Introduction

Pylint is a Python static code analyzer that enforces coding best practices and checks for possible bugs. With many of the same features as conventional source-code editors, it can help programmers spot mistakes and improve their software efficiently.

This guide explains some of Pylint’s helpful feedback, including the errors that result from unsupported syntax, missing imports, and missing parentheses. It also demonstrates how to create a custom configuration file for your team or particular development project. If you are looking for a good career in Python and Web Development, you can check out the best Python full stack training institute in Kochi.

Check your code

So you’ve written your code, and now you’re ready to run it through pylint to see what comments are left? Well, here’s how.

First, in the most recent version of pylint, run:

pylint -rc=1 projectname.py | less

where rc is short for “report check” and specifies that you want only a list of errors with no other information. If you’ve been using an older version of pylint, change rc to 0 as this produces a basic summary instead of an error list. You can also add various options such as -e (English) or -x (XHTML output).

If you have a larger codebase than the default pylint can handle (1,000 lines) or have special needs, you may want to run it with -r. In addition to the basic version, this will make the result available as a Python module. There are also additional options for representing errors in various formats.

The next thing to do is to save the output in a file. If you have a large codebase, you may not want to open it directly in an editor. In such cases, it’s useful to pipe the output through less or grep so that you can search for errors. For example:

pylint -rc=1 projectname.py | grep ‘keyword’

In some cases, you might want to see errors inline within the terminal rather than having them open in a separate window. To do this, add -i to your command line option list:

python projectname.py | pylint -i -rc=1 # or less

python projectname.py | pylint -rc=1 –inlines # or grep

python projectname.py | pylint -rc=1 –inlines | grep ‘keyword’

To get a better idea of what Pylint is doing, try adding the

–verbose option:

pylint –verbose projectname.py

This will give you a complete list of everything that Pylint is looking for in your code and where it found it. However, if you are working with a large project, this can be rather unwieldy and serve to create more clutter than the benefits it provides.

If you want to quickly see a summary of the problems Pylint turned up, use -l:

pylint -rc=1 –list projectname.py

Customize your configuration file

Pylint gives you the option to create a configuration file that fits your personal needs. If you want to see only errors related to docstrings and types, or if you don’t want warnings about unused variables, then this is a great way to get started. Configuration is done in two steps: creating the configuration file and editing it. First, create a text file named .pylintrc with the following contents:

# pylintrc file [options]

# -c, –config=CONFIG_FILE, –config=FILE, –config=FILE.ini load the

# configuration file

# -v, –verbose show all warnings

# -n, –no-warnings Don’t show warnings on empty files

The list of options is separated into sections that have a name prefixed by : followed by a number.

Conclusion

We have discussed how to use Pylint for better coding in Python. Pylint is a Python static code analyzer that enforces coding best practices and checks for possible bugs. Pylint gives you the option to create a configuration file tailored to your individual needs. If you only want to see errors related to doc-strings and types, or if you don’t want warnings about unused variables, this is a great way to start. If it’s a large code-base, Pylint can save the output to a file. If you want to know more about Python, Django, you can check out and learn Python Django training course in Kochi.