman should fail with negative input"""                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  self.assertRaises(roman.OutOfRangeError, roman.to_roman, -1)  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              def testNonInteger(self):    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  """to_roman should fail with non-integer input"""             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  self.assertRaises(roman.NotIntegerError, roman.to_roman, 0.5)  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. The TestCase class of the unittest provides the assertRaises method, which takes the following arguments: the exception you're expecting, the function you're testing, and the arguments you're passing that function. (If the function you're testing takes more than one argument, pass them all to assertRaises, in order, and it will pass them right along to the function you're testing.) Pay close attention to what you're doing here: instead of calling to_roman() directly and manually checking that it raises a particular exception (by wrapping it in a try...except block), assertRaises has encapsulated all of that for us. All you do is give it the exception (roman.OutOfRangeError), the function (to_roman()), and to_roman()'s arguments (4000), and assertRaises takes care of calling to_roman() and checking to make sure that it raises roman.OutOfRangeError. (Also note that you're passing the to_roman() function itself as an argument; you're not calling it, and you're not passing the name of it as a string. Have I mentioned recently how handy it is that everything in Python is an object, including functions and exceptions?)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. Along with testing numbers that are too large, you need to test numbers that are too small. Remember, Roman numerals cannot express 0 or negative numbers, so you have a test case for each of those (testZero and testNegative). In testZero, you are testing that to_roman() raises a roman.OutOfRangeError exception when called with 0; if it does not raise a roman.OutOfRangeError (either because it returns an actual value, or because it raises some other exception), this test is considered failed.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          3. Requirement #3 specifies that to_roman() cannot accept a non-integer number, so here you test to make sure that to_roman() raises a roman.NotIntegerError exception when called with 0.5. If to_roman() does not raise a roman.NotIntegerError, this test is considered failed.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The next two requirements are similar to the first three, except they apply to from_roman() instead of to_roman():

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. from_roman() should take a valid Roman numeral and return the number that it represents.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            2. from_roman() should fail when given an invalid Roman numeral.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Requirement #4 is handled in the same way as requirement #1, iterating through a sampling of known values and testing each in turn. Requirement #5 is handled in the same way as requirements #2 and #3, by testing a series of bad inputs and making sure from_roman() raises the appropriate exception.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Example 13.4. Testing bad input to from_roman()

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            class FromRomanBadInput(unittest.TestCase):  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def testTooManyRepeatedNumerals(self):   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    """from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals"""              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for s in ('MMMM', 'DD', 'CCCC', 'LL', 'XXXX', 'VV', 'IIII'):             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertRaises(roman.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman.from_roman, s) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def testRepeatedPairs(self):             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    """from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals"""              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for s in ('CMCM', 'CDCD', 'XCXC', 'XLXL', 'IXIX', 'IVIV'):               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertRaises(roman.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def testMalformedAntecedent(self):       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    """from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents""" 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for s in ('IIMXCC', 'VX', 'DCM', 'CMM', 'IXIV',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            'MCMC', 'XCX', 'IVI', 'LM', 'LD', 'LC'):     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertRaises(roman.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. Not much new to say about these; the pattern is exactly the same as the one you used to test bad input to to_roman(). I will briefly note that you have another exception: roman.InvalidRomanNumeralError. That makes a total of three custom exceptions that will need to be defined in roman.py (along with roman.OutOfRangeError and roman.NotIntegerError). You'll see how to define these custom exceptions when you actually start writing roman.py, later in this chapter.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              13.6. Testing for sanity

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Often, you will find that a unit of code contains a set of reciprocal functions, usually in the form of conversion functions where one converts A to B and the other converts B to A. In these cases, it is useful to create a “sanity check” to make sure that you can convert A to B and back to A without losing precision, incurring rounding errors, or triggering any other sort of bug.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Consider this requirement:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. If you take a number, convert it to Roman numerals, then convert that back to a number, you should end up with the number you started with. So from_roman(to_roman(n)) == n for all n in 1..3999.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 13.5. Testing to_roman() against from_roman()

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              class SanityCheck(unittest.TestCase):        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  def testSanity(self):  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      """from_roman(to_roman(n))==n for all n"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      for integer in range(1, 4000):         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          numeral = roman.to_roman(integer) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          result = roman.from_roman(numeral)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          self.assertEqual(integer, result) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. You've seen the range function before, but here it is called with two arguments, which returns a list of integers starting at the first argument (1) and counting consecutively up to but not including the second argument (4000). Thus, 1..3999, which is the valid range for converting to Roman numerals.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              2. I just wanted to mention in passing that integer is not a keyword in Python; here it's just a variable name like any other.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              3. The actual testing logic here is straightforward: take a number (integer), convert it to a Roman numeral (numeral), then convert it back to a number (result) and make sure you end up with the same number you started with. If not, assertEqual will raise an exception and the test will immediately be considered failed. If all the numbers match, assertEqual will always return silently, the entire testSanity method will eventually return silently, and the test will be considered passed.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The last two requirements are different from the others because they seem both arbitrary and trivial:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1. to_roman() should always return a Roman numeral using uppercase letters.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2. from_roman() should only accept uppercase Roman numerals (i.e. it should fail when given lowercase input).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                In fact, they are somewhat arbitrary. You could, for instance, have stipulated that from_roman() accept lowercase and mixed case input. But they are not completely arbitrary; if to_roman() is always returning uppercase output, then from_roman() must at least accept uppercase input, or the “sanity check” (requirement #6) would fail. The fact that it only accepts uppercase input is arbitrary, but as any systems integrator will tell you, case always matters, so it's worth specifying the behavior up front. And if it's worth specifying, it's worth testing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 13.6. Testing for case

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                class CaseCheck(unittest.TestCase): 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    def testToRomanCase(self):      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        """to_roman should always return uppercase"""  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        for integer in range(1, 4000):                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            numeral = roman.to_roman(integer)          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertEqual(numeral, numeral.upper())         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    def testFromRomanCase(self):    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        """from_roman should only accept uppercase input"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        for integer in range(1, 4000):                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            numeral = roman.to_roman(integer)          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            roman.from_roman(numeral.upper())  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertRaises(roman.InvalidRomanNumeralError,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            roman.from_roman, numeral.lower())   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1. The most interesting thing about this test case is all the things it doesn't test. It doesn't test that the value returned from to_roman() is right or even consistent; those questions are answered by separate test cases. You have a whole test case just to test for uppercase-ness. You might be tempted to combine this with the sanity check, since both run through the entire range of values and call to_roman(). [6] But that would violate one of the fundamental rules: each test case should answer only a single question. Imagine that you combined this case check with the sanity check, and then that test case failed. You would need to do further analysis to figure out which part of the test case failed to determine what the problem was. If you need to analyze the results of your unit testing just to figure out what they mean, it's a sure sign that you've mis-designed your test cases.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2. There's a similar lesson to be learned here: even though “you know” that to_roman() always returns uppercase, you are explicitly converting its return value to uppercase here to test that from_roman() accepts uppercase input. Why? Because the fact that to_roman() always returns uppercase is an independent requirement. If you changed that requirement so that, for instance, it always returned lowercase, the testToRomanCase test case would need to change, but this test case would still work. This was another of the fundamental rules: each test case must be able to work in isolation from any of the others. Every test case is an island.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                3. Note that you're not assigning the return value of from_roman() to anything. This is legal syntax in Python; if a function returns a value but nobody's listening, Python just throws away the return value. In this case, that's what you want. This test case doesn't test anything about the return value; it just tests that from_roman() accepts the uppercase input without raising an exception.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                4. This is a complicated line, but it's very similar to what you did in the ToRomanBadInput and FromRomanBadInput tests. You are testing to make sure that calling a particular function (roman.from_roman) with a particular value (numeral.lower(), the lowercase version of the current Roman numeral in the loop) raises a particular exception (roman.InvalidRomanNumeralError). If it does (each time through the loop), the test passes; if even one time it does something else (like raises a different exception, or returning a value without raising an exception at all), the test fails.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  In the next chapter, you'll see how to write code that passes these tests.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  [6] “I can resist everything except temptation.” --Oscar Wilde

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Chapter 14. Test-First Programming

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  14.1. roman.py, stage 1

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Now that the unit tests are complete, it's time to start writing the code that the test cases are attempting to test. You're going to do this in stages, so you can see all the unit tests fail, then watch them pass one by one as you fill in the gaps in roman.py.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 14.1. roman1.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  This file is available in py/roman/stage1/ in the examples directory.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  """Convert to and from Roman numerals"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  #Define exceptions
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  class RomanError(Exception): pass                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  class OutOfRangeError(RomanError): pass          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  class NotIntegerError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  class InvalidRomanNumeralError(RomanError): pass 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  def to_roman(n):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      """convert integer to Roman numeral"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      pass     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  def from_roman(s):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      """convert Roman numeral to integer"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. This is how you define your own custom exceptions in Python. Exceptions are classes, and you create your own by subclassing existing exceptions. It is strongly recommended (but not required) that you subclass Exception, which is the base class that all built-in exceptions inherit from. Here I am defining RomanError (inherited from Exception) to act as the base class for all my other custom exceptions to follow. This is a matter of style; I could just as easily have inherited each individual exception from the Exception class directly.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  2. The OutOfRangeError and NotIntegerError exceptions will eventually be used by to_roman() to flag various forms of invalid input, as specified in ToRomanBadInput.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  3. The InvalidRomanNumeralError exception will eventually be used by from_roman() to flag invalid input, as specified in FromRomanBadInput.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  4. At this stage, you want to define the API of each of your functions, but you don't want to code them yet, so you stub them out using the Python reserved word pass.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Now for the big moment (drum roll please): you're finally going to run the unit test against this stubby little module. At this point, every test case should fail. In fact, if any test case passes in stage 1, you should go back to romantest.py and re-evaluate why you coded a test so useless that it passes with do-nothing functions.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  5. At this stage, you want to define the API of each of your functions, but you don't want to code them yet, so you stub them out using the Python reserved word pass.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Run romantest1.py with the -v command-line option, which will give more verbose output so you can see exactly what's going on as each test case runs. With any luck, your output should look like this:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 14.2. Output of romantest1.py against roman1.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman should only accept uppercase input ... ERROR
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should always return uppercase ... ERROR
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman should give known result with known input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should give known result with known input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman(to_roman(n))==n for all n ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should fail with non-integer input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should fail with negative input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should fail with large input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should fail with 0 input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ERROR: from_roman should only accept uppercase input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 154, in testFromRomanCase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        roman1.from_roman(numeral.upper())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AttributeError: 'None' object has no attribute 'upper'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ERROR: to_roman should always return uppercase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 148, in testToRomanCase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertEqual(numeral, numeral.upper())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AttributeError: 'None' object has no attribute 'upper'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAIL: from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 133, in testMalformedAntecedent
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertRaises(roman1.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman1.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAIL: from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 127, in testRepeatedPairs
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertRaises(roman1.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman1.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAIL: from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 122, in testTooManyRepeatedNumerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertRaises(roman1.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman1.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAIL: from_roman should give known result with known input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 99, in testFromRomanKnownValues
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertEqual(integer, result)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 273, in failUnlessEqual
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        raise self.failureException, (msg or '%s != %s' % (first, second))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AssertionError: 1 != None
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAIL: to_roman should give known result with known input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 93, in testToRomanKnownValues
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertEqual(numeral, result)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 273, in failUnlessEqual
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        raise self.failureException, (msg or '%s != %s' % (first, second))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AssertionError: I != None
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAIL: from_roman(to_roman(n))==n for all n
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 141, in testSanity
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertEqual(integer, result)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 273, in failUnlessEqual
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        raise self.failureException, (msg or '%s != %s' % (first, second))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AssertionError: 1 != None
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAIL: to_roman should fail with non-integer input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 116, in testNonInteger
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertRaises(roman1.NotIntegerError, roman1.to_roman, 0.5)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AssertionError: NotIntegerError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAIL: to_roman should fail with negative input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 112, in testNegative
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertRaises(roman1.OutOfRangeError, roman1.to_roman, -1)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AssertionError: OutOfRangeError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAIL: to_roman should fail with large input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 104, in testTooLarge
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertRaises(roman1.OutOfRangeError, roman1.to_roman, 4000)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AssertionError: OutOfRangeError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAIL: to_roman should fail with 0 input               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage1\romantest1.py", line 108, in testZero
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        self.assertRaises(roman1.OutOfRangeError, roman1.to_roman, 0)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    AssertionError: OutOfRangeError    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ran 12 tests in 0.040s             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    FAILED (failures=10, errors=2)     

