Running Python Oneliners From Powershell Terminal Exemplified On JSON Minifier

The aim of this tutorial🔍 is to provide the simple rules for running python code python -c <code> from PowerShell. The basic idea is the code has to be formatted with PowerShell special characters according to the Python syntax requirements. I’ve used this to quickly convert a json file into a minified version.

I am using this for quick checks of commands when I don’t want to switch between PowerShell and python repl, for example just checking for the existence of the file.

▶ python -c "import os`nprint(os.path.exists('./helpers/temp_newDoc_indexItem.yaml'))"
True
# cool, file existence verified

1. instructions

• enclose the whole code section in " - so that you evaluate special characters
• use ' for quotes within the code section
• use `n as line separators
• use `t as tab character essential for python indentation

2. example: JSON minifier

• … append|clip to copy output into clipboard :)

python -c "import json`nimport sys`nwith open(sys.argv[1], 'r') as f:`n`tprint(json.dumps(json.load(f), separators=(',',':')))" file.json

3. on separators keyword

• If specified, separators should be an (item_separator, key_separator) tuple.
• The default is (', ', ': ') if indent is None and (',', ': ') otherwise.
• To get the most compact JSON representation, you should specify (',', ':') to eliminate whitespace.

— https://docs.python.org/3/library/json.html

4. sources

• Minifying JSON with Python — Jamie Tanna — Software Engineer