CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonjsonconfig
Luis Ramon Ramirez Rodriguez
Luis Ramon Ramirez Rodriguez

Reputation: 10443

How to write config files for python scripts

I working improve the quality of the scripts I write to make them more maintainable avoiding hard coding values. So far I'm using a json file to save this values, E.G.

A json file called config_test.json:

{"input_dir":"data/input",
"output_dir":"data/output",
"default_value":10,
"dtypes":["str","int","str","float"]
}

Then I read this values from the main file:

import json
with open('config_test.json') as f:
    config_d = json.load(f)
config_d

default_value =   config_d['default_value']
dtypes =   config_d['dtypes']
input_dir =   config_d['input_dir']
output_dir =   config_d['output_dir']

I'm not completely comfortable with this solution, is there any standard approach to writing config files in python?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 188

Answers (2)

aghast
aghast

Reputation: 15320

Do not discount the possibility of writing your config file in Python itself.

some_dir/app_config.py

input_dir = "data/input"
output_dir = "data/output"
default_value = 10
dtypes = "str int str float".split()

bin/app.py

import argparse
import app_config as config

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--inputdir', default=config.input_dir)

Upvotes: 1

Dimitrios Filippou
Dimitrios Filippou

Reputation: 465

Make your life easier with pyyaml

import yaml

with open("settings.yml", 'r') as stream:
    data = yaml.safe_load(stream)

Your settings.yml =>

ip_address : '0.0.0.0'
sqlite     : 'sqlite:///data.db'
key        : 'super-secret-hoho'

answers:
    technology: ['option3', 'option3', 'option4', 'option3', 'option3', 'option4', 'option4', 'option2', 'option3', 'option3']

Then access with 

my_not_hardcoded_ip = data['ip_address']

Its better to read and cleaner , i totally recommend it!

Upvotes: 1

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