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    14.2. roman.py, stage 2

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Now that you have the framework of the roman module laid out, it's time to start writing code and passing test cases.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 14.3. roman2.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    This file is available in py/roman/stage2/ in the examples directory.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    """Convert to and from Roman numerals"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    #Define exceptions
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    class RomanError(Exception): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    class OutOfRangeError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    class NotIntegerError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    class InvalidRomanNumeralError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    #Define digit mapping
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    romanNumeralMap = (('M',  1000), 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('CM', 900),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('D',  500),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('CD', 400),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('C',  100),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('XC', 90),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('L',  50),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('XL', 40),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('X',  10),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('IX', 9),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('V',  5),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('IV', 4),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ('I',  1))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    def to_roman(n):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        """convert integer to Roman numeral"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        result = ""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        for numeral, integer in romanNumeralMap:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            while n >= integer:      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                result += numeral
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                n -= integer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        return result
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    def from_roman(s):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        """convert Roman numeral to integer"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. romanNumeralMap is a tuple of tuples which defines three things:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. The character representations of the most basic Roman numerals. Note that this is not just the single-character Roman numerals; you're also defining two-character pairs like CM (“one hundred less than one thousand”); this will make the to_roman() code simpler later.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      2. The order of the Roman numerals. They are listed in descending value order, from M all the way down to I.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. The value of each Roman numeral. Each inner tuple is a pair of (numeral, value).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    2. Here's where your rich data structure pays off, because you don't need any special logic to handle the subtraction rule. To convert to Roman numerals, you simply iterate through romanNumeralMap looking for the largest integer value less than or equal to the input. Once found, you add the Roman numeral representation to the end of the output, subtract the corresponding integer value from the input, lather, rinse, repeat.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 14.4. How to_roman() works

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      If you're not clear how to_roman() works, add a print statement to the end of the while loop:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              while n >= integer:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  result += numeral
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  n -= integer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  print 'subtracting', integer, 'from input, adding', numeral, 'to output'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> import roman2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> roman2.to_roman(1424)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      subtracting 1000 from input, adding M to output
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      subtracting 400 from input, adding CD to output
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      subtracting 10 from input, adding X to output
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      subtracting 10 from input, adding X to output
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      subtracting 4 from input, adding IV to output
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'MCDXXIV'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      So to_roman() appears to work, at least in this manual spot check. But will it pass the unit testing? Well no, not entirely.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 14.5. Output of romantest2.py against roman2.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Remember to run romantest2.py with the -v command-line flag to enable verbose mode.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should only accept uppercase input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should always return uppercase ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should give known result with known input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should give known result with known input ... ok       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman(to_roman(n))==n for all n ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should fail with non-integer input ... FAIL            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should fail with negative input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should fail with large input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should fail with 0 input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. to_roman() does, in fact, always return uppercase, because romanNumeralMap defines the Roman numeral representations as uppercase. So this test passes already.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      2. Here's the big news: this version of the to_roman() function passes the known values test. Remember, it's not comprehensive, but it does put the function through its paces with a variety of good inputs, including inputs that produce every single-character Roman numeral, the largest possible input (3999), and the input that produces the longest possible Roman numeral (3888). At this point, you can be reasonably confident that the function works for any good input value you could throw at it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. However, the function does not “work” for bad values; it fails every single bad input test. That makes sense, because you didn't include any checks for bad input. Those test cases look for specific exceptions to be raised (via assertRaises), and you're never raising them. You'll do that in the next stage.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Here's the rest of the output of the unit test, listing the details of all the failures. You're down to 10.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAIL: from_roman should only accept uppercase input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage2\romantest2.py", line 156, in testFromRomanCase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            roman2.from_roman, numeral.lower())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAIL: from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage2\romantest2.py", line 133, in testMalformedAntecedent
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertRaises(roman2.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman2.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAIL: from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage2\romantest2.py", line 127, in testRepeatedPairs
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertRaises(roman2.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman2.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAIL: from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage2\romantest2.py", line 122, in testTooManyRepeatedNumerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertRaises(roman2.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman2.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAIL: from_roman should give known result with known input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage2\romantest2.py", line 99, in testFromRomanKnownValues
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertEqual(integer, result)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 273, in failUnlessEqual
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise self.failureException, (msg or '%s != %s' % (first, second))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        AssertionError: 1 != None
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAIL: from_roman(to_roman(n))==n for all n
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage2\romantest2.py", line 141, in testSanity
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertEqual(integer, result)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 273, in failUnlessEqual
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise self.failureException, (msg or '%s != %s' % (first, second))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        AssertionError: 1 != None
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAIL: to_roman should fail with non-integer input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage2\romantest2.py", line 116, in testNonInteger
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertRaises(roman2.NotIntegerError, roman2.to_roman, 0.5)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        AssertionError: NotIntegerError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAIL: to_roman should fail with negative input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage2\romantest2.py", line 112, in testNegative
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertRaises(roman2.OutOfRangeError, roman2.to_roman, -1)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        AssertionError: OutOfRangeError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAIL: to_roman should fail with large input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage2\romantest2.py", line 104, in testTooLarge
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertRaises(roman2.OutOfRangeError, roman2.to_roman, 4000)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        AssertionError: OutOfRangeError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAIL: to_roman should fail with 0 input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage2\romantest2.py", line 108, in testZero
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            self.assertRaises(roman2.OutOfRangeError, roman2.to_roman, 0)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        AssertionError: OutOfRangeError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Ran 12 tests in 0.320s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        FAILED (failures=10)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        14.3. roman.py, stage 3

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Now that to_roman() behaves correctly with good input (integers from 1 to 3999), it's time to make it behave correctly with bad input (everything else).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 14.6. roman3.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        This file is available in py/roman/stage3/ in the examples directory.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        """Convert to and from Roman numerals"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        #Define exceptions
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        class RomanError(Exception): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        class OutOfRangeError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        class NotIntegerError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        class InvalidRomanNumeralError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        #Define digit mapping
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        romanNumeralMap = (('M',  1000),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('CM', 900),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('D',  500),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('CD', 400),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('C',  100),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('XC', 90),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('L',  50),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('XL', 40),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('X',  10),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('IX', 9),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('V',  5),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('IV', 4),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ('I',  1))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        def to_roman(n):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            """convert integer to Roman numeral"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            if not (0 < n < 4000):         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                raise OutOfRangeError, "number out of range (must be 1..3999)" 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            if int(n) <> n:                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                raise NotIntegerError, "non-integers can not be converted"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            result = ""  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            for numeral, integer in romanNumeralMap:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                while n >= integer:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    result += numeral
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    n -= integer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            return result
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        def from_roman(s):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            """convert Roman numeral to integer"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        1. This is a nice Pythonic shortcut: multiple comparisons at once. This is equivalent to if not ((0 < n) and (n < 4000)), but it's much easier to read. This is the range check, and it should catch inputs that are too large, negative, or zero.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        2. You raise exceptions yourself with the raise statement. You can raise any of the built-in exceptions, or you can raise any of your custom exceptions that you've defined. The second parameter, the error message, is optional; if given, it is displayed in the traceback that is printed if the exception is never handled.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        3. This is the non-integer check. Non-integers can not be converted to Roman numerals.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        4. The rest of the function is unchanged.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 14.7. Watching to_roman() handle bad input

