Python – Can you do LINQ-like queries in a language like Python or Boo

booironpythonlinqlinq-to-sqlpython

Take this simple C# LINQ query, and imagine that db.Numbers is an SQL table with one column Number:

var result = 
    from n in db.Numbers
        where n.Number < 5
        select n.Number;

This will run very efficiently in C#, because it generates an SQL query something like

select Number from Numbers where Number < 5

What it doesn't do is select all the numbers from the database, and then filter them in C#, as it might appear to do at first.

Python supports a similar syntax:

result = [n.Number for n in Numbers if n.Number < 5]

But it the if clause here does the filtering on the client side, rather than the server side, which is much less efficient.

Is there something as efficient as LINQ in Python? (I'm currently evaluating Python vs. IronPython vs. Boo, so an answer that works in any of those languages is fine.)

Best Answer

sqlsoup in sqlalchemy gives you the quickest solution in python I think if you want a clear(ish) one liner . Look at the page to see.

It should be something like...

result = [n.Number for n in db.Numbers.filter(db.Numbers.Number < 5).all()]

Related Solutions

Python – How to represent an ‘Enum’ in Python

Enums have been added to Python 3.4 as described in PEP 435. It has also been backported to 3.3, 3.2, 3.1, 2.7, 2.6, 2.5, and 2.4 on pypi.

For more advanced Enum techniques try the aenum library (2.7, 3.3+, same author as enum34. Code is not perfectly compatible between py2 and py3, e.g. you'll need __order__ in python 2).

To use enum34, do $ pip install enum34
To use aenum, do $ pip install aenum

Installing enum (no numbers) will install a completely different and incompatible version.

from enum import Enum     # for enum34, or the stdlib version
# from aenum import Enum  # for the aenum version
Animal = Enum('Animal', 'ant bee cat dog')

Animal.ant  # returns <Animal.ant: 1>
Animal['ant']  # returns <Animal.ant: 1> (string lookup)
Animal.ant.name  # returns 'ant' (inverse lookup)

or equivalently:

class Animal(Enum):
    ant = 1
    bee = 2
    cat = 3
    dog = 4

In earlier versions, one way of accomplishing enums is:

def enum(**enums):
    return type('Enum', (), enums)

which is used like so:

>>> Numbers = enum(ONE=1, TWO=2, THREE='three')
>>> Numbers.ONE
1
>>> Numbers.TWO
2
>>> Numbers.THREE
'three'

You can also easily support automatic enumeration with something like this:

def enum(*sequential, **named):
    enums = dict(zip(sequential, range(len(sequential))), **named)
    return type('Enum', (), enums)

and used like so:

>>> Numbers = enum('ZERO', 'ONE', 'TWO')
>>> Numbers.ZERO
0
>>> Numbers.ONE
1

Support for converting the values back to names can be added this way:

def enum(*sequential, **named):
    enums = dict(zip(sequential, range(len(sequential))), **named)
    reverse = dict((value, key) for key, value in enums.iteritems())
    enums['reverse_mapping'] = reverse
    return type('Enum', (), enums)

This overwrites anything with that name, but it is useful for rendering your enums in output. It will throw a KeyError if the reverse mapping doesn't exist. With the first example:

>>> Numbers.reverse_mapping['three']
'THREE'

If you are using MyPy another way to express "enums" is with typing.Literal.

For example:

from typing import Literal #python >=3.8
from typing_extensions import Literal #python 2.7, 3.4-3.7


Animal = Literal['ant', 'bee', 'cat', 'dog']

def hello_animal(animal: Animal):
    print(f"hello {animal}")

hello_animal('rock') # error
hello_animal('bee') # passes

Python – Can someone explain all in Python

Linked to, but not explicitly mentioned here, is exactly when __all__ is used. It is a list of strings defining what symbols in a module will be exported when from <module> import * is used on the module.

For example, the following code in a foo.py explicitly exports the symbols bar and baz:

__all__ = ['bar', 'baz']

waz = 5
bar = 10
def baz(): return 'baz'

These symbols can then be imported like so:

from foo import *

print(bar)
print(baz)

# The following will trigger an exception, as "waz" is not exported by the module
print(waz)

If the __all__ above is commented out, this code will then execute to completion, as the default behaviour of import * is to import all symbols that do not begin with an underscore, from the given namespace.

Reference: https://docs.python.org/tutorial/modules.html#importing-from-a-package

NOTE: __all__ affects the from <module> import * behavior only. Members that are not mentioned in __all__ are still accessible from outside the module and can be imported with from <module> import <member>.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Python – How to represent an ‘Enum’ in Python

Python – Can someone explain __all__ in Python

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Python – Can someone explain all in Python