# Proposal for Tchotchke.jl – everything but the kitchen sink
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/proposal-for-tchotchke-jl-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink/13749
**Category:** Internals & Design
**Tags:** package
**Created:** [August 20, 2018, 6:06am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/proposal-for-tchotchke-jl-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink/13749 "2018-08-20T06:06:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@djsegal](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/djsegal)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2018, 6:06am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/proposal-for-tchotchke-jl-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink/13749/1 "2018-08-20T06:06:21Z")
It’s nice that the Julia core library is small and efficient. But sometimes I just want to clutter up my workspace with a bunch of random functions.
Related to,
> [@Why \`eye\` has been deprecated?](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-eye-has-been-deprecated/12824/66):
>
> Re: Matlab, I don’t think we need to copy the syntax, per se, but I’d like a `Batteries.jl` or `KitchenSink.jl` package that just reexports other packages to provide functionality on par with what’s built into Matlab.
Can we put together a list of utility functions that prove to be useful from time to time?
* * *
These are some of the ones I’m playing around with at the moment:
- [safe\_get - getfield without the errors](https://github.com/djsegal/Fussy.jl/blob/master/src/utils/safe_get.jl)
- [sort\_lists, shuffle\_lists, bisect\_reorder, in\_out\_reorder, etc.](https://github.com/djsegal/Fussy.jl/blob/master/src/utils/reorder_lists.jl)
- [filter\_approx! - filtering with tolerances](https://github.com/djsegal/Fussy.jl/blob/master/src/utils/filter_approx.jl)
* * *
I guess the call to action item for this post is, do you have any useful utility functions?
---
### Author:  [@oxinabox](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oxinabox)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2018, 7:33am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/proposal-for-tchotchke-jl-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink/13749/2 "2018-08-20T07:33:49Z")
Just going through some of the utils.jl in my projects.
I don’t think these are the best ways to do these things, nor the nicest names etc for them.
I did some cleanup, just now and these may thus also have typos.
But for want of getting something out there:
### lift: make functions that are not missing propagating into missing propagating
```julia-auto
function lift(func)
function(args...; kwargs...)
if any(ismissing.(args)) || any(ismissing.(collect(values(kwargs))))
missing
else
func(args...;kwargs...)
end
end
end
```
Might be nice to have that in a macro from that applies it to all functions in a block.
Would be its own package then really, or added to Missing.jl
Example
```julia-auto
julia> length(missing)
ERROR: MethodError: no method matching length(::Missing)
julia> lift(length)(missing)
missing
julia> lift(length)([1,2,3])
3
```
### Nothing2missing
```julia-auto
nothing2missing(::Nothing) = missing
nothing2missing(val) = val
```
sometimes libraries return `nothing` (i.e. programmers null),
but you know (using domain knowledge) that this actually should be interpreted as `missing` (statician’s null).
This kinda thing occurs when your are parsing some data.
Something similar occurs for regex, which is `Union{RegexMatch, Nothing}`.
## Leaf Subtypes
Get all descendant concrete types
```julia-auto
"""
leaf_subtypes(T)
Returns all the nonabstract types decedent from `T`.
"""
function leaf_subtypes(T)
if isleaftype(T)
T
else
vcat(leaf_subtypes.(subtypes(T))...)
end
end
```
### Split path (opposite of joinpath)
```julia-auto
"""
splitpath(path)
The opposite of `joinpath`,
splits a path unto each of its directories names / filename (for the last).
"""
function splitpath(path::AbstractString)
ret=String[]
prev_path = path
while(true)
path, lastpart = splitdir(path)
length(lastpart)>0 && pushfirst!(ret, lastpart)
length(path)==0 && break
if prev_path==path
# catch the casewhere path begins with a root
pushfirst!(ret, path)
break
end
prev_path = path
end
return ret
```
See also [`splitpath` to match `joinpath` · Issue #24477 · JuliaLang/julia · GitHub](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/24477)
## Environment variable reading functions
Safer than reading environment variables directly; as has inbuilt default.
Also handles user weirdness better.
```julia-auto
"""
env_bool(key)
Checks for an enviroment variable and fuzzy converts it to a bool
"""
env_bool(key, default=false) = haskey(ENV, key) ? lowercase(ENV[key]) ∉ ["0","","false", "no"] : default
"""
env_list(key)
Checks for an enviroment variable and converts it to a list of strings, sperated with a colon
"""
env_list(key, default=String[]) = haskey(ENV, key) ? split(ENV[key], ":") : default
```
## User input getting functions
Keep looping til user gives valid input.
```julia-auto
"""
bool_input
Prompted the user for a yes or no.
"""
function input_bool(prompt="")::Bool
input_choice(prompt, 'y','n')=='y'
end
"""
input_choice
Prompted the user for one of a list of options
"""
function input_choice(prompt, options::Vararg{Char})::Char
while(true)
println(prompt)
println("["*join(options, '/')*"]")
response = readline()
length(response)==0 && continue
reply = lowercase(first(response))
for opt in lowercase.(options)
reply==opt && return opt
end
end
end
"""
input_choice
Prompts the user for one of a list of options.
Takes a vararg of tuples of Letter, Prompt, Action (0 argument function)
Example:
input_choice(
('A', "Abort -- errors out", ()->error("aborted")),
('X', "eXit -- exits normally", ()->exit()),
('C', "Continue -- continues running", ()->nothing)),
)
"""
function input_choice(options::Vararg{Tuple{Char, <:AbstractString, Any}})
acts = Dict{Char, Any}()
prompt = ""
chars = Char[]
for (cc, prmt, act) in options
prompt*="\n [$cc] $prmt"
push!(chars, cc)
acts[lowercase(cc)] = act
end
prompt*="\n"
acts[input_choice(prompt, chars...)]()
end
```
---
### Author:  [@djsegal](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/djsegal)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2018, 6:07am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/proposal-for-tchotchke-jl-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink/13749/3 "2018-08-21T06:07:13Z")
Just wow. Nothing to missing is a pretty profound sentiment. tchotchkeyed
---
### Author:  [@djsegal](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/djsegal)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2020, 4:32pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/proposal-for-tchotchke-jl-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink/13749/4 "2020-06-10T16:32:55Z")
It’s been a couple years and people responded a decent amount to:
> [@\[ANN\] Numerics.jl – The Extended Standard Library](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ann-numerics-jl-the-extended-standard-library/40694/45):
>
> That might be achieved with something like this… (using [this TOML parser](https://github.com/JuliaLang/TOML.jl) for simplicity, but it could be easily written without any external dependency). using TOML deps = TOML.parsefile(Base.active\_project())["deps"] for package in keys(deps) @eval Main using $(Symbol(package)) end
What new tchotchkes do you all have in your `util` and `startup` files?