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> import roman3
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> roman3.to_roman(4000)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            File "roman3.py", line 27, in to_roman
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              raise OutOfRangeError, "number out of range (must be 1..3999)"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          OutOfRangeError: number out of range (must be 1..3999)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> roman3.to_roman(1.5)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            File "roman3.py", line 29, in to_roman
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              raise NotIntegerError, "non-integers can not be converted"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          NotIntegerError: non-integers can not be converted
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 14.8. Output of romantest3.py against roman3.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          from_roman should only accept uppercase input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          to_roman should always return uppercase ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          from_roman should give known result with known input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          to_roman should give known result with known input ... ok 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          from_roman(to_roman(n))==n for all n ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          to_roman should fail with non-integer input ... ok        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          to_roman should fail with negative input ... ok           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          to_roman should fail with large input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          to_roman should fail with 0 input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. to_roman() still passes the known values test, which is comforting. All the tests that passed in stage 2 still pass, so the latest code hasn't broken anything.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. More exciting is the fact that all of the bad input tests now pass. This test, testNonInteger, passes because of the int(n) <> n check. When a non-integer is passed to to_roman(), the int(n) <> n check notices it and raises the NotIntegerError exception, which is what testNonInteger is looking for.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          3. This test, testNegative, passes because of the not (0 < n < 4000) check, which raises an OutOfRangeError exception, which is what testNegative is looking for.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            FAIL: from_roman should only accept uppercase input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage3\romantest3.py", line 156, in testFromRomanCase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                roman3.from_roman, numeral.lower())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            FAIL: from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage3\romantest3.py", line 133, in testMalformedAntecedent
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                self.assertRaises(roman3.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman3.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            FAIL: from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage3\romantest3.py", line 127, in testRepeatedPairs
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                self.assertRaises(roman3.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman3.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            FAIL: from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage3\romantest3.py", line 122, in testTooManyRepeatedNumerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                self.assertRaises(roman3.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman3.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            FAIL: from_roman should give known result with known input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage3\romantest3.py", line 99, in testFromRomanKnownValues
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                self.assertEqual(integer, result)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 273, in failUnlessEqual
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                raise self.failureException, (msg or '%s != %s' % (first, second))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            AssertionError: 1 != None
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            FAIL: from_roman(to_roman(n))==n for all n
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage3\romantest3.py", line 141, in testSanity
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                self.assertEqual(integer, result)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 273, in failUnlessEqual
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                raise self.failureException, (msg or '%s != %s' % (first, second))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            AssertionError: 1 != None
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Ran 12 tests in 0.401s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            FAILED (failures=6) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. You're down to 6 failures, and all of them involve from_roman(): the known values test, the three separate bad input tests, the case check, and the sanity check. That means that to_roman() has passed all the tests it can pass by itself. (It's involved in the sanity check, but that also requires that from_roman() be written, which it isn't yet.) Which means that you must stop coding to_roman() now. No tweaking, no twiddling, no extra checks “just in case”. Stop. Now. Back away from the keyboard.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              NoteThe most important thing that comprehensive unit testing can tell you is when to stop coding. When all the unit tests for a function pass, stop coding the function. When all the unit tests for an entire module pass, stop coding the module.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              14.4. roman.py, stage 4

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Now that to_roman() is done, it's time to start coding from_roman(). Thanks to the rich data structure that maps individual Roman numerals to integer values, this is no more difficult than the to_roman() function.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 14.9. roman4.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              This file is available in py/roman/stage4/ in the examples directory.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              """Convert to and from Roman numerals"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              #Define exceptions
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              class RomanError(Exception): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              class OutOfRangeError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              class NotIntegerError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              class InvalidRomanNumeralError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              #Define digit mapping
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              romanNumeralMap = (('M',  1000),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('CM', 900),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('D',  500),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('CD', 400),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('C',  100),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('XC', 90),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('L',  50),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('XL', 40),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('X',  10),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('IX', 9),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('V',  5),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('IV', 4),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ('I',  1))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              # to_roman function omitted for clarity (it hasn't changed)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              def from_roman(s):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  """convert Roman numeral to integer"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  result = 0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  index = 0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  for numeral, integer in romanNumeralMap:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      while s[index:index+len(numeral)] == numeral: 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          result += integer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          index += len(numeral)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  return result
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. The pattern here is the same as to_roman(). You iterate through your Roman numeral data structure (a tuple of tuples), and instead of matching the highest integer values as often as possible, you match the “highest” Roman numeral character strings as often as possible.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 14.10. How from_roman() works

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                If you're not clear how from_roman() works, add a print statement to the end of the while loop:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        while s[index:index+len(numeral)] == numeral:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            result += integer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            index += len(numeral)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            print 'found', numeral, 'of length', len(numeral), ', adding', integer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> import roman4
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> roman4.from_roman('MCMLXXII')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                found M , of length 1, adding 1000
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                found CM , of length 2, adding 900
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                found L , of length 1, adding 50
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                found X , of length 1, adding 10
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                found X , of length 1, adding 10
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                found I , of length 1, adding 1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                found I , of length 1, adding 1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1972

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 14.11. Output of romantest4.py against roman4.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                from_roman should only accept uppercase input ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                to_roman should always return uppercase ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals ... FAIL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                from_roman should give known result with known input ... ok 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                to_roman should give known result with known input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                from_roman(to_roman(n))==n for all n ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                to_roman should fail with non-integer input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                to_roman should fail with negative input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                to_roman should fail with large input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                to_roman should fail with 0 input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1. Two pieces of exciting news here. The first is that from_roman() works for good input, at least for all the known values you test.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2. The second is that the sanity check also passed. Combined with the known values tests, you can be reasonably sure that both to_roman() and from_roman() work properly for all possible good values. (This is not guaranteed; it is theoretically possible that to_roman() has a bug that produces the wrong Roman numeral for some particular set of inputs, and that from_roman() has a reciprocal bug that produces the same wrong integer values for exactly that set of Roman numerals that to_roman() generated incorrectly. Depending on your application and your requirements, this possibility may bother you; if so, write more comprehensive test cases until it doesn't bother you.)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  FAIL: from_roman should only accept uppercase input
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage4\romantest4.py", line 156, in testFromRomanCase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      roman4.from_roman, numeral.lower())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  FAIL: from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage4\romantest4.py", line 133, in testMalformedAntecedent
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      self.assertRaises(roman4.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman4.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  FAIL: from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage4\romantest4.py", line 127, in testRepeatedPairs
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      self.assertRaises(roman4.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman4.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ======================================================================
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  FAIL: from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Traceback (most recent call last):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "C:\docbook\dip\py\roman\stage4\romantest4.py", line 122, in testTooManyRepeatedNumerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      self.assertRaises(roman4.InvalidRomanNumeralError, roman4.from_roman, s)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    File "c:\python21\lib\unittest.py", line 266, in failUnlessRaises
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      raise self.failureException, excName
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  AssertionError: InvalidRomanNumeralError
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Ran 12 tests in 1.222s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  FAILED (failures=4)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  14.5. roman.py, stage 5

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Now that from_roman() works properly with good input, it's time to fit in the last piece of the puzzle: making it work properly with bad input. That means finding a way to look at a string and determine if it's a valid Roman numeral. This is inherently more difficult than validating numeric input in to_roman(), but you have a powerful tool at your disposal: regular expressions.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  If you're not familiar with regular expressions and didn't read Chapter 7, Regular Expressions, now would be a good time.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  As you saw in Section 7.3, “Case Study: Roman Numerals”, there are several simple rules for constructing a Roman numeral, using the letters M, D, C, L, X, V, and I. Let's review the rules:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. Characters are additive. I is 1, II is 2, and III is 3. VI is 6 (literally, “5 and 1”), VII is 7, and VIII is 8.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  2. The tens characters (I, X, C, and M) can be repeated up to three times. At 4, you need to subtract from the next highest fives character. You can't represent 4 as IIII; instead, it is represented as IV (“1 less than 5”). 40 is written as XL (“10 less than 50”), 41 as XLI, 42 as XLII, 43 as XLIII, and then 44 as XLIV (“10 less than 50, then 1 less than 5”).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  3. Similarly, at 9, you need to subtract from the next highest tens character: 8 is VIII, but 9 is IX (“1 less than 10”), not VIIII (since the I character can not be repeated four times). 90 is XC, 900 is CM.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  4. The fives characters can not be repeated. 10 is always represented as X, never as VV. 100 is always C, never LL.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  5. Roman numerals are always written highest to lowest, and read left to right, so order of characters matters very much. DC is 600; CD is a completely different number (400, “100 less than 500”). CI is 101; IC is not even a valid Roman numeral (because you can't subtract 1 directly from 100; you would need to write it as XCIX, “10 less than 100, then 1 less than 10”).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 14.12. roman5.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  This file is available in py/roman/stage5/ in the examples directory.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  """Convert to and from Roman numerals"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  import re
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  #Define exceptions
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  class RomanError(Exception): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  class OutOfRangeError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  class NotIntegerError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  class InvalidRomanNumeralError(RomanError): pass
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  #Define digit mapping
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  romanNumeralMap = (('M',  1000),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('CM', 900),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('D',  500),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('CD', 400),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('C',  100),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('XC', 90),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('L',  50),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('XL', 40),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('X',  10),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('IX', 9),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('V',  5),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('IV', 4),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ('I',  1))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  def to_roman(n):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      """convert integer to Roman numeral"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      if not (0 < n < 4000):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          raise OutOfRangeError, "number out of range (must be 1..3999)"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      if int(n) <> n:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          raise NotIntegerError, "non-integers can not be converted"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      result = ""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      for numeral, integer in romanNumeralMap:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          while n >= integer:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result += numeral
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              n -= integer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      return result
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  #Define pattern to detect valid Roman numerals
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  romanNumeralPattern = '^M?M?M?(CM|CD|D?C?C?C?)(XC|XL|L?X?X?X?)(IX|IV|V?I?I?I?)$' 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  def from_roman(s):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      """convert Roman numeral to integer"""
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      if not re.search(romanNumeralPattern, s):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          raise InvalidRomanNumeralError, 'Invalid Roman numeral: %s' % s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      result = 0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      index = 0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      for numeral, integer in romanNumeralMap:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          while s[index:index+len(numeral)] == numeral:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              result += integer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              index += len(numeral)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      return result
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. This is just a continuation of the pattern you discussed in Section 7.3, “Case Study: Roman Numerals”. The tens places is either XC (90), XL (40), or an optional L followed by 0 to 3 optional X characters. The ones place is either IX (9), IV (4), or an optional V followed by 0 to 3 optional I characters.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  2. Having encoded all that logic into a regular expression, the code to check for invalid Roman numerals becomes trivial. If re.search returns an object, then the regular expression matched and the input is valid; otherwise, the input is invalid.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    At this point, you are allowed to be skeptical that that big ugly regular expression could possibly catch all the types of invalid Roman numerals. But don't take my word for it, look at the results:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 14.13. Output of romantest5.py against roman5.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman should only accept uppercase input ... ok          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should always return uppercase ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents ... ok      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals ... ok 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman should give known result with known input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should give known result with known input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from_roman(to_roman(n))==n for all n ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should fail with non-integer input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should fail with negative input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should fail with large input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    to_roman should fail with 0 input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ran 12 tests in 2.864s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    OK     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. One thing I didn't mention about regular expressions is that, by default, they are case-sensitive. Since the regular expression romanNumeralPattern was expressed in uppercase characters, the re.search check will reject any input that isn't completely uppercase. So the uppercase input test passes.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    2. More importantly, the bad input tests pass. For instance, the malformed antecedents test checks cases like MCMC. As you've seen, this does not match the regular expression, so from_roman() raises an InvalidRomanNumeralError exception, which is what the malformed antecedents test case is looking for, so the test passes.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    3. In fact, all the bad input tests pass. This regular expression catches everything you could think of when you made your test cases.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    4. And the anticlimax award of the year goes to the word “OK”, which is printed by the unittest module when all the tests pass.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      NoteWhen all of your tests pass, stop coding.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Chapter 16. Functional Programming

