The list class is a fundamental built-in data type in Python. It has an impressive and useful set of features, allowing you to efficiently organize and manipulate heterogeneous data. Knowing how to use lists is a must-have skill for you as a Python developer. Lists have many use cases, so you’ll frequently reach for them in real-world coding. By working through this tutorial, you’ll dive deep into lists and get a solid understanding of their key features. This knowledge will […]

June 2023 welcomed a lot of new people and positions to the Python Software Foundation (PSF). Elections wrapped up for directors, and a new security developer in residence got to work. The organization is still looking to expand, though, and it announced a new deputy CPython developer in residence position that could go to a less seasoned programmer. Over at Pydantic, version 2 brings improved performance, while the sun went down on Python 3.7. It’s summer, so get ready for […]

When you’re executing Python code, the standard Python shell that comes with your Python installation is a natural tool to use. However, as you progress in your coding journey, you might find yourself seeking more powerful functionalities than the standard REPL offers. Luckily, IPython offers an enhanced version of interactive Python that can supercharge your capabilities. Using the IPython shell is a fast way of learning Python and executing code without the need for a full-fledged integrated development environment (IDE), […]

If you want to speed up some existing Python code, writing a compiled extension in Rust can be an excellent choice: In many situations, Rust code can run much faster than Python. Rust prevents most of the memory-management bugs that often occur in C, C++, and Cython code. There is a growing ecosystem of third-party Rust packages available, and unlike C and C++ it also has a built-in package manager and build system. However, if you just want to prototype […]

Do you want to optimize the performance of your Python program to make it run faster or consume less memory? Before diving into any performance tuning, you should strongly consider using a technique called software profiling. It may help you answer whether optimizing the code is necessary and, if so, which parts of the code you should focus on. Sometimes, the return on investment in performance optimizations just isn’t worth the effort. If you only run your code once or […]

The final release of Python 3.12 is scheduled for October 2023, which is growing closer. In the meantime, you can download and install its preview version to get a sneak peek at the upcoming features. One of the biggest changes announced is support for the Linux perf profiler, which is a powerful performance profiling tool. To fully benefit from using the perf profiler in Python 3.12, you should have a fairly good understanding of how the underlying hardware and the […]