1622532037
Sometimes, we may want to let users download a nested array with data as a CSV text file.
In this article, we’ll look at how to let users download a JavaScript array’s data as a CSV on the client-side.
We can use the window.open
method to open a URL encoded string to let users download that to their computer.
For instance, we can write:
const rows = [
["name1", "new york", "abc"],
["name2", "san francisco", "def"]
];
let csvContent = "data:text/csv;charset=utf-8,";
for (const rowArray of rows) {
const row = rowArray.join(",");
csvContent += `${row}\r\n`;
}
const encodedUri = encodeURI(csvContent);
window.open(encodedUri);
We have the rows
nested array that we want to convert to a CSV string and let users download it.
To do the conversion, we first define the beginning of the csvContent
string which specifies the MIME type and the character set.
Then we loop through the rows
entries, join each row’s entries and append them to the csvContent
string with newline characters.
Then we call encodeURI
with the csvContent
string to encode it to a URL encoded string.
And finally, we can download the string as a file with window.open
.
#programming #javascript #software-development
1666082925
This tutorialvideo on 'Arrays in Python' will help you establish a strong hold on all the fundamentals in python programming language. Below are the topics covered in this video:
1:15 What is an array?
2:53 Is python list same as an array?
3:48 How to create arrays in python?
7:19 Accessing array elements
9:59 Basic array operations
- 10:33 Finding the length of an array
- 11:44 Adding Elements
- 15:06 Removing elements
- 18:32 Array concatenation
- 20:59 Slicing
- 23:26 Looping
Python Array Tutorial – Define, Index, Methods
In this article, you'll learn how to use Python arrays. You'll see how to define them and the different methods commonly used for performing operations on them.
The artcile covers arrays that you create by importing the array module
. We won't cover NumPy arrays here.
Let's get started!
Arrays are a fundamental data structure, and an important part of most programming languages. In Python, they are containers which are able to store more than one item at the same time.
Specifically, they are an ordered collection of elements with every value being of the same data type. That is the most important thing to remember about Python arrays - the fact that they can only hold a sequence of multiple items that are of the same type.
Lists are one of the most common data structures in Python, and a core part of the language.
Lists and arrays behave similarly.
Just like arrays, lists are an ordered sequence of elements.
They are also mutable and not fixed in size, which means they can grow and shrink throughout the life of the program. Items can be added and removed, making them very flexible to work with.
However, lists and arrays are not the same thing.
Lists store items that are of various data types. This means that a list can contain integers, floating point numbers, strings, or any other Python data type, at the same time. That is not the case with arrays.
As mentioned in the section above, arrays store only items that are of the same single data type. There are arrays that contain only integers, or only floating point numbers, or only any other Python data type you want to use.
Lists are built into the Python programming language, whereas arrays aren't. Arrays are not a built-in data structure, and therefore need to be imported via the array module
in order to be used.
Arrays of the array module
are a thin wrapper over C arrays, and are useful when you want to work with homogeneous data.
They are also more compact and take up less memory and space which makes them more size efficient compared to lists.
If you want to perform mathematical calculations, then you should use NumPy arrays by importing the NumPy package. Besides that, you should just use Python arrays when you really need to, as lists work in a similar way and are more flexible to work with.
In order to create Python arrays, you'll first have to import the array module
which contains all the necassary functions.
There are three ways you can import the array module
:
import array
at the top of the file. This includes the module array
. You would then go on to create an array using array.array()
.import array
#how you would create an array
array.array()
array.array()
all the time, you could use import array as arr
at the top of the file, instead of import array
alone. You would then create an array by typing arr.array()
. The arr
acts as an alias name, with the array constructor then immediately following it.import array as arr
#how you would create an array
arr.array()
from array import *
, with *
importing all the functionalities available. You would then create an array by writing the array()
constructor alone.from array import *
#how you would create an array
array()
Once you've imported the array module
, you can then go on to define a Python array.
