Quickstart¶
This file describes how one goes about installing and using ezconfig to solve a variety of common tasks such as searching for configuration files, looking through multiple configuration files for values, and parsing configuration values. It is built on top of Python’s ConfigurationParser, so it works with the stuff that’s already out there, and should be able to easily drop into your application.
If you’ve spent too much of your life writing too many little parsers to read configuration strings, this library may help you save what little time you have left on this planet for more productive activities.
Get rid of your stupid, “I’ll just write this quick and fix it up good now” code and move on with your life! … with ezconfig!
Example¶
The following example gives a quick example of how to use ezconfig to parse a single Configuration file at a time.
This example uses a configuration file from the project repository referenced in examples/example1.conf
Example Configuration file:¶
[section_one]
variable = first value # Comments are automatically supported
names = Tom, Dick, Harry
float_value = 3.14
fibonnacci = 1,2,3,4,5
timedelta_1 = 10
timedelta_2 = 3.4m
a_date = 12/30/2017 4:14
birthdays = 12/30/1975, Mar-30 1981, 1980-10-10
directory_of_conf_file = .
user_directory = ~
adder = lambda x: x+10
int_str_in_hex = 0x10
int_str_in_dec = 10
second_configuration_type: 2.72, 3.14 # Note second `key: value` format type
EZConfig example¶
The following code is run loading that configuration. This shows several examples of using the major arguments that overload the get method: default and mandatory, type, is_List, is_timedelta, is_datetime, and is_filename.
>>> import ezconfig.config
>>> conf = ezconfig.config.Configuration("examples/example1.conf")
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "variable")
first value
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "names", is_list=True)
[u'Tom', u'Dick', u'Harry']
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "float_value", type=float)
3.14
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "float_value", type=float, is_list=True)
[3.14]
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "fibonnacci", type=int, is_list=True)
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "timedelta_1", is_timedelta=True)
10.0
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "timedelta_2", is_timedelta=True)
204.0
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "a_date", is_datetime=True)
2017-12-30 04:14:00
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "birthdays", is_datetime=True, is_list=True)
[datetime.datetime(1975, 12, 30, 0, 0),
datetime.datetime(1981, 3, 30, 0, 0),
datetime.datetime(1980, 10, 10, 0, 0)]
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "directory_of_conf_file", is_filename=True)
/Users/nathan/Source/windfall/ezconfig/examples
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "user_directory", is_filename=True)
/Users/nathan
>>> print conf.get("section_one", "missing_value", default="this is the default")
this is the default
>>> adder_function = conf.get("section_one", "adder", is_code=True)
>>> print adder_function(10)
20
>>> conf.get("section_one", "int_str_in_hex", is_int_hex_str=True)
16
>>> conf.get("section_one", "int_str_in_dec", is_int_hex_str=True)
10
>>> conf.get("section_one", "second_configuration_type", type=float, is_list=True)
[2.72, 3.14]
>>>