13 Powerful Python Features You’re Probably Not Using Enough

Python is a versatile and powerful language, and while many developers use it extensively, there are numerous features that often go underutilized.

List Comprehensions

List comprehensions provide a concise way to create lists. This can replace the need for using loops to generate lists.

squares = [x**2 for x in range(10)]

Generator Expressions

Similar to list comprehensions but with parentheses, generator expressions are used for creating generators. These are memory-efficient and suitable for large data sets.

squares_gen = (x**2 for x in range(10))

Default Dictionary

The defaultdict from the collections module is a dictionary-like class that provides default values for missing keys.

from collections import defaultdict
dd = defaultdict(int)
dd['key'] += 1

Named Tuples

namedtuple creates tuple subclasses with named fields. This makes code more readable by accessing fields by name instead of position.

from collections import namedtuple
Point = namedtuple('Point', 'x y')
p = Point(10, 20)

Enumerate Function

The enumerate function adds a counter to an iterable and returns it as an enumerate object. This is useful for obtaining…