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      16.1. Diving in

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      In Chapter 13, Unit Testing, you learned about the philosophy of unit testing. In Chapter 14, Test-First Programming, you stepped through the implementation of basic unit tests in Python. In Chapter 15, Refactoring, you saw how unit testing makes large-scale refactoring easier. This chapter will build on those sample programs, but here we will focus more on advanced Python-specific techniques, rather than on unit testing itself.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The following is a complete Python program that acts as a cheap and simple regression testing framework. It takes unit tests that you've written for individual modules, collects them all into one big test suite, and runs them all at once. I actually use this script as part of the build process for this book; I have unit tests for several of the example programs (not just the roman.py module featured in Chapter 13, Unit Testing), and the first thing my automated build script does is run this program to make sure all my examples still work. If this regression test fails, the build immediately stops. I don't want to release non-working examples any more than you want to download them and sit around scratching your head and yelling at your monitor and wondering why they don't work.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 16.1. regression.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      """Regression testing framework
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      This module will search for scripts in the same directory named
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      XYZtest.py. Each such script should be a test suite that tests a
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      module through PyUnit. (As of Python 2.1, PyUnit is included in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      the standard library as "unittest".)  This script will aggregate all
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      found test suites into one big test suite and run them all at once.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      """
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      import sys, os, re, unittest
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      def regressionTest():
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0]))   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          files = os.listdir(path)             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          test = re.compile("test\.py$", re.IGNORECASE)          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          files = filter(test.search, files)   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          filenameToModuleName = lambda f: os.path.splitext(f)[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          moduleNames = map(filenameToModuleName, files)         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          modules = map(__import__, moduleNames)                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          load = unittest.defaultTestLoader.loadTestsFromModule  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          return unittest.TestSuite(map(load, modules))          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      if __name__ == "__main__": 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          unittest.main(defaultTest="regressionTest")
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Running this script in the same directory as the rest of the example scripts that come with this book will find all the unit tests, named moduletest.py, run them as a single test, and pass or fail them all at once.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 16.2. Sample output of regression.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      [you@localhost py]$ python regression.py -v
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      help should fail with no object ... ok           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      help should return known result for apihelper ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      help should honor collapse argument ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      help should honor spacing argument ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      buildConnectionString should fail with list input ... ok           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      buildConnectionString should fail with string input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      buildConnectionString should fail with tuple input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      buildConnectionString handles empty dictionary ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      buildConnectionString returns known result with known input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should only accept uppercase input ... ok                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should always return uppercase ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should fail with blank string ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should fail with malformed antecedents ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should fail with repeated pairs of numerals ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should fail with too many repeated numerals ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman should give known result with known input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should give known result with known input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      from_roman(to_roman(n))==n for all n ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should fail with non-integer input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should fail with negative input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should fail with large input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to_roman should fail with 0 input ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      kgp a ref test ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      kgp b ref test ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      kgp c ref test ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      kgp d ref test ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      kgp e ref test ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      kgp f ref test ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      kgp g ref test ... ok
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Ran 29 tests in 2.799s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      OK
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. The first 5 tests are from apihelpertest.py, which tests the example script from Chapter 4, The Power Of Introspection.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      2. The next 5 tests are from odbchelpertest.py, which tests the example script from Chapter 2, Your First Python Program.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. The rest are from romantest.py, which you studied in depth in Chapter 13, Unit Testing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        16.2. Finding the path

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        When running Python scripts from the command line, it is sometimes useful to know where the currently running script is located on disk.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        This is one of those obscure little tricks that is virtually impossible to figure out on your own, but simple to remember once you see it. The key to it is sys.argv. As you saw in Chapter 9, XML Processing, this is a list that holds the list of command-line arguments. However, it also holds the name of the running script, exactly as it was called from the command line, and this is enough information to determine its location.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 16.3. fullpath.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        import sys, os
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        print 'sys.argv[0] =', sys.argv[0]             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        pathname = os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0])        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        print 'path =', pathname
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        print 'full path =', os.path.abspath(pathname) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        1. Regardless of how you run a script, sys.argv[0] will always contain the name of the script, exactly as it appears on the command line. This may or may not include any path information, as you'll see shortly.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        2. os.path.dirname takes a filename as a string and returns the directory path portion. If the given filename does not include any path information, os.path.dirname returns an empty string.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        3. os.path.abspath is the key here. It takes a pathname, which can be partial or even blank, and returns a fully qualified pathname.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          os.path.abspath deserves further explanation. It is very flexible; it can take any kind of pathname.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 16.4. Further explanation of os.path.abspath

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> import os
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> os.getcwd()      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          /home/you
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> os.path.abspath('')                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          /home/you
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> os.path.abspath('.ssh')            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          /home/you/.ssh
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> os.path.abspath('/home/you/.ssh') 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          /home/you/.ssh
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> os.path.abspath('.ssh/../foo/')    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          /home/you/foo
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. os.getcwd() returns the current working directory.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. Calling os.path.abspath with an empty string returns the current working directory, same as os.getcwd().
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          3. Calling os.path.abspath with a partial pathname constructs a fully qualified pathname out of it, based on the current working directory.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          4. Calling os.path.abspath with a full pathname simply returns it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          5. os.path.abspath also normalizes the pathname it returns. Note that this example worked even though I don't actually have a 'foo' directory. os.path.abspath never checks your actual disk; this is all just string manipulation.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            NoteThe pathnames and filenames you pass to os.path.abspath do not need to exist.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Noteos.path.abspath not only constructs full path names, it also normalizes them. That means that if you are in the /usr/ directory, os.path.abspath('bin/../local/bin') will return /usr/local/bin. It normalizes the path by making it as simple as possible. If you just want to normalize a pathname like this without turning it into a full pathname, use os.path.normpath instead.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Example 16.5. Sample output from fullpath.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            [you@localhost py]$ python /home/you/diveintopython3/common/py/fullpath.py 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            sys.argv[0] = /home/you/diveintopython3/common/py/fullpath.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            path = /home/you/diveintopython3/common/py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            full path = /home/you/diveintopython3/common/py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            [you@localhost diveintopython3]$ python common/py/fullpath.py               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            sys.argv[0] = common/py/fullpath.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            path = common/py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            full path = /home/you/diveintopython3/common/py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            [you@localhost diveintopython3]$ cd common/py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            [you@localhost py]$ python fullpath.py 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            sys.argv[0] = fullpath.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            path = 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            full path = /home/you/diveintopython3/common/py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. In the first case, sys.argv[0] includes the full path of the script. You can then use the os.path.dirname function to strip off the script name and return the full directory name, and os.path.abspath simply returns what you give it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            2. If the script is run by using a partial pathname, sys.argv[0] will still contain exactly what appears on the command line. os.path.dirname will then give you a partial pathname (relative to the current directory), and os.path.abspath will construct a full pathname from the partial pathname.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            3. If the script is run from the current directory without giving any path, os.path.dirname will simply return an empty string. Given an empty string, os.path.abspath returns the current directory, which is what you want, since the script was run from the current directory.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              NoteLike the other functions in the os and os.path modules, os.path.abspath is cross-platform. Your results will look slightly different than my examples if you're running on Windows (which uses backslash as a path separator) or Mac OS (which uses colons), but they'll still work. That's the whole point of the os module.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Addendum. One reader was dissatisfied with this solution, and wanted to be able to run all the unit tests in the current directory, not the directory where regression.py is located. He suggests this approach instead:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 16.6. Running scripts in the current directory

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              import sys, os, re, unittest
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              def regressionTest():
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  path = os.getcwd()       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  sys.path.append(path)    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  files = os.listdir(path) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. Instead of setting path to the directory where the currently running script is located, you set it to the current working directory instead. This will be whatever directory you were in before you ran the script, which is not necessarily the same as the directory the script is in. (Read that sentence a few times until you get it.)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              2. Append this directory to the Python library search path, so that when you dynamically import the unit test modules later, Python can find them. You didn't need to do this when path was the directory of the currently running script, because Python always looks in that directory.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              3. The rest of the function is the same.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                This technique will allow you to re-use this regression.py script on multiple projects. Just put the script in a common directory, then change to the project's directory before running it. All of that project's unit tests will be found and tested, instead of the unit tests in the common directory where regression.py is located.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                16.3. Filtering lists revisited

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                You're already familiar with using list comprehensions to filter lists. There is another way to accomplish this same thing, which some people feel is more expressive.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Python has a built-in filter function which takes two arguments, a function and a list, and returns a list. [7] The function passed as the first argument to filter must itself take one argument, and the list that filter returns will contain all the elements from the list passed to filter for which the function passed to filter returns true.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Got all that? It's not as difficult as it sounds.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 16.7. Introducing filter

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> def odd(n):                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ...    return n % 2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ...    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> li = [1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 256, -3]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> filter(odd, li)             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [1, 3, 5, 9, -3]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> [e for e in li if odd(e)]   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> filteredList = []
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> for n in li:                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ...    if odd(n):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ...        filteredList.append(n)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ...    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> filteredList
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [1, 3, 5, 9, -3]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1. odd uses the built-in mod function “%” to return True if n is odd and False if n is even.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2. filter takes two arguments, a function (odd) and a list (li). It loops through the list and calls odd with each element. If odd returns a true value (remember, any non-zero value is true in Python), then the element is included in the returned list, otherwise it is filtered out. The result is a list of only the odd numbers from the original list, in the same order as they appeared in the original.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                3. You could accomplish the same thing using list comprehensions, as you saw in Section 4.5, “Filtering Lists”.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                4. You could also accomplish the same thing with a for loop. Depending on your programming background, this may seem more “straightforward”, but functions like filter are much more expressive. Not only is it easier to write, it's easier to read, too. Reading the for loop is like standing too close to a painting; you see all the details, but it may take a few seconds to be able to step back and see the bigger picture: “Oh, you're just filtering the list!”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 16.8. filter in regression.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      files = os.listdir(path)              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      test = re.compile("test\.py$", re.IGNORECASE)           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      files = filter(test.search, files)    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. As you saw in Section 16.2, “Finding the path”, path may contain the full or partial pathname of the directory of the currently running script, or it may contain an empty string if the script is being run from the current directory. Either way, files will end up with the names of the files in the same directory as this script you're running.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  2. This is a compiled regular expression. As you saw in Section 15.3, “Refactoring”, if you're going to use the same regular expression over and over, you should compile it for faster performance. The compiled object has a search method which takes a single argument, the string to search. If the regular expression matches the string, the search method returns a Match object containing information about the regular expression match; otherwise it returns None, the Python null value.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  3. For each element in the files list, you're going to call the search method of the compiled regular expression object, test. If the regular expression matches, the method will return a Match object, which Python considers to be true, so the element will be included in the list returned by filter. If the regular expression does not match, the search method will return None, which Python considers to be false, so the element will not be included.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Historical note. Versions of Python prior to 2.0 did not have list comprehensions, so you couldn't filter using list comprehensions; the filter function was the only game in town. Even with the introduction of list comprehensions in 2.0, some people still prefer the old-style filter (and its companion function, map, which you'll see later in this chapter). Both techniques work at the moment, so which one you use is a matter of style. There is discussion that map and filter might be deprecated in a future version of Python, but no decision has been made.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 16.9. Filtering using list comprehensions instead

