Python 101: All About Dictionaries

The Python programming language has several built-in types that it supports. One of my favorites is the dictionary. A dictionary is a mapping object maps hashable values to arbitrary objects (source). Other languages call dictionaries “hash tables”. They are mutable objects that you can change whenever you want to, unlike tuples. A dictionary’s keys must

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How to Run Python Tests “Continuously” While Coding

Last week I was doing some Test Driven Development training and overheard someone mention another programming language that had a test runner that you could set up to watch your project directory and run your tests when the files changed. I thought that was a neat idea. I also thought I could easily write my

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Python’s New secrets Module

Python 3.6 added a new module called secrets that is designed “to provide an obvious way to reliably generate cryptographically strong pseudo-random values suitable for managing secrets, such as account authentication, tokens, and similar”. Python’s random module was never designed for cryptographic use but for modeling and simulation. Of course, you could always use the

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