Monday, April 28, 2014

Ubuntu - How to install guest addition feature in virtual box!!



When we install any virtual OS using virtual box, transfering or moving data from host OS to virtual OS and vice-versa is a common thing. By default Virtual box wont allow this feature in ubuntu. We can achive this by installing Guest Additions. Below are the advantages and how to install Guest Additions in Virtual box Ubuntu.


  • To make full screen
  • To transfer files from host to virtual OS and vice-versa
  • Copy paste from host to virtual OS and vice-versa


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-x11

Update: In the latest versions of ubuntu, below command will work.

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-x11

Restart ubuntu after running above commands to apply guest additions.

P.S: If you update system software, these guest additions will be removed. Need to install again to use guest additions. I faced same issue. So posting here. I am not sure why guest additions will be removed when you update the software and restart the virtual box Ubuntu.


Happy Learning!!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Python - local time to UTC time conversion using strings


Recently I came across a problem of converting local time with offset format to  UTC time format using strings in Python. I did lot of googling and unable to find the solution. So I wrote the code in python and sharing here for others.  Input format for the local time is ISO 8601.

Algorithm to convert from local time stamp with offset to UTC time: 


  1. Check for the format "%Y-%M-%D %H:%M:%z" if matches remove z and return true as its UTC format
  2. Split input value basing on space, so that we will get two items as date and time. if not return false as its invalid format
  3. Split date item from step2 with '-' as date items are separated by '-' and it should return 3 items day, month and year. If not return false
  4. Split time item from step2 with '+' or '-' to separate local time and offset. It should return two items other wise return false
  5. Split local time from step4 with ':' to get three items HH, MM and SS if not return false
  6. Split offset from step4 with ':' to get two offset items HH, MM if not return false
  7. Add MM items from Steps 5 and 6. If MM value is greater than 60 increment HH in local item in step 5 and assign remaining MM to local item in step 5
  8. Add HH items from Steps 5 and 6. If HH value is greater than 24 increment DD in date item in step 3 and assign remaining HH to local item in step 5
  9.  Similarly for Day, Month and same logic applies for leap year as well.
  10. After performing above steps rejoin data and time into one string and return that final string.


Below is the source code in Python:

import datetime
import calendar
import re

HRS_IN_A_DAY = 24
MONTHS_IN_YEAR = 12
MINS_IN_HR = 60
FEB = 2

def is_int(input_value):
    try:
        int(input_value)
        return True
    except ValueError:
        return False

def to_double_digit(value):
    """
    converts to double digit by prefixing zero to the value
    """
    return '0'+str(value) if (value<10) else str(value)

not_found = -1
def convert_local_time_to_utc(l_time_str):
    """
    Validate the input format and if invalid returns false 
    if valid, converts into UTC timestamp and returns new utc timestamp
    """
    try:
        datetime.datetime.strptime(l_time_str,"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%Sz")
        print "success"
    except (ValueError, TypeError) as e:
        date_str_items = l_time_str.split(' ')
        if (len(date_str_items)!=2):
            return False
        date_item_list = date_str_items[0].split('-')
        if(len(date_item_list)!=3):
            return False
        time_offset = re.split('-|\+',date_str_items[1])
        if(len(time_offset)!=2):
            return False
        local_time_items = time_offset[0].split(':')
        #print time_offset
        if(len(local_time_items)!=3):
            return False
        offset_items = time_offset[1].split(':')
        if(len(offset_items)!=2):
            return False
        plus_found = l_time_str.find('+')

        # validating for int values as date accepts only int
        if not is_int(date_item_list[0]):
            return False
        year_value = int(date_item_list[0])
        if not is_int(date_item_list[1]):
            return False
        month_value = int(date_item_list[1])
        if not is_int(date_item_list[2]):
            return False
        date_value = int(date_item_list[2])
        if not is_int(local_time_items[0]):
            return False
        local_hh = int(local_time_items[0])
        if not is_int(local_time_items[1]):
            return False
        local_mm = int(local_time_items[1])
        if not is_int(offset_items[0]):
            return False
        off_hh = int(offset_items[0])
        if not is_int(offset_items[1]):
            return False
        off_mm = int(offset_items[1])

