Published July 7, 2026 | Version 2.5.0
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 2.5.0 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 v2.5.0

This release introduces a robust, native pathlib overhaul for path validation and normalization, enhances structural API consistency across text and filesystem operations, resolves critical download execution issues, and optimizes numeric downcasting logic across multiple data engines.

Summary of changes since 2.4.0:

🛤️ Path normalisation & structural consistency

  • Pathlib migration (#139): Migrated core path navigation systems to native pathlib.Path architectures to standardise validation signatures and resolve cross-platform inconsistencies (fixes #135).
  • Filesystem standardisation (#139): Added standardize_path() in the dirs subpackage to secure and unify filesystem interactions.
  • Text & column formatting (#139): Added standardize_name() and standardize_column_names() utilities to enforce clean, uniform layout structures in operation pipelines.
  • Flexible executable resolution (#139): Extended find_executable() with an optional as_str parameter toggle for flexible return schemas.

🛠️ Core fixes & enhancements

  • Download function fixes (#137): Resolved internal execution bottlenecks and structural edge cases within data download utilities.
  • Downcasting function optimization (#139): Optimized downcast_numeric_columns to natively handle and downcast standalone Series objects across both pandas and polars backends.

🔧 Refactoring & maintenance

  • Subpackage layout reorganisation (#139): Streamlined the internal structural topology of the dirs subpackage, deprecating redundant pathways and updating downstream imports globally.
  • Documentation & links (#139): Updated Sphinx-generated documentation and aligned reference endpoints within the dirs docstrings.
  • Release assets & metadata (#140): Updated root and documentation dependency requirements, and refreshed the packaged user-agent-strings.json asset.

🧪 Testing & reliability

  • Expanded unit testing suites across ops, dirs, text, and _cache modules to safeguard against regression and enforce strict type contracts.
  • Strengthened verification assertions for download modules and downcasting operations.

Files

mikeqfu/pyhelpers-2.5.0.zip

Files (1.5 MB)

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Additional details

Related works

Documents
Software documentation: https://pyhelpers.readthedocs.io/en/2.5.0/ (URL)
Is supplement to
Software: https://github.com/mikeqfu/pyhelpers/tree/2.5.0 (URL)

Dates

Available
2026-07-07

Software

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