08 - Working on Small Projects & Automation

• python
• by Sn0wAlice

Introduction

One of the best ways to reinforce your Python skills is by working on small projects and exploring automation tasks. This step will guide you through project ideas and automation techniques to help you apply what you've learned.

---

1. Small Project Ideas

1. To-Do List Application

• Create a CLI-based or GUI-based task manager.
• Use a file (CSV/JSON) or database to store tasks.

2. Expense Tracker

• Allow users to input expenses and categorize them.
• Generate reports using Pandas.

3. Web Scraper

• Use requests and BeautifulSoup to extract data from websites.
• Save data into a CSV file for analysis.

4. Weather App

• Fetch weather data using an API (e.g., OpenWeatherMap).
• Display temperature, humidity, and weather conditions.

5. Password Manager

• Securely store and retrieve passwords.
• Encrypt stored passwords for security.

---

2. Automating Tasks with Python

Automation simplifies repetitive tasks like file management, web interactions, and data processing.

Automating File Management

import os
import shutil

def organize_files(directory):
    for file in os.listdir(directory):
        if file.endswith(".pdf"):
            shutil.move(file, "PDFs/")
        elif file.endswith(".jpg"):
            shutil.move(file, "Images/")

organize_files("/path/to/files")

Automating Web Scraping

pip install requests beautifulsoup4

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

response = requests.get("https://news.ycombinator.com/")
soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, "html.parser")

for title in soup.find_all("a", class_="storylink"):
    print(title.text)

Automating Email Sending

pip install smtplib

import smtplib

def send_email():
    server = smtplib.SMTP("smtp.gmail.com", 587)
    server.starttls()
    server.login("[email protected]", "your_password")
    server.sendmail("[email protected]", "[email protected]", "Hello from Python!")
    server.quit()

send_email()

Automating Excel Tasks with Pandas

import pandas as pd

data = pd.read_excel("data.xlsx")
summary = data.groupby("Category").sum()
summary.to_excel("summary.xlsx")

---

Exercises

• Build a to-do list application that allows users to add, remove, and save tasks.
• Create a web scraper that extracts and saves data from a website.
• Automate organizing files by moving them into categorized folders.
• Write a script that sends automated emails at scheduled intervals.
• Use Pandas to analyze and generate reports from an Excel file.

---

Conclusion

You have now learned how to apply Python skills in small projects and automate repetitive tasks. This hands-on experience will enhance your problem-solving abilities. The next step is to work with APIs and real-time data retrieval.

---