Advanced Python Topics

Dive into some advanced topics in Python, including decorators, generators, and context managers.

By Kevin McAleer,    2 Minutes

Introduction

Python is a rich language with many advanced features. This lesson will introduce you to a few of these features: decorators, generators, and context managers. These tools can help you write more efficient and cleaner code.

Learning Objectives

• Understand what decorators are and how to use them.
• Learn how to create and use generators.
• Understand what context managers are and how to use them.

Python Decorators

Decorators allow us to wrap another function in order to extend the behavior of the wrapped function, without permanently modifying it.

def my_decorator(func):
    def wrapper():
        print("Before function call")
        func()
        print("After function call")
    return wrapper

@my_decorator
def say_hello():
    print("Hello!")

say_hello()  # prints: Before function call, Hello!, After function call

Python Generators

Generators are a type of iterable, like lists or tuples. Unlike lists, they don’t allow indexing with arbitrary indices, but they can still be iterated through with for loops.

def simple_generator():
    yield 1
    yield 2
    yield 3

for value in simple_generator():
    print(value)  # prints: 1, 2, 3

Python Context Managers

Context managers allow you to allocate and release resources precisely when you want to. The most widely used example of context managers is the with statement.

with open('file.txt', 'r') as f:
    file_contents = f.read()
# the file is automatically closed outside of the with block

Summary

In this lesson, you’ve learned about some of Python’s advanced features: decorators, generators, and context managers. These features can help you write more efficient and cleaner code. Understanding these concepts can be a stepping stone to mastering Python.