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        files = os.listdir(path)             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        test = re.compile("test\.py$", re.IGNORECASE)          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        files = [f for f in files if test.search(f)] 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. This will accomplish exactly the same result as using the filter function. Which way is more expressive? That's up to you.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      16.4. Mapping lists revisited

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      You're already familiar with using list comprehensions to map one list into another. There is another way to accomplish the same thing, using the built-in map function. It works much the same way as the filter function.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 16.10. Introducing map

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> def double(n):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...    return n*2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> li = [1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 256, -3]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> map(double, li)     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      [2, 4, 6, 10, 18, 20, 512, -6]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> [double(n) for n in li]               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      [2, 4, 6, 10, 18, 20, 512, -6]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> newlist = []
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> for n in li:        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...    newlist.append(double(n))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ...    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> newlist
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      [2, 4, 6, 10, 18, 20, 512, -6]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. map takes a function and a list[8] and returns a new list by calling the function with each element of the list in order. In this case, the function simply multiplies each element by 2.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      2. You could accomplish the same thing with a list comprehension. List comprehensions were first introduced in Python 2.0; map has been around forever.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. You could, if you insist on thinking like a Visual Basic programmer, use a for loop to accomplish the same thing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 16.11. map with lists of mixed datatypes

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> li = [5, 'a', (2, 'b')]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> map(double, li)     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        [10, 'aa', (2, 'b', 2, 'b')]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        1. As a side note, I'd like to point out that map works just as well with lists of mixed datatypes, as long as the function you're using correctly handles each type. In this case, the double function simply multiplies the given argument by 2, and Python Does The Right Thing depending on the datatype of the argument. For integers, this means actually multiplying it by 2; for strings, it means concatenating the string with itself; for tuples, it means making a new tuple that has all of the elements of the original, then all of the elements of the original again.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          All right, enough play time. Let's look at some real code.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 16.12. map in regression.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              filenameToModuleName = lambda f: os.path.splitext(f)[0] 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              moduleNames = map(filenameToModuleName, files)          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. As you saw in Section 4.7, “Using lambda Functions”, lambda defines an inline function. And as you saw in Example 6.17, “Splitting Pathnames”, os.path.splitext takes a filename and returns a tuple (name, extension). So filenameToModuleName is a function which will take a filename and strip off the file extension, and return just the name.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. Calling map takes each filename listed in files, passes it to the function filenameToModuleName, and returns a list of the return values of each of those function calls. In other words, you strip the file extension off of each filename, and store the list of all those stripped filenames in moduleNames.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            As you'll see in the rest of the chapter, you can extend this type of data-centric thinking all the way to the final goal, which is to define and execute a single test suite that contains the tests from all of those individual test suites.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            16.5. Data-centric programming

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            By now you're probably scratching your head wondering why this is better than using for loops and straight function calls. And that's a perfectly valid question. Mostly, it's a matter of perspective. Using map and filter forces you to center your thinking around your data.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            In this case, you started with no data at all; the first thing you did was get the directory path of the current script, and got a list of files in that directory. That was the bootstrap, and it gave you real data to work with: a list of filenames.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            However, you knew you didn't care about all of those files, only the ones that were actually test suites. You had too much data, so you needed to filter it. How did you know which data to keep? You needed a test to decide, so you defined one and passed it to the filter function. In this case you used a regular expression to decide, but the concept would be the same regardless of how you constructed the test.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Now you had the filenames of each of the test suites (and only the test suites, since everything else had been filtered out), but you really wanted module names instead. You had the right amount of data, but it was in the wrong format. So you defined a function that would transform a single filename into a module name, and you mapped that function onto the entire list. From one filename, you can get a module name; from a list of filenames, you can get a list of module names.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Instead of filter, you could have used a for loop with an if statement. Instead of map, you could have used a for loop with a function call. But using for loops like that is busywork. At best, it simply wastes time; at worst, it introduces obscure bugs. For instance, you need to figure out how to test for the condition “is this file a test suite?” anyway; that's the application-specific logic, and no language can write that for us. But once you've figured that out, do you really want go to all the trouble of defining a new empty list and writing a for loop and an if statement and manually calling append to add each element to the new list if it passes the condition and then keeping track of which variable holds the new filtered data and which one holds the old unfiltered data? Why not just define the test condition, then let Python do the rest of that work for us?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Oh sure, you could try to be fancy and delete elements in place without creating a new list. But you've been burned by that before. Trying to modify a data structure that you're looping through can be tricky. You delete an element, then loop to the next element, and suddenly you've skipped one. Is Python one of the languages that works that way? How long would it take you to figure it out? Would you remember for certain whether it was safe the next time you tried? Programmers spend so much time and make so many mistakes dealing with purely technical issues like this, and it's all pointless. It doesn't advance your program at all; it's just busywork.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            I resisted list comprehensions when I first learned Python, and I resisted filter and map even longer. I insisted on making my life more difficult, sticking to the familiar way of for loops and if statements and step-by-step code-centric programming. And my Python programs looked a lot like Visual Basic programs, detailing every step of every operation in every function. And they had all the same types of little problems and obscure bugs. And it was all pointless.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Let it all go. Busywork code is not important. Data is important. And data is not difficult. It's only data. If you have too much, filter it. If it's not what you want, map it. Focus on the data; leave the busywork behind.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            16.6. Dynamically importing modules

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            OK, enough philosophizing. Let's talk about dynamically importing modules.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            First, let's look at how you normally import modules. The import module syntax looks in the search path for the named module and imports it by name. You can even import multiple modules at once this way, with a comma-separated list. You did this on the very first line of this chapter's script.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Example 16.13. Importing multiple modules at once

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            import sys, os, re, unittest 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. This imports four modules at once: sys (for system functions and access to the command line parameters), os (for operating system functions like directory listings), re (for regular expressions), and unittest (for unit testing).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Now let's do the same thing, but with dynamic imports.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 16.14. Importing modules dynamically

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> sys = __import__('sys')           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> os = __import__('os')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> re = __import__('re')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> unittest = __import__('unittest')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> sys             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> <module 'sys' (built-in)>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> os
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> <module 'os' from '/usr/local/lib/python2.2/os.pyc'>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. The built-in __import__ function accomplishes the same goal as using the import statement, but it's an actual function, and it takes a string as an argument.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              2. The variable sys is now the sys module, just as if you had said import sys. The variable os is now the os module, and so forth.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                So __import__ imports a module, but takes a string argument to do it. In this case the module you imported was just a hard-coded string, but it could just as easily be a variable, or the result of a function call. And the variable that you assign the module to doesn't need to match the module name, either. You could import a series of modules and assign them to a list.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 16.15. Importing a list of modules dynamically

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> moduleNames = ['sys', 'os', 're', 'unittest'] 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> moduleNames
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ['sys', 'os', 're', 'unittest']
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> modules = map(__import__, moduleNames)        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> modules   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [<module 'sys' (built-in)>,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <module 'os' from 'c:\Python22\lib\os.pyc'>,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <module 're' from 'c:\Python22\lib\re.pyc'>,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <module 'unittest' from 'c:\Python22\lib\unittest.pyc'>]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> modules[0].version          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                '2.2.2 (#37, Nov 26 2002, 10:24:37) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)]'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> import sys
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> sys.version
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                '2.2.2 (#37, Nov 26 2002, 10:24:37) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)]'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1. moduleNames is just a list of strings. Nothing fancy, except that the strings happen to be names of modules that you could import, if you wanted to.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2. Surprise, you wanted to import them, and you did, by mapping the __import__ function onto the list. Remember, this takes each element of the list (moduleNames) and calls the function (__import__) over and over, once with each element of the list, builds a list of the return values, and returns the result.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                3. So now from a list of strings, you've created a list of actual modules. (Your paths may be different, depending on your operating system, where you installed Python, the phase of the moon, etc.)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                4. To drive home the point that these are real modules, let's look at some module attributes. Remember, modules[0] is the sys module, so modules[0].version is sys.version. All the other attributes and methods of these modules are also available. There's nothing magic about the import statement, and there's nothing magic about modules. Modules are objects. Everything is an object.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Now you should be able to put this all together and figure out what most of this chapter's code sample is doing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  16.7. Putting it all together

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  You've learned enough now to deconstruct the first seven lines of this chapter's code sample: reading a directory and importing selected modules within it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 16.16. The regressionTest function

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  def regressionTest():
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0]))   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      files = os.listdir(path)             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      test = re.compile("test\.py$", re.IGNORECASE)          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      files = filter(test.search, files)   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      filenameToModuleName = lambda f: os.path.splitext(f)[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      moduleNames = map(filenameToModuleName, files)         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      modules = map(__import__, moduleNames)                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  load = unittest.defaultTestLoader.loadTestsFromModule  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  return unittest.TestSuite(map(load, modules))          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Let's look at it line by line, interactively. Assume that the current directory is c:\diveintopython3\py, which contains the examples that come with this book, including this chapter's script. As you saw in Section 16.2, “Finding the path”, the script directory will end up in the path variable, so let's start hard-code that and go from there.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Example 16.17. Step 1: Get all the files

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> import sys, os, re, unittest
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> path = r'c:\diveintopython3\py'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> files = os.listdir(path)             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  >>> files 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ['BaseHTMLProcessor.py', 'LICENSE.txt', 'apihelper.py', 'apihelpertest.py',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  'argecho.py', 'autosize.py', 'builddialectexamples.py', 'dialect.py',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  'fileinfo.py', 'fullpath.py', 'kgptest.py', 'makerealworddoc.py',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  'odbchelper.py', 'odbchelpertest.py', 'parsephone.py', 'piglatin.py',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  'plural.py', 'pluraltest.py', 'pyfontify.py', 'regression.py', 'roman.py', 'romantest.py',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  'uncurly.py', 'unicode2koi8r.py', 'urllister.py', 'kgp', 'plural', 'roman',
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  'colorize.py']
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. files is a list of all the files and directories in the script's directory. (If you've been running some of the examples already, you may also see some .pyc files in there as well.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Example 16.18. Step 2: Filter to find the files you care about

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> test = re.compile("test\.py$", re.IGNORECASE)           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> files = filter(test.search, files)    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    >>> files               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ['apihelpertest.py', 'kgptest.py', 'odbchelpertest.py', 'pluraltest.py', 'romantest.py']
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1. This regular expression will match any string that ends with test.py. Note that you need to escape the period, since a period in a regular expression usually means “match any single character”, but you actually want to match a literal period instead.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    2. The compiled regular expression acts like a function, so you can use it to filter the large list of files and directories, to find the ones that match the regular expression.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    3. And you're left with the list of unit testing scripts, because they were the only ones named SOMETHINGtest.py.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Example 16.19. Step 3: Map filenames to module names

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> filenameToModuleName = lambda f: os.path.splitext(f)[0] 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> filenameToModuleName('romantest.py')  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'romantest'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> filenameToModuleName('odchelpertest.py')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      'odbchelpertest'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> moduleNames = map(filenameToModuleName, files)          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      >>> moduleNames         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ['apihelpertest', 'kgptest', 'odbchelpertest', 'pluraltest', 'romantest']
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      1. As you saw in Section 4.7, “Using lambda Functions”, lambda is a quick-and-dirty way of creating an inline, one-line function. This one takes a filename with an extension and returns just the filename part, using the standard library function os.path.splitext that you saw in Example 6.17, “Splitting Pathnames”.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      2. filenameToModuleName is a function. There's nothing magic about lambda functions as opposed to regular functions that you define with a def statement. You can call the filenameToModuleName function like any other, and it does just what you wanted it to do: strips the file extension off of its argument.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      3. Now you can apply this function to each file in the list of unit test files, using map.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      4. And the result is just what you wanted: a list of modules, as strings.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Example 16.20. Step 4: Mapping module names to modules

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> modules = map(__import__, moduleNames)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> modules             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        [<module 'apihelpertest' from 'apihelpertest.py'>,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <module 'kgptest' from 'kgptest.py'>,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <module 'odbchelpertest' from 'odbchelpertest.py'>,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <module 'pluraltest' from 'pluraltest.py'>,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <module 'romantest' from 'romantest.py'>]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        >>> modules[-1]         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <module 'romantest' from 'romantest.py'>
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        1. As you saw in Section 16.6, “Dynamically importing modules”, you can use a combination of map and __import__ to map a list of module names (as strings) into actual modules (which you can call or access like any other module).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        2. modules is now a list of modules, fully accessible like any other module.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        3. The last module in the list is the romantest module, just as if you had said import romantest.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Example 16.21. Step 5: Loading the modules into a test suite

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> load = unittest.defaultTestLoader.loadTestsFromModule  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> map(load, modules)   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          [<unittest.TestSuite tests=[
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            <unittest.TestSuite tests=[<apihelpertest.BadInput testMethod=testNoObject>]>,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            <unittest.TestSuite tests=[<apihelpertest.KnownValues testMethod=testApiHelper>]>,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            <unittest.TestSuite tests=[
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              <apihelpertest.ParamChecks testMethod=testCollapse>, 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              <apihelpertest.ParamChecks testMethod=testSpacing>]>, 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          >>> unittest.TestSuite(map(load, modules)) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. These are real module objects. Not only can you access them like any other module, instantiate classes and call functions, you can also introspect into the module to figure out which classes and functions it has in the first place. That's what the loadTestsFromModule method does: it introspects into each module and returns a unittest.TestSuite object for each module. Each TestSuite object actually contains a list of TestSuite objects, one for each TestCase class in your module, and each of those TestSuite objects contains a list of tests, one for each test method in your module.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2. Finally, you wrap the list of TestSuite objects into one big test suite. The unittest module has no problem traversing this tree of nested test suites within test suites; eventually it gets down to an individual test method and executes it, verifies that it passes or fails, and moves on to the next one.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            This introspection process is what the unittest module usually does for us. Remember that magic-looking unittest.main() function that our individual test modules called to kick the whole thing off? unittest.main() actually creates an instance of unittest.TestProgram, which in turn creates an instance of a unittest.defaultTestLoader and loads it up with the module that called it. (How does it get a reference to the module that called it if you don't give it one? By using the equally-magic __import__('__main__') command, which dynamically imports the currently-running module. I could write a book on all the tricks and techniques used in the unittest module, but then I'd never finish this one.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Example 16.22. Step 6: Telling unittest to use your test suite

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            if __name__ == "__main__": 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                unittest.main(defaultTest="regressionTest") 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            1. Instead of letting the unittest module do all its magic for us, you've done most of it yourself. You've created a function (regressionTest) that imports the modules yourself, calls unittest.defaultTestLoader yourself, and wraps it all up in a test suite. Now all you need to do is tell unittest that, instead of looking for tests and building a test suite in the usual way, it should just call the regressionTest function, which returns a ready-to-use TestSuite.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              16.8. Summary

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The regression.py program and its output should now make perfect sense.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              You should now feel comfortable doing all of these things:



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              [7] Technically, the second argument to filter can be any sequence, including lists, tuples, and custom classes that act like lists by defining the __getitem__ special method. If possible, filter will return the same datatype as you give it, so filtering a list returns a list, but filtering a tuple returns a tuple.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              [8] Again, I should point out that map can take a list, a tuple, or any object that acts like a sequence. See previous footnote about filter.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Chapter 18. Performance Tuning

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Performance tuning is a many-splendored thing. Just because Python is an interpreted language doesn't mean you shouldn't worry about code optimization. But don't worry about it too much.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              18.1. Diving in

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              There are so many pitfalls involved in optimizing your code, it's hard to know where to start.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Let's start here: are you sure you need to do it at all? Is your code really so bad? Is it worth the time to tune it? Over the lifetime of your application, how much time is going to be spent running that code, compared to the time spent waiting for a remote database server, or waiting for user input?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Second, are you sure you're done coding? Premature optimization is like spreading frosting on a half-baked cake. You spend hours or days (or more) optimizing your code for performance, only to discover it doesn't do what you need it to do. That's time down the drain.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              This is not to say that code optimization is worthless, but you need to look at the whole system and decide whether it's the best use of your time. Every minute you spend optimizing code is a minute you're not spending adding new features, or writing documentation, or playing with your kids, or writing unit tests.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Oh yes, unit tests. It should go without saying that you need a complete set of unit tests before you begin performance tuning. The last thing you need is to introduce new bugs while fiddling with your algorithms.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              With these caveats in place, let's look at some techniques for optimizing Python code. The code in question is an implementation of the Soundex algorithm. Soundex was a method used in the early 20th century for categorizing surnames in the United States census. It grouped similar-sounding names together, so even if a name was misspelled, researchers had a chance of finding it. Soundex is still used today for much the same reason, although of course we use computerized database servers now. Most database servers include a Soundex function.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              There are several subtle variations of the Soundex algorithm. This is the one used in this chapter:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. Keep the first letter of the name as-is.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              2. Convert the remaining letters to digits, according to a specific table:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • B, F, P, and V become 1.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • C, G, J, K, Q, S, X, and Z become 2.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • D and T become 3.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • L becomes 4.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • M and N become 5.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • R becomes 6.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • All other letters become 9.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              3. Remove consecutive duplicates.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              4. Remove all 9s altogether.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              5. If the result is shorter than four characters (the first letter plus three digits), pad the result with trailing zeros.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              6. if the result is longer than four characters, discard everything after the fourth character.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              For example, my name, Pilgrim, becomes P942695. That has no consecutive duplicates, so nothing to do there. Then you remove the 9s, leaving P4265. That's too long, so you discard the excess character, leaving P426.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Another example: Woo becomes W99, which becomes W9, which becomes W, which gets padded with zeros to become W000.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Here's a first attempt at a Soundex function:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 18.1. soundex/stage1/soundex1a.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              import string, re
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              charToSoundex = {"A": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "B": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "C": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "D": "3",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "E": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "F": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "G": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "H": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "I": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "J": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "K": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "L": "4",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "M": "5",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "N": "5",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "O": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "P": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "Q": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "R": "6",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "S": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "T": "3",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "U": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "V": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "W": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "X": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "Y": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "Z": "2"}
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              def soundex(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  "convert string to Soundex equivalent"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # Soundex requirements:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # source string must be at least 1 character
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # and must consist entirely of letters
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  allChars = string.uppercase + string.lowercase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  if not re.search('^[%s]+$' % allChars, source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      return "0000"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # Soundex algorithm:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # 1. make first character uppercase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  source = source[0].upper() + source[1:]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # 2. translate all other characters to Soundex digits
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  digits = source[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  for s in source[1:]:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      s = s.upper()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      digits += charToSoundex[s]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # 3. remove consecutive duplicates
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  digits2 = digits[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  for d in digits[1:]:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      if digits2[-1] != d:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          digits2 += d
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # 4. remove all "9"s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  digits3 = re.sub('9', '', digits2)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # 5. pad end with "0"s to 4 characters
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  while len(digits3) < 4:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      digits3 += "0"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  # 6. return first 4 characters
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  return digits3[:4]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              if __name__ == '__main__':
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  from timeit import Timer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  names = ('Woo', 'Pilgrim', 'Flingjingwaller')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  for name in names:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      statement = "soundex('%s')" % name
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      t = Timer(statement, "from __main__ import soundex")
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      print name.ljust(15), soundex(name), min(t.repeat())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Further Reading on Soundex

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              18.2. Using the timeit Module

