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Lære Avoiding Anti-Patterns | Pythonic Best Practices
Code Quality and Refactoring in Python

bookAvoiding Anti-Patterns

Understanding and avoiding anti-patterns is essential for writing high-quality Python code. An anti-pattern is a common but ineffective or counterproductive coding practice that often emerges from a lack of experience or misunderstanding of best practices.

In Python, anti-patterns can take many forms, but some of the most prevalent include:

  • Unnecessary complexity: code that is more complicated than needed, making it harder to read, test, and maintain;
  • Misuse of data structures: using lists where sets would be more appropriate, or vice versa, leading to inefficient and confusing code;
  • Poor exception handling: catching overly broad exceptions or ignoring exceptions altogether, which can mask errors and make debugging difficult.

By recognizing these patterns and replacing them with more Pythonic solutions, you can write code that is clearer, more efficient, and easier to maintain.

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# Anti-pattern: Using unnecessary loops and complexity to check for duplicates def has_duplicates(lst): for i in range(len(lst)): for j in range(i + 1, len(lst)): if lst[i] == lst[j]: return True return False # Pythonic version: Using a set for efficient duplicate checking def has_duplicates_pythonic(lst): return len(lst) != len(set(lst)) # Example usage numbers = [1, 2, 3, 2] print(has_duplicates(numbers)) # Output: True print(has_duplicates_pythonic(numbers)) # Output: True
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1. Which of the following best describes an anti-pattern?

2. Fill in the blank to identify the anti-pattern in the exception handling in this code snippet.

question mark

Which of the following best describes an anti-pattern?

Select the correct answer

question-icon

Fill in the blank to identify the anti-pattern in the exception handling in this code snippet.

def get_first_item(items): try: return items[0] return None
None

Click or drag`n`drop items and fill in the blanks

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Hvordan kan vi forbedre det?

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Seksjon 3. Kapittel 2

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bookAvoiding Anti-Patterns

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Understanding and avoiding anti-patterns is essential for writing high-quality Python code. An anti-pattern is a common but ineffective or counterproductive coding practice that often emerges from a lack of experience or misunderstanding of best practices.

In Python, anti-patterns can take many forms, but some of the most prevalent include:

  • Unnecessary complexity: code that is more complicated than needed, making it harder to read, test, and maintain;
  • Misuse of data structures: using lists where sets would be more appropriate, or vice versa, leading to inefficient and confusing code;
  • Poor exception handling: catching overly broad exceptions or ignoring exceptions altogether, which can mask errors and make debugging difficult.

By recognizing these patterns and replacing them with more Pythonic solutions, you can write code that is clearer, more efficient, and easier to maintain.

12345678910111213141516
# Anti-pattern: Using unnecessary loops and complexity to check for duplicates def has_duplicates(lst): for i in range(len(lst)): for j in range(i + 1, len(lst)): if lst[i] == lst[j]: return True return False # Pythonic version: Using a set for efficient duplicate checking def has_duplicates_pythonic(lst): return len(lst) != len(set(lst)) # Example usage numbers = [1, 2, 3, 2] print(has_duplicates(numbers)) # Output: True print(has_duplicates_pythonic(numbers)) # Output: True
copy

1. Which of the following best describes an anti-pattern?

2. Fill in the blank to identify the anti-pattern in the exception handling in this code snippet.

question mark

Which of the following best describes an anti-pattern?

Select the correct answer

question-icon

Fill in the blank to identify the anti-pattern in the exception handling in this code snippet.

def get_first_item(items): try: return items[0] return None
None

Click or drag`n`drop items and fill in the blanks

Alt var klart?

Hvordan kan vi forbedre det?

Takk for tilbakemeldingene dine!

Seksjon 3. Kapittel 2
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