The general syntax for creating an array looks like this:
variable_name = array(typecode,[elements])
Let's break it down:
variable_name
would be the name of the array.typecode
specifies what kind of elements would be stored in the array. Whether it would be an array of integers, an array of floats or an array of any other Python data type. Remember that all elements should be of the same data type.elements
that would be stored in the array, with each element being separated by a comma. You can also create an empty array by just writing variable_name = array(typecode)
alone, without any elements.Below is a typecode table, with the different typecodes that can be used with the different data types when defining Python arrays:
TYPECODE | C TYPE | PYTHON TYPE | SIZE |
---|---|---|---|
'b' | signed char | int | 1 |
'B' | unsigned char | int | 1 |
'u' | wchar_t | Unicode character | 2 |
'h' | signed short | int | 2 |
'H' | unsigned short | int | 2 |
'i' | signed int | int | 2 |
'I' | unsigned int | int | 2 |
'l' | signed long | int | 4 |
'L' | unsigned long | int | 4 |
'q' | signed long long | int | 8 |
'Q' | unsigned long long | int | 8 |
'f' | float | float | 4 |
'd' | double | float | 8 |
Tying everything together, here is an example of how you would define an array in Python:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [10, 20, 30])
Let's break it down:
import array as arr
.numbers
array.arr.array()
because of import array as arr
.array()
constructor, we first included i
, for signed integer. Signed integer means that the array can include positive and negative values. Unsigned integer, with H
for example, would mean that no negative values are allowed.Keep in mind that if you tried to include values that were not of i
typecode, meaning they were not integer values, you would get an error:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10.0,20,30])
print(numbers)
#output
#Traceback (most recent call last):
# File "/Users/dionysialemonaki/python_articles/demo.py", line 14, in <module>
# numbers = arr.array('i',[10.0,20,30])
#TypeError: 'float' object cannot be interpreted as an integer
In the example above, I tried to include a floating point number in the array. I got an error because this is meant to be an integer array only.
Another way to create an array is the following:
from array import *
#an array of floating point values
numbers = array('d',[10.0,20.0,30.0])
print(numbers)
#output
#array('d', [10.0, 20.0, 30.0])
The example above imported the array module
via from array import *
and created an array numbers
of float data type. This means that it holds only floating point numbers, which is specified with the 'd'
typecode.
To find out the exact number of elements contained in an array, use the built-in len()
method.
It will return the integer number that is equal to the total number of elements in the array you specify.
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
print(len(numbers))
#output
# 3
In the example above, the array contained three elements – 10, 20, 30
– so the length of numbers
is 3
.
Each item in an array has a specific address. Individual items are accessed by referencing their index number.
Indexing in Python, and in all programming languages and computing in general, starts at 0
. It is important to remember that counting starts at 0
and not at 1
.
To access an element, you first write the name of the array followed by square brackets. Inside the square brackets you include the item's index number.
The general syntax would look something like this:
array_name[index_value_of_item]
Here is how you would access each individual element in an array:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
print(numbers[0]) # gets the 1st element
print(numbers[1]) # gets the 2nd element
print(numbers[2]) # gets the 3rd element
#output
#10
#20
#30
Remember that the index value of the last element of an array is always one less than the length of the array. Where n
is the length of the array, n - 1
will be the index value of the last item.
Note that you can also access each individual element using negative indexing.
With negative indexing, the last element would have an index of -1
, the second to last element would have an index of -2
, and so on.
Here is how you would get each item in an array using that method:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
print(numbers[-1]) #gets last item
print(numbers[-2]) #gets second to last item
print(numbers[-3]) #gets first item
#output
#30
#20
#10
You can find out an element's index number by using the index()
method.
You pass the value of the element being searched as the argument to the method, and the element's index number is returned.
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#search for the index of the value 10
print(numbers.index(10))
#output
#0
If there is more than one element with the same value, the index of the first instance of the value will be returned:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30,10,20,30])
#search for the index of the value 10
#will return the index number of the first instance of the value 10
print(numbers.index(10))
#output
#0
You've seen how to access each individual element in an array and print it out on its own.
You've also seen how to print the array, using the print()
method. That method gives the following result:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [10, 20, 30])
What if you want to print each value one by one?
This is where a loop comes in handy. You can loop through the array and print out each value, one-by-one, with each loop iteration.
For this you can use a simple for
loop:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
for number in numbers:
print(number)
#output
#10
#20
#30
You could also use the range()
function, and pass the len()
method as its parameter. This would give the same result as above:
import array as arr
values = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#prints each individual value in the array
for value in range(len(values)):
print(values[value])
#output
#10
#20
#30
To access a specific range of values inside the array, use the slicing operator, which is a colon :
.
When using the slicing operator and you only include one value, the counting starts from 0
by default. It gets the first item, and goes up to but not including the index number you specify.
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#get the values 10 and 20 only
print(numbers[:2]) #first to second position
#output
#array('i', [10, 20])
When you pass two numbers as arguments, you specify a range of numbers. In this case, the counting starts at the position of the first number in the range, and up to but not including the second one:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#get the values 20 and 30 only
print(numbers[1:3]) #second to third position
#output
#rray('i', [20, 30])
Arrays are mutable, which means they are changeable. You can change the value of the different items, add new ones, or remove any you don't want in your program anymore.
Let's see some of the most commonly used methods which are used for performing operations on arrays.
You can change the value of a specific element by speficying its position and assigning it a new value:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#change the first element
#change it from having a value of 10 to having a value of 40
numbers[0] = 40
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [40, 20, 30])
To add one single value at the end of an array, use the append()
method:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#add the integer 40 to the end of numbers
numbers.append(40)
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [10, 20, 30, 40])
Be aware that the new item you add needs to be the same data type as the rest of the items in the array.
Look what happens when I try to add a float to an array of integers:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#add the integer 40 to the end of numbers
numbers.append(40.0)
print(numbers)
#output
#Traceback (most recent call last):
# File "/Users/dionysialemonaki/python_articles/demo.py", line 19, in <module>
# numbers.append(40.0)
#TypeError: 'float' object cannot be interpreted as an integer
But what if you want to add more than one value to the end an array?
Use the extend()
method, which takes an iterable (such as a list of items) as an argument. Again, make sure that the new items are all the same data type.
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#add the integers 40,50,60 to the end of numbers
#The numbers need to be enclosed in square brackets
numbers.extend([40,50,60])
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60])
And what if you don't want to add an item to the end of an array? Use the insert()
method, to add an item at a specific position.
The insert()
function takes two arguments: the index number of the position the new element will be inserted, and the value of the new element.
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#add the integer 40 in the first position
#remember indexing starts at 0
numbers.insert(0,40)
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [40, 10, 20, 30])
To remove an element from an array, use the remove()
method and include the value as an argument to the method.
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
numbers.remove(10)
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [20, 30])
With remove()
, only the first instance of the value you pass as an argument will be removed.
See what happens when there are more than one identical values:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30,10,20])
numbers.remove(10)
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [20, 30, 10, 20])
Only the first occurence of 10
is removed.
You can also use the pop()
method, and specify the position of the element to be removed:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30,10,20])
#remove the first instance of 10
numbers.pop(0)
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [20, 30, 10, 20])
And there you have it - you now know the basics of how to create arrays in Python using the array module
. Hopefully you found this guide helpful.
Thanks for reading and happy coding!
#python #programming
1670560264
Learn how to use Python arrays. Create arrays in Python using the array module. You'll see how to define them and the different methods commonly used for performing operations on them.
The artcile covers arrays that you create by importing the array module
. We won't cover NumPy arrays here.
Let's get started!
Arrays are a fundamental data structure, and an important part of most programming languages. In Python, they are containers which are able to store more than one item at the same time.
Specifically, they are an ordered collection of elements with every value being of the same data type. That is the most important thing to remember about Python arrays - the fact that they can only hold a sequence of multiple items that are of the same type.
Lists are one of the most common data structures in Python, and a core part of the language.
Lists and arrays behave similarly.
Just like arrays, lists are an ordered sequence of elements.
They are also mutable and not fixed in size, which means they can grow and shrink throughout the life of the program. Items can be added and removed, making them very flexible to work with.
However, lists and arrays are not the same thing.
Lists store items that are of various data types. This means that a list can contain integers, floating point numbers, strings, or any other Python data type, at the same time. That is not the case with arrays.
As mentioned in the section above, arrays store only items that are of the same single data type. There are arrays that contain only integers, or only floating point numbers, or only any other Python data type you want to use.