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The most important thing you need to know about optimizing Python code is that you shouldn't write your own timing function.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Timing short pieces of code is incredibly complex. How much processor time is your computer devoting to running this code? Are there things running in the background? Are you sure? Every modern computer has background processes running, some all the time, some intermittently. Cron jobs fire off at consistent intervals; background services occasionally “wake up” to do useful things like check for new mail, connect to instant messaging servers, check for application updates, scan for viruses, check whether a disk has been inserted into your CD drive in the last 100 nanoseconds, and so on. Before you start your timing tests, turn everything off and disconnect from the network. Then turn off all the things you forgot to turn off the first time, then turn off the service that's incessantly checking whether the network has come back yet, then ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              And then there's the matter of the variations introduced by the timing framework itself. Does the Python interpreter cache method name lookups? Does it cache code block compilations? Regular expressions? Will your code have side effects if run more than once? Don't forget that you're dealing with small fractions of a second, so small mistakes in your timing framework will irreparably skew your results.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The Python community has a saying: “Python comes with batteries included.” Don't write your own timing framework. Python 2.3 comes with a perfectly good one called timeit.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Example 18.2. Introducing timeit

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              If you have not already done so, you can download this and other examples used in this book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> import timeit
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> t = timeit.Timer("soundex.soundex('Pilgrim')",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              ...    "import soundex")   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> t.timeit()              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              8.21683733547
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              >>> t.repeat(3, 2000000)    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              [16.48319309109, 16.46128984923, 16.44203948912]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              1. The timeit module defines one class, Timer, which takes two arguments. Both arguments are strings. The first argument is the statement you wish to time; in this case, you are timing a call to the Soundex function within the soundex with an argument of 'Pilgrim'. The second argument to the Timer class is the import statement that sets up the environment for the statement. Internally, timeit sets up an isolated virtual environment, manually executes the setup statement (importing the soundex module), then manually compiles and executes the timed statement (calling the Soundex function).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              2. Once you have the Timer object, the easiest thing to do is call timeit(), which calls your function 1 million times and returns the number of seconds it took to do it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              3. The other major method of the Timer object is repeat(), which takes two optional arguments. The first argument is the number of times to repeat the entire test, and the second argument is the number of times to call the timed statement within each test. Both arguments are optional, and they default to 3 and 1000000 respectively. The repeat() method returns a list of the times each test cycle took, in seconds.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                You can use the timeit module on the command line to test an existing Python program, without modifying the code. See http://docs.python.org/lib/node396.html for documentation on the command-line flags.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Note that repeat() returns a list of times. The times will almost never be identical, due to slight variations in how much processor time the Python interpreter is getting (and those pesky background processes that you can't get rid of). Your first thought might be to say “Let's take the average and call that The True Number.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                In fact, that's almost certainly wrong. The tests that took longer didn't take longer because of variations in your code or in the Python interpreter; they took longer because of those pesky background processes, or other factors outside of the Python interpreter that you can't fully eliminate. If the different timing results differ by more than a few percent, you still have too much variability to trust the results. Otherwise, take the minimum time and discard the rest.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Python has a handy min function that takes a list and returns the smallest value:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                >>> min(t.repeat(3, 1000000))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                8.22203948912
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The timeit module only works if you already know what piece of code you need to optimize. If you have a larger Python program and don't know where your performance problems are, check out the hotshot module.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                18.3. Optimizing Regular Expressions

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The first thing the Soundex function checks is whether the input is a non-empty string of letters. What's the best way to do this?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                If you answered “regular expressions”, go sit in the corner and contemplate your bad instincts. Regular expressions are almost never the right answer; they should be avoided whenever possible. Not only for performance reasons, but simply because they're difficult to debug and maintain. Also for performance reasons.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                This code fragment from soundex/stage1/soundex1a.py checks whether the function argument source is a word made entirely of letters, with at least one letter (not the empty string):

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    allChars = string.uppercase + string.lowercase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    if not re.search('^[%s]+$' % allChars, source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        return "0000"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                How does soundex1a.py perform? For convenience, the __main__ section of the script contains this code that calls the timeit module, sets up a timing test with three different names, tests each name three times, and displays the minimum time for each:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                if __name__ == '__main__':
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from timeit import Timer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    names = ('Woo', 'Pilgrim', 'Flingjingwaller')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for name in names:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        statement = "soundex('%s')" % name
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        t = Timer(statement, "from __main__ import soundex")
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        print name.ljust(15), soundex(name), min(t.repeat())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                So how does soundex1a.py perform with this regular expression?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage1>python soundex1a.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 19.3356647283
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 24.0772053431
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 35.0463220884
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                As you might expect, the algorithm takes significantly longer when called with longer names. There will be a few things we can do to narrow that gap (make the function take less relative time for longer input), but the nature of the algorithm dictates that it will never run in constant time.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The other thing to keep in mind is that we are testing a representative sample of names. Woo is a kind of trivial case, in that it gets shorted down to a single letter and then padded with zeros. Pilgrim is a normal case, of average length and a mixture of significant and ignored letters. Flingjingwaller is extraordinarily long and contains consecutive duplicates. Other tests might also be helpful, but this hits a good range of different cases.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                So what about that regular expression? Well, it's inefficient. Since the expression is testing for ranges of characters (A-Z in uppercase, and a-z in lowercase), we can use a shorthand regular expression syntax. Here is soundex/stage1/soundex1b.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    if not re.search('^[A-Za-z]+$', source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        return "0000"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                timeit says soundex1b.py is slightly faster than soundex1a.py, but nothing to get terribly excited about:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage1>python soundex1b.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 17.1361133887
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 21.8201693232
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 32.7262294509
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                We saw in Section 15.3, “Refactoring” that regular expressions can be compiled and reused for faster results. Since this regular expression never changes across function calls, we can compile it once and use the compiled version. Here is soundex/stage1/soundex1c.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                isOnlyChars = re.compile('^[A-Za-z]+$').search
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def soundex(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    if not isOnlyChars(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        return "0000"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Using a compiled regular expression in soundex1c.py is significantly faster:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage1>python soundex1c.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 14.5348347346
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 19.2784703084
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 30.0893873383
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                But is this the wrong path? The logic here is simple: the input source needs to be non-empty, and it needs to be composed entirely of letters. Wouldn't it be faster to write a loop checking each character, and do away with regular expressions altogether?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Here is soundex/stage1/soundex1d.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    if not source:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        return "0000"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for c in source:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        if not ('A' <= c <= 'Z') and not ('a' <= c <= 'z'):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            return "0000"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                It turns out that this technique in soundex1d.py is not faster than using a compiled regular expression (although it is faster than using a non-compiled regular expression):

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage1>python soundex1d.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 15.4065058548
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 22.2753567842
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 37.5845122774
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Why isn't soundex1d.py faster? The answer lies in the interpreted nature of Python. The regular expression engine is written in C, and compiled to run natively on your computer. On the other hand, this loop is written in Python, and runs through the Python interpreter. Even though the loop is relatively simple, it's not simple enough to make up for the overhead of being interpreted. Regular expressions are never the right answer... except when they are.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                It turns out that Python offers an obscure string method. You can be excused for not knowing about it, since it's never been mentioned in this book. The method is called isalpha(), and it checks whether a string contains only letters.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                This is soundex/stage1/soundex1e.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    if (not source) and (not source.isalpha()):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        return "0000"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                How much did we gain by using this specific method in soundex1e.py? Quite a bit.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage1>python soundex1e.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 13.5069504644
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 18.2199394057
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 28.9975225902
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 18.3. Best Result So Far: soundex/stage1/soundex1e.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                import string, re
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                charToSoundex = {"A": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "B": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "C": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "D": "3",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "E": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "F": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "G": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "H": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "I": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "J": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "K": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "L": "4",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "M": "5",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "N": "5",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "O": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "P": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "Q": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "R": "6",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "S": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "T": "3",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "U": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "V": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "W": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "X": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "Y": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "Z": "2"}
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def soundex(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    if (not source) and (not source.isalpha()):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        return "0000"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    source = source[0].upper() + source[1:]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits = source[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for s in source[1:]:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        s = s.upper()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        digits += charToSoundex[s]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits2 = digits[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for d in digits[1:]:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        if digits2[-1] != d:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            digits2 += d
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits3 = re.sub('9', '', digits2)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    while len(digits3) < 4:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        digits3 += "0"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    return digits3[:4]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                if __name__ == '__main__':
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from timeit import Timer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    names = ('Woo', 'Pilgrim', 'Flingjingwaller')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for name in names:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        statement = "soundex('%s')" % name
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        t = Timer(statement, "from __main__ import soundex")
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        print name.ljust(15), soundex(name), min(t.repeat())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                18.4. Optimizing Dictionary Lookups

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The second step of the Soundex algorithm is to convert characters to digits in a specific pattern. What's the best way to do this?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The most obvious solution is to define a dictionary with individual characters as keys and their corresponding digits as values, and do dictionary lookups on each character. This is what we have in soundex/stage1/soundex1c.py (the current best result so far):

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                charToSoundex = {"A": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "B": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "C": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "D": "3",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "E": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "F": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "G": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "H": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "I": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "J": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "K": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "L": "4",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "M": "5",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "N": "5",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "O": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "P": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "Q": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "R": "6",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "S": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "T": "3",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "U": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "V": "1",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "W": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "X": "2",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "Y": "9",
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 "Z": "2"}
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def soundex(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    # ... input check omitted for brevity ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    source = source[0].upper() + source[1:]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits = source[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for s in source[1:]:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        s = s.upper()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        digits += charToSoundex[s]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                You timed soundex1c.py already; this is how it performs:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage1>python soundex1c.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 14.5341678901
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 19.2650071448
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 30.1003563302
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                This code is straightforward, but is it the best solution? Calling upper() on each individual character seems inefficient; it would probably be better to call upper() once on the entire string.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Then there's the matter of incrementally building the digits string. Incrementally building strings like this is horribly inefficient; internally, the Python interpreter needs to create a new string each time through the loop, then discard the old one.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Python is good at lists, though. It can treat a string as a list of characters automatically. And lists are easy to combine into strings again, using the string method join().

