Things every Python developer should know

What is the difference between arguments and parameters?

Parameters are defined by the names that appear in a function definition, whereas arguments are the values actually passed to a function when calling it. Parameters define what types of arguments a function can accept. For example, given the function definition:

def func(x, y=None, **kwargs):
    pass

x, y and kwargs are parameters of func. However, when calling func, for example:

func(2, y=11, country='India')

the values 2, 11, and India are arguments.

Is there a tool to help find bugs or perform static analysis?

Yes. Please check out this blog Pylint for linting your code.

What is the purpose of “pip install –user {packagename}”?

pip defaults to installing Python packages to a system directory (such as /usr/local/lib/python3.4). This requires root access.

–user makes pip install packages in your home directory instead, which doesn’t require any special privileges.

Where can I locate the Python site-packages directory?

There are two types of site-packages directories, global and per user.

1. Global site-packages (“dist-packages”) directories are listed in sys.path when you run:

python -m site

1. The per user site-packages directory (PEP 370) is where Python installs your local packages:

python -m site --user-site

How to get the details of installed python packages?

Simply use below command:

pip show {package_name}

This blog will be continued with more interesting questions!!