Python - Automation Scripts for Everyday Tasks

Automation Scripts for Everyday Tasks in Python

Introduction

Python is one of the most powerful and popular programming languages for automation. Thanks to its simple syntax, rich ecosystem, and vast libraries, it allows users to write scripts to automate tedious and repetitive tasks. This document explores various categories of automation tasks, such as file handling, system operations, web scraping, email automation, task scheduling, and data parsing. We'll demonstrate how Python simplifies these everyday problems with working code examples.

Why Use Python for Automation?

Key Benefits

• Easy to learn and write
• Rich standard and third-party libraries
• Cross-platform support
• Powerful scripting and shell integration
• Strong community support

Setting Up Your Environment

# Install pip packages
pip install requests
pip install beautifulsoup4
pip install schedule
pip install openpyxl

File Management Automation

Renaming Files in Bulk

import os

folder = 'downloads'
for index, filename in enumerate(os.listdir(folder)):
    if filename.endswith('.txt'):
        new_name = f"document_{index}.txt"
        os.rename(os.path.join(folder, filename), os.path.join(folder, new_name))

Organizing Files by Extension

import os
import shutil

directory = 'downloads'

for file in os.listdir(directory):
    if file.endswith('.jpg'):
        shutil.move(os.path.join(directory, file), os.path.join(directory, 'images', file))
    elif file.endswith('.pdf'):
        shutil.move(os.path.join(directory, file), os.path.join(directory, 'documents', file))

System Automation

Automating Shutdown or Restart

import os
import platform

if platform.system() == "Windows":
    os.system("shutdown /s /t 60")  # Shutdown after 60 seconds
elif platform.system() == "Linux":
    os.system("shutdown -h +1")

Creating Backup Zip Files

import zipfile
import os

def backup_folder(folder):
    with zipfile.ZipFile('backup.zip', 'w') as zipf:
        for foldername, subfolders, filenames in os.walk(folder):
            for filename in filenames:
                zipf.write(os.path.join(foldername, filename),
                           os.path.relpath(os.path.join(foldername, filename), folder))

backup_folder('my_documents')

Web Scraping Automation

Extracting Headlines from a News Website

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

url = "https://news.ycombinator.com"
response = requests.get(url)
soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')

for title in soup.find_all("a", class_="storylink"):
    print(title.text)

Downloading Images from a Webpage

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import os

url = "https://example.com/gallery"
response = requests.get(url)
soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')

for img in soup.find_all("img"):
    img_url = img.get("src")
    if img_url:
        img_data = requests.get(img_url).content
        filename = os.path.basename(img_url)
        with open(filename, 'wb') as f:
            f.write(img_data)

Email Automation

Sending Emails Using SMTP

import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText

sender = "your_email@example.com"
receiver = "receiver@example.com"
subject = "Automated Email"
body = "This email was sent using Python automation."

msg = MIMEText(body)
msg["Subject"] = subject
msg["From"] = sender
msg["To"] = receiver

with smtplib.SMTP_SSL("smtp.gmail.com", 465) as server:
    server.login(sender, "your_password")
    server.sendmail(sender, receiver, msg.as_string())

Reading Emails (IMAP)

import imaplib
import email

mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL("imap.gmail.com")
mail.login("your_email@example.com", "your_password")
mail.select("inbox")

status, data = mail.search(None, 'ALL')
mail_ids = data[0].split()

for mail_id in mail_ids[-5:]:
    status, msg_data = mail.fetch(mail_id, "(RFC822)")
    raw_email = msg_data[0][1]
    msg = email.message_from_bytes(raw_email)
    print("Subject:", msg["subject"])

Automating Excel Tasks

Reading an Excel File

from openpyxl import load_workbook

wb = load_workbook("report.xlsx")
sheet = wb.active

for row in sheet.iter_rows(min_row=1, max_row=5):
    for cell in row:
        print(cell.value, end=" ")
    print()

Writing to Excel File

from openpyxl import Workbook

wb = Workbook()
ws = wb.active
ws.title = "Summary"

ws["A1"] = "Name"
ws["B1"] = "Score"

ws.append(["Alice", 85])
ws.append(["Bob", 90])

wb.save("scores.xlsx")

Task Scheduling Automation

Using schedule Library

import schedule
import time

def job():
    print("Running scheduled job...")

schedule.every(10).seconds.do(job)

while True:
    schedule.run_pending()
    time.sleep(1)

Daily Report at Specific Time

schedule.every().day.at("10:30").do(job)

Clipboard Automation

Copy and Paste Text

import pyperclip

pyperclip.copy("Hello from Python clipboard!")
text = pyperclip.paste()
print(text)

Automating Keyboard and Mouse

Using pyautogui

import pyautogui

pyautogui.moveTo(100, 100, duration=1)
pyautogui.write("Automating typing...", interval=0.1)
pyautogui.press("enter")

Taking Screenshots

pyautogui.screenshot("screenshot.png")

PDF Automation

Extracting Text from PDFs

import PyPDF2

reader = PyPDF2.PdfReader("document.pdf")
for page in reader.pages:
    print(page.extract_text())

Splitting PDF Files

writer = PyPDF2.PdfWriter()
reader = PyPDF2.PdfReader("document.pdf")

writer.add_page(reader.pages[0])
with open("first_page.pdf", "wb") as f:
    writer.write(f)

Web Automation with Selenium

Launching Browser and Searching

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("https://www.google.com")

search = driver.find_element("name", "q")
search.send_keys("Python automation")
search.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)

Working with APIs

Fetching Data from an API

import requests

response = requests.get("https://api.github.com/users/octocat")
data = response.json()
print(data["name"], data["public_repos"])

Posting Data to an API

payload = {"name": "John", "job": "Developer"}
response = requests.post("https://reqres.in/api/users", json=payload)
print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

Automating Cleanup Tasks

Deleting Old Files

import os
import time

folder = "logs"
now = time.time()

for file in os.listdir(folder):
    file_path = os.path.join(folder, file)
    if os.stat(file_path).st_mtime < now - 7 * 86400:
        os.remove(file_path)

Archiving Old Files

import shutil

shutil.make_archive("old_logs", 'zip', "logs")

Best Practices for Automation Scripts

Use Logging

import logging

logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
logging.info("Automation script started.")

Error Handling

try:
    result = 10 / 0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
    print("Error:", e)

Use Virtual Environments

python -m venv automation_env
source automation_env/bin/activate  # or .\automation_env\Scripts\activate on Windows

Write Modular Code

def read_file(path):
    with open(path, "r") as f:
        return f.read()

def write_file(path, content):
    with open(path, "w") as f:
        f.write(content)

Python excels at automating everyday tasks—from file handling, data scraping, and emailing to scheduling and GUI interactions. Its extensive libraries and readable syntax allow developers and non-programmers alike to save hours of manual labor with just a few lines of code. By leveraging these scripts and best practices, you can enhance productivity, reduce errors, and focus more on creative and analytical tasks.

Whether you're automating office reports, scraping websites, or cleaning up directories, Python provides the tools and flexibility to build reliable and powerful automation pipelines.