Lists are built into the Python programming language, whereas arrays aren't. Arrays are not a built-in data structure, and therefore need to be imported via the array module
in order to be used.
Arrays of the array module
are a thin wrapper over C arrays, and are useful when you want to work with homogeneous data.
They are also more compact and take up less memory and space which makes them more size efficient compared to lists.
If you want to perform mathematical calculations, then you should use NumPy arrays by importing the NumPy package. Besides that, you should just use Python arrays when you really need to, as lists work in a similar way and are more flexible to work with.
In order to create Python arrays, you'll first have to import the array module
which contains all the necassary functions.
There are three ways you can import the array module
:
import array
at the top of the file. This includes the module array
. You would then go on to create an array using array.array()
.import array
#how you would create an array
array.array()
array.array()
all the time, you could use import array as arr
at the top of the file, instead of import array
alone. You would then create an array by typing arr.array()
. The arr
acts as an alias name, with the array constructor then immediately following it.import array as arr
#how you would create an array
arr.array()
from array import *
, with *
importing all the functionalities available. You would then create an array by writing the array()
constructor alone.from array import *
#how you would create an array
array()
Once you've imported the array module
, you can then go on to define a Python array.
The general syntax for creating an array looks like this:
variable_name = array(typecode,[elements])
Let's break it down:
variable_name
would be the name of the array.typecode
specifies what kind of elements would be stored in the array. Whether it would be an array of integers, an array of floats or an array of any other Python data type. Remember that all elements should be of the same data type.elements
that would be stored in the array, with each element being separated by a comma. You can also create an empty array by just writing variable_name = array(typecode)
alone, without any elements.Below is a typecode table, with the different typecodes that can be used with the different data types when defining Python arrays:
TYPECODE | C TYPE | PYTHON TYPE | SIZE |
---|---|---|---|
'b' | signed char | int | 1 |
'B' | unsigned char | int | 1 |
'u' | wchar_t | Unicode character | 2 |
'h' | signed short | int | 2 |
'H' | unsigned short | int | 2 |
'i' | signed int | int | 2 |
'I' | unsigned int | int | 2 |
'l' | signed long | int | 4 |
'L' | unsigned long | int | 4 |
'q' | signed long long | int | 8 |
'Q' | unsigned long long | int | 8 |
'f' | float | float | 4 |
'd' | double | float | 8 |
Tying everything together, here is an example of how you would define an array in Python:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [10, 20, 30])
Let's break it down:
import array as arr
.numbers
array.arr.array()
because of import array as arr
.array()
constructor, we first included i
, for signed integer. Signed integer means that the array can include positive and negative values. Unsigned integer, with H
for example, would mean that no negative values are allowed.Keep in mind that if you tried to include values that were not of i
typecode, meaning they were not integer values, you would get an error:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10.0,20,30])
print(numbers)
#output
#Traceback (most recent call last):
# File "/Users/dionysialemonaki/python_articles/demo.py", line 14, in <module>
# numbers = arr.array('i',[10.0,20,30])
#TypeError: 'float' object cannot be interpreted as an integer
In the example above, I tried to include a floating point number in the array. I got an error because this is meant to be an integer array only.
Another way to create an array is the following:
from array import *
#an array of floating point values
numbers = array('d',[10.0,20.0,30.0])
print(numbers)
#output
#array('d', [10.0, 20.0, 30.0])
The example above imported the array module
via from array import *
and created an array numbers
of float data type. This means that it holds only floating point numbers, which is specified with the 'd'
typecode.
To find out the exact number of elements contained in an array, use the built-in len()
method.
It will return the integer number that is equal to the total number of elements in the array you specify.
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
print(len(numbers))
#output
# 3
In the example above, the array contained three elements – 10, 20, 30
– so the length of numbers
is 3
.
Each item in an array has a specific address. Individual items are accessed by referencing their index number.
Indexing in Python, and in all programming languages and computing in general, starts at 0
. It is important to remember that counting starts at 0
and not at 1
.
To access an element, you first write the name of the array followed by square brackets. Inside the square brackets you include the item's index number.
