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A Quick Introduction to Python's Standard Library

Leverage what Python gives you in its massive standard library.

Author

Brandon Molyneaux
March 06, 2024

One of the aspects of Python that I really like is how expansive the standard library is.

The language provides several basic operations, such as sorting, file and directory operations, and even date time operations (AKA: “standard library”).

Below I’ve listed some of the more common functions/methods I’ve used in the past (and still do).

  1. File/Directory Operations - using os module (documentation):

Checking file/directory existence

os.path.exists()

Joining file system paths

os.path.join()

Listing files in a directory

os.listdir()

Retrieve an environment variable

os.getenv()

Recursively create/remove directories

os.makedirs()
os.removedirs()

Create/Remove a directory

os.mkdir()
os.rmdir()

Remove a file

os.remove()

Generate file names in a directory tree

os.walk()

  1. String Manipulation Methods (documentation):

Capitalize the string

str.capitalize()

Uppercase the string

str.upper()

Lowercase the string

str.lower()

Remove whitespace around the string

str.strip()

Concatenate a list into a string

str.join()

  1. Datetime Operations - using datetime module (documentation):

Return the current UTC date

datetime.utcnow()^
datetime.now(datetime.UTC)^

Convert a string to a datetime object

datetime.strptime()*

Build a string from a datetime object

datetime.strftime()

^ At some point in Python 3.12.3+, they’ll be removing datetime.utcnow() and replacing it with datetime.now(datetime.UTC).
* Often times, strptime and strftime get confused. Remember: “p” in strptime is “parse”.

  1. Built-in Functions (documentation):

Absolute value

abs()

Print information to the console

print()

Determine length of object

len()

Generate a sequence of numbers

range()

Sum all elements in a list

sum()

Get minimum/maximum from a list

min()
max()

Get the object’s type

type()

Sort a list

sorted()

This is only a snippet of what Python’s standard library has to offer. Even to this day, I don’t know all of the standard library.

Quite frankly, I don’t think anyone knows the standard library entirely.

So what does this mean for you?

This means you don’t have to write all of this “common functionality” code yourself!

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