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Here is soundex/stage2/soundex2a.py, which converts letters to digits by using ↦ and lambda:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def soundex(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    # ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    source = source.upper()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits = source[0] + "".join(map(lambda c: charToSoundex[c], source[1:]))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Surprisingly, soundex2a.py is not faster:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage2>python soundex2a.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 15.0097526362
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 19.254806407
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 29.3790847719
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The overhead of the anonymous lambda function kills any performance you gain by dealing with the string as a list of characters.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                soundex/stage2/soundex2b.py uses a list comprehension instead of ↦ and lambda:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    source = source.upper()
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits = source[0] + "".join([charToSoundex[c] for c in source[1:]])
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Using a list comprehension in soundex2b.py is faster than using ↦ and lambda in soundex2a.py, but still not faster than the original code (incrementally building a string in soundex1c.py):

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage2>python soundex2b.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 13.4221324219
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 16.4901234654
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 25.8186157738
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                It's time for a radically different approach. Dictionary lookups are a general purpose tool. Dictionary keys can be any length string (or many other data types), but in this case we are only dealing with single-character keys and single-character values. It turns out that Python has a specialized function for handling exactly this situation: the string.maketrans function.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                This is soundex/stage2/soundex2c.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                allChar = string.uppercase + string.lowercase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                charToSoundex = string.maketrans(allChar, "91239129922455912623919292" * 2)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def soundex(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    # ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits = source[0].upper() + source[1:].translate(charToSoundex)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                What the heck is going on here? string.maketrans creates a translation matrix between two strings: the first argument and the second argument. In this case, the first argument is the string ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz, and the second argument is the string 9123912992245591262391929291239129922455912623919292. See the pattern? It's the same conversion pattern we were setting up longhand with a dictionary. A maps to 9, B maps to 1, C maps to 2, and so forth. But it's not a dictionary; it's a specialized data structure that you can access using the string method translate, which translates each character into the corresponding digit, according to the matrix defined by string.maketrans.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                timeit shows that soundex2c.py is significantly faster than defining a dictionary and looping through the input and building the output incrementally:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage2>python soundex2c.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 11.437645008
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 13.2825062962
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 18.5570110168
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                You're not going to get much better than that. Python has a specialized function that does exactly what you want to do; use it and move on.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 18.4. Best Result So Far: soundex/stage2/soundex2c.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                import string, re
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                allChar = string.uppercase + string.lowercase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                charToSoundex = string.maketrans(allChar, "91239129922455912623919292" * 2)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                isOnlyChars = re.compile('^[A-Za-z]+$').search
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def soundex(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    if not isOnlyChars(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        return "0000"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits = source[0].upper() + source[1:].translate(charToSoundex)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits2 = digits[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for d in digits[1:]:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        if digits2[-1] != d:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            digits2 += d
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits3 = re.sub('9', '', digits2)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    while len(digits3) < 4:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        digits3 += "0"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    return digits3[:4]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                if __name__ == '__main__':
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from timeit import Timer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    names = ('Woo', 'Pilgrim', 'Flingjingwaller')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for name in names:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        statement = "soundex('%s')" % name
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        t = Timer(statement, "from __main__ import soundex")
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        print name.ljust(15), soundex(name), min(t.repeat())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                18.5. Optimizing List Operations

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The third step in the Soundex algorithm is eliminating consecutive duplicate digits. What's the best way to do this?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Here's the code we have so far, in soundex/stage2/soundex2c.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits2 = digits[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for d in digits[1:]:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        if digits2[-1] != d:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            digits2 += d
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Here are the performance results for soundex2c.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage2>python soundex2c.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 12.6070768771
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 14.4033353401
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 19.7774882003
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The first thing to consider is whether it's efficient to check digits[-1] each time through the loop. Are list indexes expensive? Would we be better off maintaining the last digit in a separate variable, and checking that instead?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                To answer this question, here is soundex/stage3/soundex3a.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits2 = ''
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    last_digit = ''
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for d in digits:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        if d != last_digit:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            digits2 += d
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            last_digit = d
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                soundex3a.py does not run any faster than soundex2c.py, and may even be slightly slower (although it's not enough of a difference to say for sure):

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage3>python soundex3a.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 11.5346048171
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 13.3950636184
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 18.6108927252
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Why isn't soundex3a.py faster? It turns out that list indexes in Python are extremely efficient. Repeatedly accessing digits2[-1] is no problem at all. On the other hand, manually maintaining the last seen digit in a separate variable means we have two variable assignments for each digit we're storing, which wipes out any small gains we might have gotten from eliminating the list lookup.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Let's try something radically different. If it's possible to treat a string as a list of characters, it should be possible to use a list comprehension to iterate through the list. The problem is, the code needs access to the previous character in the list, and that's not easy to do with a straightforward list comprehension.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                However, it is possible to create a list of index numbers using the built-in range() function, and use those index numbers to progressively search through the list and pull out each character that is different from the previous character. That will give you a list of characters, and you can use the string method join() to reconstruct a string from that.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Here is soundex/stage3/soundex3b.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits2 = "".join([digits[i] for i in range(len(digits))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     if i == 0 or digits[i-1] != digits[i]])
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Is this faster? In a word, no.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage3>python soundex3b.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 14.2245271396
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 17.8337165757
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 25.9954005327
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                It's possible that the techniques so far as have been “string-centric”. Python can convert a string into a list of characters with a single command: list('abc') returns ['a', 'b', 'c']. Furthermore, lists can be modified in place very quickly. Instead of incrementally building a new list (or string) out of the source string, why not move elements around within a single list?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Here is soundex/stage3/soundex3c.py, which modifies a list in place to remove consecutive duplicate elements:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits = list(source[0].upper() + source[1:].translate(charToSoundex))
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    i=0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for item in digits:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        if item==digits[i]: continue
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        i+=1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        digits[i]=item
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    del digits[i+1:]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits2 = "".join(digits)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Is this faster than soundex3a.py or soundex3b.py? No, in fact it's the slowest method yet:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage3>python soundex3c.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 14.1662554878
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 16.0397885765
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 22.1789341942
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                We haven't made any progress here at all, except to try and rule out several “clever” techniques. The fastest code we've seen so far was the original, most straightforward method (soundex2c.py). Sometimes it doesn't pay to be clever.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Example 18.5. Best Result So Far: soundex/stage2/soundex2c.py

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                import string, re
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                allChar = string.uppercase + string.lowercase
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                charToSoundex = string.maketrans(allChar, "91239129922455912623919292" * 2)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                isOnlyChars = re.compile('^[A-Za-z]+$').search
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                def soundex(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    if not isOnlyChars(source):
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        return "0000"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits = source[0].upper() + source[1:].translate(charToSoundex)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits2 = digits[0]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for d in digits[1:]:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        if digits2[-1] != d:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            digits2 += d
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits3 = re.sub('9', '', digits2)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    while len(digits3) < 4:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        digits3 += "0"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    return digits3[:4]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                if __name__ == '__main__':
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    from timeit import Timer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    names = ('Woo', 'Pilgrim', 'Flingjingwaller')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for name in names:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        statement = "soundex('%s')" % name
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        t = Timer(statement, "from __main__ import soundex")
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        print name.ljust(15), soundex(name), min(t.repeat())
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                18.6. Optimizing String Manipulation

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The final step of the Soundex algorithm is padding short results with zeros, and truncating long results. What is the best way to do this?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                This is what we have so far, taken from soundex/stage2/soundex2c.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits3 = re.sub('9', '', digits2)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    while len(digits3) < 4:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        digits3 += "0"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    return digits3[:4]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                These are the results for soundex2c.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage2>python soundex2c.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 12.6070768771
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 14.4033353401
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 19.7774882003
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The first thing to consider is replacing that regular expression with a loop. This code is from soundex/stage4/soundex4a.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits3 = ''
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    for d in digits2:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        if d != '9':
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            digits3 += d
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Is soundex4a.py faster? Yes it is:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage4>python soundex4a.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 6.62865531792
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 9.02247576158
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 13.6328416042
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                But wait a minute. A loop to remove characters from a string? We can use a simple string method for that. Here's soundex/stage4/soundex4b.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits3 = digits2.replace('9', '')
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Is soundex4b.py faster? That's an interesting question. It depends on the input:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage4>python soundex4b.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 6.75477414029
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 7.56652144337
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 10.8727729362
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The string method in soundex4b.py is faster than the loop for most names, but it's actually slightly slower than soundex4a.py in the trivial case (of a very short name). Performance optimizations aren't always uniform; tuning that makes one case faster can sometimes make other cases slower. In this case, the majority of cases will benefit from the change, so let's leave it at that, but the principle is an important one to remember.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Last but not least, let's examine the final two steps of the algorithm: padding short results with zeros, and truncating long results to four characters. The code you see in soundex4b.py does just that, but it's horribly inefficient. Take a look at soundex/stage4/soundex4c.py to see why:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    digits3 += '000'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    return digits3[:4]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Why do we need a while loop to pad out the result? We know in advance that we're going to truncate the result to four characters, and we know that we already have at least one character (the initial letter, which is passed unchanged from the original source variable). That means we can simply add three zeros to the output, then truncate it. Don't get stuck in a rut over the exact wording of the problem; looking at the problem slightly differently can lead to a simpler solution.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                How much speed do we gain in soundex4c.py by dropping the while loop? It's significant:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage4>python soundex4c.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 4.89129791636
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 7.30642134685
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 10.689832367
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Finally, there is still one more thing you can do to these three lines of code to make them faster: you can combine them into one line. Take a look at soundex/stage4/soundex4d.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    return (digits2.replace('9', '') + '000')[:4]
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Putting all this code on one line in soundex4d.py is barely faster than soundex4c.py:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                C:\samples\soundex\stage4>python soundex4d.py
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Woo             W000 4.93624105857
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Pilgrim         P426 7.19747593619
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Flingjingwaller F452 10.5490700634
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                It is also significantly less readable, and for not much performance gain. Is that worth it? I hope you have good comments. Performance isn't everything. Your optimization efforts must always be balanced against threats to your program's readability and maintainability.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                18.7. Summary

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                This chapter has illustrated several important aspects of performance tuning in Python, and performance tuning in general.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • If you need to choose between regular expressions and writing a loop, choose regular expressions. The regular expression engine is compiled in C and runs natively on your computer; your loop is written in Python and runs through the Python interpreter.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • If you need to choose between regular expressions and string methods, choose string methods. Both are compiled in C, so choose the simpler one.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • General-purpose dictionary lookups are fast, but specialtiy functions such as string.maketrans and string methods such as isalpha() are faster. If Python has a custom-tailored function for you, use it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • Don't be too clever. Sometimes the most obvious algorithm is also the fastest.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                • Don't sweat it too much. Performance isn't everything.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I can't emphasize that last point strongly enough. Over the course of this chapter, you made this function three times faster and saved 20 seconds over 1 million function calls. Great. Now think: over the course of those million function calls, how many seconds will your surrounding application wait for a database connection? Or wait for disk I/O? Or wait for user input? Don't spend too much time over-optimizing one algorithm, or you'll ignore obvious improvements somewhere else. Develop an instinct for the sort of code that Python runs well, correct obvious blunders if you find them, and leave the rest alone.