The Python Functions API is an application that provides users with easy access to Python's built-in functions. This tool was designed for developers who want a fast way to retrieve information about Python's standard functions and their descriptions without having to navigate through documentation manually. The API scrapes Python’s official documentation and structures the function data into a JSON file, which is served through the API.

The Python Functions Documentation can be found at: Python Official Documentation.

The scraping process is automated using Celery, a distributed task queue system that runs in the background to periodically fetch and update the function definitions. The actual scraping of the content is handled by BeautifulSoup, which is responsible for parsing the HTML from the official Python documentation site. The API itself is built using Django REST Framework (DRF), making it simple to interact with via HTTP requests. This combination of tools ensures that users always have access to the most up-to-date information on Python’s built-in functions.

Whether you want to list all available Python functions or retrieve specific definitions, the Python Functions API provides a simple and efficient way to do so, all while ensuring that the data is refreshed regularly through background tasks.

Below are the available API endpoints and their usage:

Endpoint	Method	Description
/api/pythonfunctions/	GET	Retrieve a list of all Python built-in function names. This endpoint will return a JSON array of function names like ["abs", "all", "any", ...].
/api/pythonfunctions/list/	GET	Retrieve a list of all function names from the retrieve page. This is an alternative to the base /api/pythonfunctions/ endpoint.
/api/pythonfunctions/retrieve/	POST/GET	Retrieve the definitions of specific Python built-in functions. The expected payload is a JSON object containing an array of function names: {"functions": ["abs", "all"]}. The response will include the function definitions.

Example Usage

To fetch the definition of specific Python built-in functions, you can make a POST request to /api/pythonfunctions/retrieve/ with the following JSON payload:

{ "functions": ["abs", "all", "any"] }

The response will return the definitions of these functions, as shown below:

[
    {
        "name": "abs",
        "definition": "Return the absolute value of a number."
    },
    {
        "name": "all",
        "definition": "Return True if all elements of the iterable are true."
    }
]

Custom Throttling Rules

The API is rate-limited to prevent excessive requests. Throttling is applied on a per-user basis, with burst throttling enabled to handle short bursts of requests.

Handling Errors

If you submit a function name that does not exist, or if no function names are provided in the payload, the API will return an error. Below are example responses for common errors:

• Missing function names: {"error": "No function names provided"}
• Invalid function names: {"error": "No valid function names found"}