Modules - Python (part 12)

Using Modules 

Here's this chapter's typing exercise (name it cal.py (import actually looks for a file named calendar.py and reads it in. If the file is named calendar.py and it sees a "import calendar" it tries to read in itself which works poorly at best.)):

import calendar
year = input("Type in the year number: ")
calendar.prcal(year)
And here is part of the output I got:

Type in the year number: 2001

                                 2001                                 

       January                  February                    March     

Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su      Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su      Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1  2  3  4  5  6  7                1  2  3  4                1  2  3  4    
8  9 10 11 12 13 14       5  6  7  8  9 10 11       5  6  7  8  9 10 11
15 16 17 18 19 20 21      12 13 14 15 16 17 18      12 13 14 15 16 17 18    
22 23 24 25 26 27 28      19 20 21 22 23 24 25      19 20 21 22 23 24 25    
29 30 31                  26 27 28                  26 27 28 29 30 31       
(I skipped some of the output, but I think you get the idea.) So what does the program do? The first line import calendar uses a new command import. The command import loads a module (in this case the calendar module). To see the commands available in the standard modules either look in the library reference for python (if you downloaded it) or go to http://docs.python.org/library/. If you look at the documentation for the calendar module, it lists a function called prcal that prints a calendar for a year. The line calendar.prcal(year) uses this function. In summary to use a module import it and then use module_name.function for functions in the module. Another way to write the program is:

from calendar import prcal

year = input("Type in the year number: ")
prcal(year)
This version imports a specific function from a module. Here is another program that uses the Python Library (name it something like clock.py) (press Ctrl and the 'c' key at the same time to terminate the program):

from time import time, ctime

prev_time = ""
while True:
    the_time = ctime(time())
    if prev_time != the_time:
        print "The time is:", ctime(time())
        prev_time = the_time
With some output being:

The time is: Sun Aug 20 13:40:04 2000
The time is: Sun Aug 20 13:40:05 2000
The time is: Sun Aug 20 13:40:06 2000
The time is: Sun Aug 20 13:40:07 2000

Traceback (innermost last):
File "clock.py", line 5, in ?
    the_time = ctime(time())

KeyboardInterrupt
The output is infinite of course so I canceled it (or the output at least continues until Ctrl+C is pressed). The program just does a infinite loop (True is always true, so while True: goes forever) and each time checks to see if the time has changed and prints it if it has. Notice how multiple names after the import statement are used in the line from time import time, ctime.

The Python Library contains many useful functions. These functions give your programs more abilities and many of them can simplify programming in Python.

Exercises

Rewrite the High_low.py program from section Decisions to use a random integer between 0 and 99 instead of the hard-coded 78. Use the Python documentation to find an appropriate module and function to do this.