This assignment is an example of a few things you can do in python:
- Reading in a file (.csv)
- Reading arguments from the command line
- Using text tools like regex to format strings
- Save dictionaries to pickle files
- Print formatted data
To run the script, ensure you have the contents of the project 1 directory from here, ensure you are in the directory and run:
python contact_parser.py data/data.csv
Assuming you have Python setup, it should run the script!
Python is such a quick tool to use, I think writing basic text processing is what it is meant to do. You can easily, while coding, run methods in the console to test regex or various function definitions. The ability to test and iterate quickly does mean the language hides a couple efficiency saving options from me. Built in functions like capitalize() hide their implementation from the user, which could harm efficiency and the accuracy of the code in other situations.
I got into the nitty gritty of some regex features, like certain unicode characters that I unfortunately didn't use in the final product. I also hadn't used the * or ** operators before to unpack lists into function arguments. I would say most of the rest of the project was a needed review in just coding in python. Even if it wasn't the most difficult, I had to remember a lot of content for the final product.