        if plus_found == not_found:
            local_mm += off_mm
            if local_mm >= MINS_IN_HR:
                local_hh += 1
                local_mm -= MINS_IN_HR
            local_hh += off_hh
            if local_hh >= HRS_IN_A_DAY:
                date_value+=1
                local_hh-= HRS_IN_A_DAY
                days_in_month = calendar.mdays[month_value]
                if calendar.isleap(year_value) and month_value == FEB:
                    days_in_month += 1
                if date_value > days_in_month:
                    month_value += 1
                    date_value -= days_in_month
                    if month_value > MONTHS_IN_YEAR:
                        year_value += 1
                        month_value -= MONTHS_IN_YEAR
        else:
            local_mm -= off_mm
            if local_mm < 0:
                local_hh -= 1
                local_mm += MINS_IN_HR
            local_hh -= off_hh
            if local_hh < 0:
                date_value -= 1
                local_hh += HRS_IN_A_DAY
                if date_value < 1:
                    month_value -= 1
                    if month_value < 1:
                        month_value += MONTHS_IN_YEAR
                        year_value -= 1
                    date_value += calendar.mdays[month_value]
                    if calendar.isleap(year_value) and month_value == FEB:
                        date_value += 1
        #restoring new values into list
        local_time_items[0] = to_double_digit(local_hh)
        local_time_items[1] = to_double_digit(local_mm)
        date_item_list[0] = to_double_digit(year_value)
        date_item_list[1] = to_double_digit(month_value)
        date_item_list[2] = to_double_digit(date_value)
        #making into timestamp format "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"
        final_date = "-".join(date_item_list)+" "+":".join(local_time_items)
        return final_date

print "Enter the date in the form of \"YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS+HH:MM\" or \"YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS-HH:MM\""
input_date = raw_input("Enter local date:")
while input_date:
    ret_val = convert_local_time_to_utc(input_date)
    if ret_val:
        print "converted UTC is ",ret_val
    else:
        print "Invalid format"
    input_date = raw_input("Enter local date:")

Output:

Enter the date in the form of "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS+HH:MM" or "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS-HH:MM"
Enter local date:2000-02-28 22:48:59-05:21
2000-02-29 04:09:59
converted UTC is  2000-02-29 04:09:59
Enter local date:2000-02-28 22:48:59+05:21
2000-02-28 17:27:59
converted UTC is  2000-02-28 17:27:59
Enter local date:sdfd
Invalid format
Enter local date:2000-02-28 22:48:59
Invalid format
Enter local date:
Process finished with exit code 0


Happy Coding!!!


Saturday, April 12, 2014

How to find a leap year in Python!!














How to check leap year in python: Below is python code to find the leap year


def is_leap_year(year):
    """
    below are the conditions for leap year:
    1. divisible by 4
    2. divisible by both 4 and 100
    3. divisible by both 100 and 400
    returns 1 on
    """
    if year%4 == 0:
        if year%100 == 0:
            if year%400 == 0:
                return SUCCESS
            else:
                return FAILED
        else:
            return SUCCESS
    return FAILED

print "Press 0 for exit"
year = input("Enter the year:")
while year:
    if is_leap_year(year):
        print year,"is a leap year"
    else:
        print year,"is not a leap year"
    year = input("Enter the year:")

Output:


Press 0 for exit
Enter the year:2012
2012 is a leap year
Enter the year:1900
1900 is not a leap year
Enter the year:1996
1996 is a leap year
Enter the year:0

You can also use built in python function to find the leap year. Below is the code for that. We need to import calendar module to is isleap() method, which will return True on success and False on fail.

import calendar
print "Press 0 for exit"
year = input("Enter the year:")
while year:
    if calendar.isleap(year):
        print year,"is a leap year"
    else:
        print year,"is not a leap year"
    year = input("Enter the year:")

OutPut:

Press 0 for exit
Enter the year:2012
2012 is a leap year
Enter the year:2014
2014 is not a leap year
Enter the year:1997
1997 is not a leap year
Enter the year:0


Happy Learning!!!

Saturday, April 5, 2014

String simple utility functions in Python

There are many string utility functions which can reduce your code and increase performance.  Below are some of the methods.

To find the no.of occurances of a substring in a string in Python: count string method will return the no.of occurrences of a substring from a string. In the below example , 'M' occurrences are 22 and 'F' occurrences are 19, 'MF'  substring occurrence are 8 and 'FM' substring occurrences are 7

in_str = 'MFMMMFFMMMFFFMMMMMMMFFFFFMMFFMMFMFMMMFFFF'
print in_str.count('M')
print in_str.count('F')
print in_str.count('MF')
print in_str.count('FM')

Appending or concatenating strings in pythonjoin method connects strings with a separator. We can use same method for appending list of strings by using separator as space or empty. But join will work only on iterators like list. Below are some of the examples.

str_list = ['hello','how','are','you']
sentence = " ".join(str_list)
print sentence

OutPut:
hello how are you


str_list = ['hello','how','are','you']
sentence = "123".join(str_list)
print sentence

OutPut:
hello123how123are123you

As we can observe that , join method will take iterator as a input and combines with delimiter or separator and forms the string.


Finding ASCII value of a character in Python: To find the ASCII value of a character, use ord() function. Below is the syntax and example.


ascii_value = ord('a')
print ascii_value 

OutPut: 
97

Happy Reading!!!


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