Function Toolbox for Python

This is a collection of general functions I've found useful in Python.

Most of the functions here are pure, and so can be used in a functional style of programming (though they're useful in imperative code too).

You may also want to install the 'fn' package from PyPI and to look at the standard library modules 'functools', 'itertools' and maybe 'operator'.

Dependencies

Python 2.6, 2.7 or Python 3.2 and upwards.

It should also work with 3.0 and 3.1, I just haven't got a copy to run the tests on at the moment.

Note most of my development is in 2.7 now, so while I'm striving for Python 3 compatibility I might not be quite so careful about 2.6 and lower.

I haven't run the tests in 3.0 or 3.1 yet.

The 'functional' package from PyPI:

sudo pip install functional

To run the doctests, I recommend you use 'nosetests':

sudo pip install nose

nosetests --with-doctest

Reason I Built This

Because I don't want to repeat myself in my programs. Instead, I put any generic functions I write in here, along with tests and examples of usage.

I also hope that others, including yourself, will contribute functions to this library (see the 'Contributions' section below).

Similar Modules

jaraco.util

I've found one package with similar goals to this one, and it has some overlap in functionality, called jaraco.util.

It can be found on PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/jaraco.util

I haven't tested it yet.

Overview of Modules

funbox.flogic

flogic is a module of functions for composing functions that return boolean with boolean operations. Currently only fnot() is implemented, but f_and and f_or are fair game for inclusion should I need them.

funbox.mappings

Functions that are specifically for working on and generating dictionaries.

funbox.once

Make a function call once if necessary, and reuse its result many times.

funbox.cmdline_parsing

Occasionally I want to check command line arguments without consuming them via a more heavyweight library like argparse or optparse; for example when I'm wrapping another program and so passing most of them on to it. These functions help with that.

funbox.validation

Functions that help validating data and data types.

funbox.csv_records

Functions for dealing with lists of records in the form of lists. For example add_column will add a column of data to an existing table of records. There's also funbox.mappings that deals with records in the form of dictionaries.

funbox.iterators

Functions for manipulating iterators.

funbox.lists

Functions for manipulating finite, usually indexable, sequences.

funbox.maybe

Maybe-monad-like chaining of functions that can fail by returning None.

Contributions

I welcome patches to add new functions, or to fix bugs or improve performance in existing ones.

If you want to enhance the interface of an existing function, please contribute yours under a different name. For example you might want to curry a function that I've left as flat, call it funcname_curried or funcname_c. In other words, I've got code using this library, and I don't want it to break.

Although the functions in here are ripe for using in a functional programming style, it doesn't mean you have to implement them functionally. I do, however, ask that you provide a rigorous doctest or, if it's more complex, a unittest, to check it works as expected, however you implement it.

Copyright and License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Nicholas Booker

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.