Saturday 21 March 2020

Best Practices for Managing Python Dependencies and Structuring Your Code

As for structuring the python code, there are several ways to achieve this. Here's one approach that you can use:

  • Define a separate module for each class or group of related classes. This will help you organize your code and make it easier to maintain.
  • Use docstrings to provide clear and concise documentation for each module, class, and method. This will make it easier for other developers to understand your code and use it in their own projects.
  • Define a main function or class that will serve as the entry point for your code. This will make it easier to test your code and run it from the command line.
  • Use command line arguments or configuration files to allow users to customize the behavior of your code. This will make it more flexible and adaptable to different use cases.
  • Use virtual environments to manage your dependencies and ensure that your code works with the specific versions of the packages you need.

myproject/ __init__.py main.py models/ __init__.py base.py lgbm.py utils/ __init__.py config.py


In this example, we have a top-level myproject package with an __init__.py file, which signals to Python that it is a package. The main.py module serves as the entry point for the code.

The models package contains the base.py module, which defines a base class for all models, and the lgbm.py module, which contains the LGBMModel class that uses the lightgbm package.

The utils package contains the config.py module, which provides functions for reading configuration files and parsing command line arguments.

To run the code, you can use the following command from the top-level directory of the project:

python main.py --use_lightgbm_heuristics


This will create an instance of the LGBMModel class with the use_lightgbm_heuristics argument set to True and train the model on the specified data. You can also run the code with --use_lightgbm_heuristics=False to use the vanilla version of lightgbm.

Here's an example of how you can structure your code using these principles:

Method 1: Managing Dependencies Based Upon User Input

  1. Explain the problem of managing dependencies in Python projects
  2. Discuss the benefits of using virtual environments
  3. Introduce the concept of conditional imports and how they can be used to manage dependencies based upon user input
  4. Provide code examples demonstrating how to use conditional imports to allow users to choose between different packages or versions

use_custom_package = True
if use_custom_package:
    import custom_package as package
else:
    import default_package as package

# Use package here

  1. Discuss the use of configuration files or command line arguments to allow users to specify their desired dependencies
  2. Provide code examples showing how to use configuration files or command line arguments to install and use specific packages

# Using argparse for command line arguments
import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--use_custom_package', action='store_true', default=False)
args = parser.parse_args()

if args.use_custom_package:
    import custom_package as package
else:
    import default_package as package

# Use package here


Method 2: Structuring Your Code
  1. Explain the benefits of structuring code in a modular and flexible way
  2. Discuss the importance of using docstrings to provide clear and concise documentation
  3. Introduce the concept of modules and packages in Python and how they can be used to organize code
  4. Provide guidelines for structuring code, including defining a separate module for each class or group of related classes, defining a main function or class, and using command line arguments or configuration files to customize behavior

# Example of a simple module with a single class
"""Module documentation"""

class MyClass:
    """Class documentation"""

    def __init__(self, arg):
        """Constructor documentation"""
        self.arg = arg

    def my_method(self):
        """Method documentation"""
        print(self.arg)

# Example of a main function that uses command line arguments
def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument('arg', help='An argument for the program')
    args = parser.parse_args()

    my_object = MyClass(args.arg)
    my_object.my_method()



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