Python’s Most Underrated Features: Are You Using Them?

Unlock Python’s most underrated features to write cleaner, more efficient code. Learn hidden tricks that can save time and reduce bugs.

Photo by James Harrison on Unsplash

A while back, I found myself staring at a piece of Python code that felt way too long. I knew there had to be a cleaner way. That’s when I stumbled upon a built-in feature I had never used before. Five minutes later? My code was half the size and twice as readable.

That moment made me realize something: Python has so many features that even experienced devs miss out on the good stuff.

So, here are a few underrated gems I’ve picked up — some the hard way, some by accident. If you’re not using these yet, it’s time to change that.

The Walrus Operator

I’ll admit — I ignored this one when it came out in Python 3.8. Looked weird, didn’t seem necessary. But then I tried it, and now I use it all the time.

Let’s say you’re writing a loop that asks for user input:

while True:
    user_input = input("Enter a number (or 'q' to quit): ")
    if user_input == "q":
        break
    if int(user_input) > 10:
        print("That’s a big number!")

Nothing wrong with that, but notice how we call input() twice? The walrus operator fixes this: