gems 0.4.0

Python utilities for data manipulation and management.

gems

Python utilities for data manipulation and management.

Installation

Via github:

~$ git clone http://github.com/bprinty/gems.git
~$ cd gems
~$ python setup.py install

Via pip:

~$ pip install gems

Documentation

Documentation for the package can be found here.

Usage

The gems module provides specialized data structures to augment development. It’s similar to the collections module, but contains different types of objects.

Currently, the following objects are available (this list will grow with time and feedback):

Name	Description
composite	JSON-like data structure for easy data traversal.
filetree	JSON-like data structure for easy filesystem traversal.

composite

The composite object abstracts away the complexity associated with managing heavily nested JSON-based structures, allowing easier access to internal properties, and providing operators that work with the data in an intuitive way. Here is a simple example of how to use the composite type in a project:

>>> from gems import composite
>>>
>>> data = composite({
>>>     'one': 1,
>>>     'two': [1, 2, 3],
>>>     'three': ['one', 2, {'three': 'four'}],
>>>     'four': {'five': [6, 7, 8], 'nine': 10, 'eleven': 'twelve'}
>>> })
>>> data.four.five[1] == 6
True
>>> data.two[0] == 1
True

In the example above, an arbitrary data structure is provided as an argument to the composite object, and is transformed into an object where properties can be traversed more gracefully (syntactically). You can also load a composite object from a json or yaml file like so:

>>> from gems import composite
>>>
>>> with open('data.json', 'r') as fi:
>>>     data = composite.load(fi)
>>>
>>> print data.four.five[1]
6
>>>
>>> with open('data.yml', 'r') as fi:
>>>     data = composite.load(fi)
>>>
>>> print data.four.five[1]
6

There are also operations tied to composite objects. If two composite objects or a composite object and another similar type are added, you get a composite object as a result that combines the objects in an intuitive way:

>>> # using the 'data' object from above
>>> obj = data + {'five': 6}
>>> obj.five == 6
True
>>> obj.two === [1, 2, 3]
True

>>> obj = data + [1, 2, 3]
>>> obj[0].one.two[0] == 1
True
>>> obj[1][1] == 2
True

>>> data2 = composite([
    1, 2, 3, {'four': 5}
])
>>> obj = data2 + {'five': 6}
>>> obj[0][0] == 1
True
>>> obj[0][2].four == 5
True
>>> obj = data2 + ['seven', 8, 9]
>>> obj[4:6] == ['seven', 8]
True

Other operations like this also can be used with the composite object. For example:

>>> # using the 'data' object from above
>>> 'three' in data
True
>>> 7 in data.four.five
True
>>> data.four.five == [6, 7, 8]
True
>>> data == data2
False

filetree

Traversal of a filetree is typically a pain in python. You could use os.path.walk to within a recursive function to accomplish it, but there should be an easier way. That’s where the gems.filetree comes in handy. Here is an example of how to use the gems.filetree type in a project:

>>> from gems import filetree
>>>
>>> # mydir is a directory with the structure below
>>> ftree = filetree('mydir')
>>> print ftree
mydir/
     one/
        two.txt
        three.json
    two/
        three/
              four.txt
        five six/
                 seven.txt
        eight.config

The gems.filetree structure also allows for traversal of the file data like so:

>>> print data.one['two.txt']
/full/path/to/mydir/one/two.txt
>>>
>>> print data.two.three['four.txt']
/full/path/to/mydir/two/three/four.txt
>>>
>>> print data.two['five six']['eight.config']
/full/path/to/mydir/two/five six/eight.config

Using JSON-based access is much easier and cleaner than doing many os.path.join operations to create the full paths to objects on your filesystem.

Questions/Feedback

File an issue in the GitHub issue tracker.