The general syntax would look something like this:
array_name[index_value_of_item]
Here is how you would access each individual element in an array:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
print(numbers[0]) # gets the 1st element
print(numbers[1]) # gets the 2nd element
print(numbers[2]) # gets the 3rd element
#output
#10
#20
#30
Remember that the index value of the last element of an array is always one less than the length of the array. Where n
is the length of the array, n - 1
will be the index value of the last item.
Note that you can also access each individual element using negative indexing.
With negative indexing, the last element would have an index of -1
, the second to last element would have an index of -2
, and so on.
Here is how you would get each item in an array using that method:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
print(numbers[-1]) #gets last item
print(numbers[-2]) #gets second to last item
print(numbers[-3]) #gets first item
#output
#30
#20
#10
You can find out an element's index number by using the index()
method.
You pass the value of the element being searched as the argument to the method, and the element's index number is returned.
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#search for the index of the value 10
print(numbers.index(10))
#output
#0
If there is more than one element with the same value, the index of the first instance of the value will be returned:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30,10,20,30])
#search for the index of the value 10
#will return the index number of the first instance of the value 10
print(numbers.index(10))
#output
#0
You've seen how to access each individual element in an array and print it out on its own.
You've also seen how to print the array, using the print()
method. That method gives the following result:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [10, 20, 30])
What if you want to print each value one by one?
This is where a loop comes in handy. You can loop through the array and print out each value, one-by-one, with each loop iteration.
For this you can use a simple for
loop:
import array as arr
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
for number in numbers:
print(number)
#output
#10
#20
#30
You could also use the range()
function, and pass the len()
method as its parameter. This would give the same result as above:
import array as arr
values = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#prints each individual value in the array
for value in range(len(values)):
print(values[value])
#output
#10
#20
#30
To access a specific range of values inside the array, use the slicing operator, which is a colon :
.
When using the slicing operator and you only include one value, the counting starts from 0
by default. It gets the first item, and goes up to but not including the index number you specify.
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#get the values 10 and 20 only
print(numbers[:2]) #first to second position
#output
#array('i', [10, 20])
When you pass two numbers as arguments, you specify a range of numbers. In this case, the counting starts at the position of the first number in the range, and up to but not including the second one:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#get the values 20 and 30 only
print(numbers[1:3]) #second to third position
#output
#rray('i', [20, 30])
Arrays are mutable, which means they are changeable. You can change the value of the different items, add new ones, or remove any you don't want in your program anymore.
Let's see some of the most commonly used methods which are used for performing operations on arrays.
You can change the value of a specific element by speficying its position and assigning it a new value:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#change the first element
#change it from having a value of 10 to having a value of 40
numbers[0] = 40
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [40, 20, 30])
To add one single value at the end of an array, use the append()
method:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#add the integer 40 to the end of numbers
numbers.append(40)
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [10, 20, 30, 40])
Be aware that the new item you add needs to be the same data type as the rest of the items in the array.
Look what happens when I try to add a float to an array of integers:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#add the integer 40 to the end of numbers
numbers.append(40.0)
print(numbers)
#output
#Traceback (most recent call last):
# File "/Users/dionysialemonaki/python_articles/demo.py", line 19, in <module>
# numbers.append(40.0)
#TypeError: 'float' object cannot be interpreted as an integer
But what if you want to add more than one value to the end an array?
Use the extend()
method, which takes an iterable (such as a list of items) as an argument. Again, make sure that the new items are all the same data type.
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#add the integers 40,50,60 to the end of numbers
#The numbers need to be enclosed in square brackets
numbers.extend([40,50,60])
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60])
And what if you don't want to add an item to the end of an array? Use the insert()
method, to add an item at a specific position.
The insert()
function takes two arguments: the index number of the position the new element will be inserted, and the value of the new element.
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
#add the integer 40 in the first position
#remember indexing starts at 0
numbers.insert(0,40)
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [40, 10, 20, 30])
To remove an element from an array, use the remove()
method and include the value as an argument to the method.
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30])
numbers.remove(10)
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [20, 30])
With remove()
, only the first instance of the value you pass as an argument will be removed.
See what happens when there are more than one identical values:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30,10,20])
numbers.remove(10)
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [20, 30, 10, 20])
Only the first occurence of 10
is removed.
You can also use the pop()
method, and specify the position of the element to be removed:
import array as arr
#original array
numbers = arr.array('i',[10,20,30,10,20])
#remove the first instance of 10
numbers.pop(0)
print(numbers)
#output
#array('i', [20, 30, 10, 20])
And there you have it - you now know the basics of how to create arrays in Python using the array module
. Hopefully you found this guide helpful.
You'll start from the basics and learn in an interacitve and beginner-friendly way. You'll also build five projects at the end to put into practice and help reinforce what you learned.
Thanks for reading and happy coding!
Original article source at https://www.freecodecamp.org
#python
1620466520
If you accumulate data on which you base your decision-making as an organization, you should probably think about your data architecture and possible best practices.
If you accumulate data on which you base your decision-making as an organization, you most probably need to think about your data architecture and consider possible best practices. Gaining a competitive edge, remaining customer-centric to the greatest extent possible, and streamlining processes to get on-the-button outcomes can all be traced back to an organization’s capacity to build a future-ready data architecture.
In what follows, we offer a short overview of the overarching capabilities of data architecture. These include user-centricity, elasticity, robustness, and the capacity to ensure the seamless flow of data at all times. Added to these are automation enablement, plus security and data governance considerations. These points from our checklist for what we perceive to be an anticipatory analytics ecosystem.
#big data #data science #big data analytics #data analysis #data architecture #data transformation #data platform #data strategy #cloud data platform #data acquisition
1620629020
The opportunities big data offers also come with very real challenges that many organizations are facing today. Often, it’s finding the most cost-effective, scalable way to store and process boundless volumes of data in multiple formats that come from a growing number of sources. Then organizations need the analytical capabilities and flexibility to turn this data into insights that can meet their specific business objectives.
This Refcard dives into how a data lake helps tackle these challenges at both ends — from its enhanced architecture that’s designed for efficient data ingestion, storage, and management to its advanced analytics functionality and performance flexibility. You’ll also explore key benefits and common use cases.
As technology continues to evolve with new data sources, such as IoT sensors and social media churning out large volumes of data, there has never been a better time to discuss the possibilities and challenges of managing such data for varying analytical insights. In this Refcard, we dig deep into how data lakes solve the problem of storing and processing enormous amounts of data. While doing so, we also explore the benefits of data lakes, their use cases, and how they differ from data warehouses (DWHs).
This is a preview of the Getting Started With Data Lakes Refcard. To read the entire Refcard, please download the PDF from the link above.
#big data #data analytics #data analysis #business analytics #data warehouse #data storage #data lake #data lake architecture #data lake governance #data lake management
1555901576
In this article we are going to focus on building a basic sidebar, and the main chat window inside our chat shell. See below.
Chat shell with a fixed width sidebar and expanded chat window
This is the second article in this series. You can check out the previous article for setting up the shell OR you can just check out the chat-shell branch from the following repository.
https://github.com/lyraddigital/flexbox-chat-app.git
Open up the chat.html file. You should have the following HTML.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<title>Chat App</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="css/chat.css" />
</head>
<body>
<div id="chat-container">
</div>
</body>
</html>
Now inside of the chat-container div add the following HTML.
<div id="side-bar">
</div>
<div id="chat-window">
</div>
Now let’s also add the following CSS under the #chat-container selector in the chat.css file.
#side-bar {
background: #0048AA;
border-radius: 10px 0 0 10px;
}
#chat-window {
background: #999;
border-radius: 0 10px 10px 0;
}
Now reload the page. You should see the following:-
So what happened? Where is our sidebar and where is our chat window? I expected to see a blue side bar and a grey chat window, but it’s no where to be found. Well it’s all good. This is because we have no content inside of either element, so it can be 0 pixels wide.
Sizing Flex Items
So now that we know that our items are 0 pixels wide, let’s attempt to size them. We’ll attempt to try this first using explicit widths.
