Published April 13, 2026 | Version 2.4.0
Software Open

PyHelpers: An open-source toolkit for facilitating Python users' data manipulation tasks

Authors/Creators

  • 1. University of Birmingham

Description

PyHelpers is an open-source Python package designed to streamline data (pre-)processing and manipulation tasks. It accommodates a wide range of functions and classes grounded in practical applications, making common data operations more accessible and efficient. This toolkit is particularly useful for Python learners, researchers and data scientists seeking to enhance their workflows.

The package supports handling various data types, such as geographical and textual data, allowing for flexibility for diverse data processing needs. It also simplifies data input and output operations by offering functionalities for managing many different file-like objects. In addition, PyHelpers facilitates communication with relational databases, such as PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server. This capability greatly smooths data integration with database systems through efficient data storage and retrieval.

With its comprehensive suite of practical tools, PyHelpers simplifies complex data processing tasks and boosts productivity. It is ready to serve as an essential resource for effective data manipulation, management and analysis for anyone working with data in Python.

For more information and detailed specifications, check out the PyHelpers 2.4.0 documentation.

Notes (English)

Cite as:

Fu, Q. (2020). PyHelpers: An open-source toolkit for facilitating Python users' data manipulation tasks. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4017438

For specific version references, please see the list of all versions.

Technical info (English)

📦 Release v2.4.0

This major update introduces high-level interactive mapping utilities, GeoPackage support and improvements to core file-system operations and API consistency.

Summary of changes since 2.3.4:

🗺️ Geospatial & visualisation

  • Interactive mapping (#129): Added viz.maps submodule featuring create_base_folium_map() and get_base_map_center() for streamlined Folium integrations.
  • GeoPackage support (#128): Added .gpkg support via load_geopackage() and save_geopackage(), with integration into the load_data() dispatcher.

🛠️ Core fixes & enhancements

  • Multi-suffix detection (#124): Resolved issue #123; enhanced file-type detection to recognise compound extensions such as .pkl.xz and .gold.parquet.
  • Path utilities (#126): Fixed issue #125; cd() now ignores None values instead of creating malformed directories.
  • Benchmarking (#127): New benchmark_functions() utility for execution time comparison using timeit.

🔧 Refactoring & maintenance

  • API standardisation (#130): Renamed core functions for clarity (e.g. validate_dir → resolve_dir) and standardised parameter names (e.g. path, dtype) across the library.
  • CI/CD & Docs (#132, #133): Upgraded build pipeline to Python 3.12 (fixes #131). Refined Sphinx documentation structure and optimised LaTeX/PDF output formatting.
  • Logging: Implemented NullHandler to prevent log leakage when used as a dependency.

🧪 Testing & reliability

  • Expanded test coverage for geospatial modules and compound file extensions.
  • Migrated directory tests to tmp_path fixtures for improved cross-platform stability.

Files

mikeqfu/pyhelpers-2.4.0.zip

Files (1.5 MB)

Name Size Download all
md5:c7d7c85239acb9685ffdc95971c224d6
1.5 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Related works

Documents
Software documentation: https://pyhelpers.readthedocs.io/en/2.4.0/ (URL)
Is supplement to
Software: https://github.com/mikeqfu/pyhelpers/tree/2.4.0 (URL)

Dates

Available
2026-04-13

Software

Repository URL
https://github.com/mikeqfu/pyhelpers
Programming language
Python
Development Status
Active