{"id":18684,"date":"2022-09-19T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T07:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.codemotion.com\/magazine\/?p=18684"},"modified":"2023-06-19T12:30:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T10:30:14","slug":"automate-everything-with-python","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codemotion.com\/magazine\/languages\/automate-everything-with-python\/","title":{"rendered":"Automate Everything with Python"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Without any trace of doubt, we can say it: coders love Python<\/a>. It’s consistently rated as one of the most popular programming languages in developer surveys. And it’s not hard to see why. It’s simple, quick to learn, easy to read and runs on virtually any OS or platform. In this article, we will cover some cool stuff that you can automate with Python.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there anything that Python can’t do?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Python<\/a> allows different paradigms, depending on what you find suitable: procedural, functional and object-oriented programming are all supported. It uses dynamic or duck-typing for intuitive coding and also features in-built garbage collection to keep your system resources in order. What’s more, it comes with a comprehensive and reliable standard library, so what’s not to love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Python’s been around for over 30 years. Right from the outset, its design philosophy was grounded in simplicity and ease of use<\/a>. For example, it uses whitespace and English keywords rather than punctuation and symbols to identify syntactic structures, which helps to keep code visually uncluttered, easy to read and better to share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Python also benefits from wide extensibility through its range of modules. The official source for these is the Python Package Index<\/a>, which currently holds around 400,000 projects. These libraries span a diverse spectrum of applications from machine learning to statistical utilities, image manipulation, natural language processing and tons more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, Python is a well-known player in the field of web apps, being the language behind widely-used frameworks like Django and Flask<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Python for automation?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But there’s so much more that Python can do. It’s very well suited to automation tasks, large and small. Because of its versatility, Python can adapt to problems of very different scales, from big, complex apps right down to minor scripting utilities. That means it can easily replace tools like bash scripts, AppleScript or Windows batch files for automating everyday admin jobs like file conversions, backups, disk monitoring and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, there are much more interesting uses than that, of course. So to whet your appetite, we’ve put together a handful of cool things you can automate with Python.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Python<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Cool things to automate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Automation on Games<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Given the complexity of some modern games, automation might seem like a pretty herculean task. However, all games rely on some kind of logic at heart, giving you something to work towards. Furthermore, games for mobile devices may be a lot simpler. Indeed, by starting small, you can get a handle on your techniques so that automation for more visually and logically complex games opens up as a possibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Python’s simple interface makes scripting game interaction a breeze. With the command line debugging interfaces provided by the likes of Android, you can easily communicate with a simulated host device running gaming apps. Python supports a number of adb<\/a> client libraries, allowing you to monitor and interrogate Android screen output as well as issue input commands like taps or swipes. With a little thought, you can determine the game actions by monitoring key pixel values and then trigger relevant input to get through game tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would you want to do this? You might want to beat the leaderboard or get past tedious or tricky game stages to find the fun bits. More seriously, these techniques can be invaluable for automating testing processes, lightening the demands put on QA engineers for repetitive and error-prone end-user testing. And of course, as a coding challenge, game automation can be enjoyable in its own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, you needn’t be limited to Android. You’ll also find libraries for desktop systems (such as PyWin for Windows<\/a>) or browser-based interactions, where you can use similar techniques to develop your game-playing engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Top Trending Python Frameworks Today<\/a><\/blockquote>