Say, I have two files demo.py
# demo.py
from pathlib import Path
for i in range(5):
exec(Path('another_file.txt').read_text())
and another_file.txt (note the indent)
print(i)
Is it possible to make python demo.py run?
N.B. This is useful when using Page (or wxformbuilder or pyqt's designer) to generate a GUI layout where skeletons of callback functioins are automatically generated. The skeletons will have to be modified, at the same time, each iteration overwrites the skeletons -- code snippets will have to be copied back. Anyway, you know what I am talking about if you have used any of Page or wxformbuilder or pyqt's designer.
You can solve the basic problem by removing the indent:
from pathlib import Path
import textwrap
for i in range(5):
exec(textwrap.dedent(Path('another_file.txt').read_text()))
There are still two rather major problems with this:
There are serious security implications here. You're running code without including it in your project. The idea that you can "worry about security and other issues later" will cause you pain at a later point. You'll see similar advice on this site with avoiding SQL injection. That later date may never come, and even if it does, there's a very real chance you won't remember or correctly identify all of the problems. It's absolutely better to avoid the problems in the first place.
Also, with dynamic code like this, you run the very real risk of running into a syntax error with a call stack that shows you nothing about where the code is from. It's not bad for simple cases like this, but as you add more and more complexity to a project like this, you'll likely find you're adding more support to help you debug issues you run into, rather than spending your time adding features.
And, combining these two problems can be fun. It's contrived, but if you changed the for loop to a while loop like this:
i = 0
while i < 5:
exec(textwrap.dedent(Path('another_file.txt').read_text()))
i += 1
And then modified the text file to be this:
print(i)
i += 1
It's trivial to understand why it's no longer operating the 5 times you expect, but as both "sides" of this project get more complex, figuring out the complex interplay between the elements will get much harder.
In short, don't use eval. Future you will thank past you for making your life easier.
Related
I find myself constantly copying code from previous sections of my project into other sections in VBA.
My entire code seems unnecessarily long because this.
Over half my code is copied from one section and pasted in other sections. This is an issue when I realize there's a small error, causing me to go back to correct it in every instance I copied and pasted.
Is there any way to make my code shorter and to reference copied code only once in VBA, and also python?
I uaually have a module for my functions. they work like a tool box for me. i need to call them always in other subs.they save my time and make my codes more readable. Also debugging is much easier. I recommend the same to you.
I've been searching everywhere for an answer to this but to no avail. I want to be able to run my code and have the variables stored in memory so that I can perhaps set a "checkpoint" which I can run from in the future. The reason is that I have a fairly expensive function that takes some time to compute (as well as user input) and it would be nice if I didn't have to wait for it to finish every time I run after I change something downstream.
I'm sure a feature like this exists in PyCharm but I have no idea what it's called and the documentation isn't very clear to me at my level of experience. It would save me a lot of time if someone could point me in the right direction.
Turns out this is (more or less) possible by using the PyCharm console. I guess I should have realized this earlier because it seems so simple now (though I've never used a console in my life so I guess I should learn).
Anyway, the console lets you run blocks of your code presuming the required variables, functions, libraries, etc... have been specified beforehand. You can actually highlight a block of your code in the PyCharm editor, right click and select "Run in console" to execute it.
This feature is not implement in Pycharm (see pycharm forum) but seems implemented in Spyder.
I'm sure someone has come across this before, but it was hard thinking of how to search for it.
Suppose I have a file generate_data.py and another plot_utils.py which contains a function for plotting this data.
Of note, generate_data.py takes a long time to run and I would like to only have to run it once. However, I haven't finished working out the kinks in plot_utils.py, so I have to run this a bunch of times.
It seems in spyder that when I run generate_data (be it in the current console or in a new dedicated python interpreter) that it doesn't allow me to modify plot_utils.py and call "from plot_utils import plotter" in the command line. -- I mean it doesn't have an error, but it's clear the changes haven't been made.
I guess I kind of want cell mode between different .py files.
EDIT: After being forced to formulate exactly what I want, I think I got around this by putting "from plot_utils import plotter" \n "plotter(foo)" inside a cell in generate_data.py. I am now wondering if there is a more elegant solution.
SECOND EDIT: actually the method mentioned above in the edit does not work as I said it did. Still looking for a method.
You need to reload it:
# Python 2.7
plotter = reload(plotter)
or
# Python 3.x
from imp import reload
plotter = reload(plotter)
One of the most frustrating things about programming in Python thus far has been the lack of some kind of "pre-analysis". In Java, for example, a pre-analysis is performed before the actual compilation of a program, in which things like name usage is checked. In other words, if I have called a variable list_one in one area, and say I mispell it as list_on in another area, Java will say "Hey you cant do that, I dont know what list_on is."
Python does not seem to do this, and it is terribly frustrating! I have a program that takes about 15 minutes to run, and the last thing I was to see at 14.5 minutes into it is something like
NameError: name 'list_on' is not defined
Are their any tools available out there can can perform this kind of check before the interpreter actually runs the program? If not, what are some ways to work around this issue?
Have you considered checking your code with something like pyflakes or pylint?
UPDATE
I found a fantastic solution to this problem for those that happen to be emacs users. You can install PyFlakes-Flymake. This is a great tool! It will perform a static analysis of your code on the fly, and highlight trouble areas in red. I suggest using PIP instead of the suggested easy_install. Other than that, it is pretty simple to get it up and running. And well worth the effort!
I have never used Python before, most of my programming has been in MATLAB and Unix. However, recently I have been given a new assignment that involves fixing an old PyEPL program written by a former employee (I've tried contacting him directly but he won't respond to my e-mails). I know essentially nothing about Python, and though I am picking it up, I thought I'd just quickly ask for some advice here.
Anyway, there are two issues at hand here, really. The first is this segment of the code:
exp = Experiment()
exp.setBreak()
vt = VideoTrack("video")
at = AudioTrack("audio")
kt = KeyTrack("key")
log = LogTrack("session")
clk = PresentationClock()
I understand what this is doing; it is creating a series of tracking files in the directory after the program is run. However, I have searched a bunch of online tutorials and can't find a reference to any of these commands in them. Maybe I'm not searching the right places or something, but I cannot find ANYTHING about this.
What I need to do is modify the
log = LogTrack("session")
segment of the code, so that all of the session.log files go into a new directory, separate from the other log files. But I also need to find a way to not only concatenate them into a single session.log file, but add a new column to that file that will add the subject number (the program is meant to be run by multiple subjects to collect data).
I am not asking anyone to do my work for me, but if anyone could give me some pointers, or any sort of advice, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
I would first check if there is a line in the code
from some_module_name import *
This could easily explain why you can call these functions (classes?). It will also tell you what file to look in to modify the code for LogTrack.
Edit:
So, a little digging seems to find that LogTrack is part of PyEPL's textlog module. These other classes are from other modules. Somewhere in this person's code should be a line something like:
from PyEPL.display import VideoTrack
from PyEPL.sound import AudioTrack
from PyEPL.textlog import LogTrack
...
This means that these are classes specific to PyEPL. There are a few ways you could go about modifying how they work. You can modify the source of the LogTrack class so that it operates differently. Perhaps easier would be to simply subclass LogTrack and change some of its methods.
Either of these will require a fairly thorough understanding of how this class operates.
In any case, I would download the source from here, open up the code/textlog.py file, and start reading how LogTrack works.