Add the following width property to the #side-bar rule, then reload the page.
width: 275px;
Hmm. Same result. It’s still a blank shell. Oh wait I have to make sure the height is 100% too. So we better do that too. Once again add the following property to the #side-bar rule, then reload the page.
height: 100%;
So now we have our sidebar that has grown to be exactly 275 pixels wide, and is 100% high. So that’s it. We’re done right? Wrong. Let me ask you a question. How big is the chat window? Let’s test that by adding some text to it. Try this yourself just add some text. You should see something similar to this.
So as you can see the chat window is only as big as the text that’s inside of it, and it is not next to the side bar. And this makes sense because up until now the chat shell is not a flex container, and just a regular block level element.
So let’s make our chat shell a flex container. Set the following display property for the #chat-window selector. Then reload the page.
display: flex;
So as you can see by the above illustration, we can see it’s now next to the side bar, and not below it. But as you can see currently it’s only as wide as the text that’s inside of it.
But we want it to take up the remaining space of the chat shell. Well we know how to do this, as we did it in the previous article. Set the flex-grow property to 1 on the #chat-window selector. Basically copy and paste the property below and reload the page.
flex-grow: 1;
So now we have the chat window taking up the remaining space of the chat shell. Next, let’s remove the background property, and also remove all text inside the chat-window div if any still exists. You should now see the result below.
But are we done? Technically yes, but before we move on, let’s improve things a little bit.
Understanding the default alignment
If you remember, before we had defined our chat shell to be a flex container, we had to make sure we set the height of the side bar to be 100%. Otherwise it was 0 pixels high, and as a result nothing was displayed. With that said, try removing the height property from the #side-bar selector and see what happens when you reload the page. Yes that’s right, it still works. The height of the sidebar is still 100% high.
So what happened here? Why do we no longer have to worry about setting the height to 100%? Well this is one of the cool things Flexbox gives you for free. By default every flex item will stretch vertically to fill in the entire height of the flex container. We can in fact change this behaviour, and we will see how this is done in a future article.
Setting the size of the side bar properly
So another feature of Flexbox is being able to set the size of a flex item by using the flex-basis property. The flex-basis property allows you to specify an initial size of a flex item, before any growing or shrinking takes place. We’ll understand more about this in an upcoming article.
For now I just want you to understand one important thing. And that is using width to specify the size of the sidebar is not a good idea. Let’s see why.
Say that potentially, if the screen is mobile we want the side bar to now appear across the top of the chat shell, acting like a top bar instead. We can do this by changing the direction flex items can flex inside a flex container. For example, add the following CSS to the #chat-container selector. Then reload the page.
flex-direction: column;
So as you can see we are back to a blank shell. So firstly let’s understand what we actually did here. By setting the flex-direction property to column, we changed the direction of how the flex items flex. By default flex items will flex from left to right. However when we set flex-direction to column, it changes this behaviour forcing flex items to flex from top to bottom instead. On top of this, when the direction of flex changes, the sizing and alignment of flex items changes as well.
When flexing from left to right, we get a height of 100% for free as already mentioned, and then we made sure the side bar was set to be 275 pixels wide, by setting the width property.
However now that we a flexing from top to bottom, the width of the flex item by default would be 100% wide, and you would need to specify the height instead. So try this. Add the following property to the #side-bar selector to set the height of the side bar. Then reload the page.
height: 275px;
Now we are seeing the side bar again, as we gave it a fixed height too. But we still have that fixed width. That’s not what we wanted. We want the side bar (ie our new top bar) here to now be 100% wide. Comment out the width for a moment and reload the page again.
So now we were able to move our side bar so it appears on top instead, acting like a top bar. Which as previously mentioned might be suited for mobile device widths. But to do this we had to swap the value of width to be the value of height. Wouldn’t it be great if this size was preserved regardless of which direction our items are flexing.
Try this, remove all widths and height properties from the #side-bar selector and write the following instead. Then reload the page.
flex-basis: 275px;
As you can see we get the same result. Now remove the flex-direction property from the #chat-container selector. Then once again reload the page.
Once again we are back to our final output. But now we also have the flexibility to easily change the side bar to be a top bar if we need to, by just changing the direction items can flow. Regardless of the direction of flex, the size of our side bar / top bar is preserved.
Conclusion
Ok so once again we didn’t build much, but we did cover a lot of concepts about Flexbox around sizing.
#css #programming #webdev