[Code] Python and Houdini Python (2)

Learning Python, so here is jotted-down notes that might be useful, part 2.

LOG 2

* 1 – Strings

• \n => Enter new line of string; \t => Tab
• ” \ ” is also used as an escape for some special characters: ‘ can\’t ‘ => can’t
• r’…’ => turns string into a rawstring. r’some\tasdfj’, write everything out with no special character
• ”’ (triple quotes) support multi-line strings, or write separate strings joined by “\” at the end of each line.
• Function Examples:
  Similar string & array uses
  mystring[5] => access 5th char in string, slicing like an array
  mystring.count(‘t’) => check number of ‘t’ in string
  mystring.index(‘a’) / mystring.rindex(‘a’): get the first letter ‘a’ from left for index, from right for rindex.
  
  Specific string uses
  mystring.strip() => strip blank space at beginning and end
  mystring.strip(‘_’).strip(‘*’)
  mystring.lower() => change to lowercase
  mystring.upper() => change to uppercase
  mystring.capitalize() => capitalize first letter, the rest lowercase
  mystring.title() => capitalize first letter of every word
  mystring.startswith() – mystring.endswith() => returns a Bool, check relative/explixit path or file name type
  mystring.find(‘s’)
  mystring.replace(‘$F3’, hou.frame()) => find what to replace, what to replace with
  
  mystring.split() => extract each word, drop all space, put into a list
  mystring.split(‘/’) => split, but with a divider
• Strings can use keyword to add variable to when using the .format() function, or unwrap a dictionary in .format() arguements
• mystring.format() can do padding a number variable added into the string
  mystring = ‘my var is {0:0>4}’.format(56) => Right-aligned, pad 4 digits
  mystring = ‘my var is {0:0^20}’.format(56) => Center-aligned, pad 20 digits
  mystring = ‘my var is {0:0<4}’.format(56) => Left-aligned, pad 6 digits
• Join strings together: use string function ‘ ‘.join(listname)
  

* 2 – Modules

• import modulename
• from modulename import functionname
• import modulename as aliasname
• users import module, then use a variable to reference the module or a module’s function
  foo = random.random => reference random function from random module. random.random() will run function then assign value to variable, we don’t want that here
• Some useful modules: random, sys, os (operating system), re (regular expression), pprint
• dir(modulename) => list all function names of the module

* 3 – User-defined Functions

• def myfunction(): => define function
• function could have multiple arguments including arbirary arguments, could return or not return anything
• put all non-defaults arguments before default arguments when defining functions
• call functions: place all non-keyword arguments before keyword arguments
• when calling functions that have multiple default arguments, using keywords to call is better, so python will default with the arguments we’re not calling
• return can be used to check within function, like break used in a loop
• args is a good name convention for an arbitrary argument. Arbitrary arguments are defined after non-default and default arguments, however they don’t like keywords in calling functions.
• kargs is a good name convention for dictionary arbitrary keyword argument.

* 4 – Classes

• Class – properties (variables) – methods (functions)
• Create class, ‘pass’ to finish
• Class has ‘magic method’ defined within the class: def __init__():
• For every method defined inside a class, the zero argument will always be ‘self’
• __repr__() => magic method to represent when you call a class instance, you can return a string in the method
• __add__(self, other): => some magic method includes teaching python to do mathematical function like + – between objects or objects and int (or float).
• a variable defined inside a function does not exist outside of a function unless it was defined outside beforehand.
• Good coding habit: do not duplicate when you already have variables, code and test as if the users know nothing => idiot-proof is the goal

* 5 – Errors

• Type of errors: syntax error, logic error, runtime error
• Python does ‘duck typing’, so sometimes you need to check for TypeErrors
• Try – Except block: skip errors and move on to perform sth else, however don’t overuse this as a coding habit.

* 6 – Help (Python documentation & Houdini documentation)

• Be careful with similar spelling and capital letters
• if a function’s argument has ‘=’ sign, meaning it has default, if you don’t give the argument, it will use the default.
• if a function’s argument does not have ‘=’ sign, you have to give the argument.