Jetpack Compose Tutorial #16: Custom Layouts and Canvas — Drawing Your Own Components

Sometimes Column, Row, and Box are not enough. You need a circular progress bar. A custom chart. A drawing canvas. A shape that doesn’t exist in Material Design. That is when you use Canvas — Compose’s drawing API that lets you draw anything pixel by pixel. What is Canvas? Canvas is a Composable that gives you a blank area to draw on. You can draw shapes, lines, arcs, text — anything. ...

March 24, 2026 · 7 min

Jetpack Compose Tutorial #15: Animations — Make Your UI Feel Alive

Your app works. But it feels flat. Buttons appear instantly. Screens switch without transition. Content pops in and out like a slideshow from 2005. Animations fix that. They make your app feel smooth, polished, and alive — like a well-made product instead of a homework assignment. The good news: Compose makes animations surprisingly easy. You can add most animations with a single line of code. The Animation API at a Glance Compose has several animation APIs, each for a different use case: ...

March 24, 2026 · 9 min

Jetpack Compose Tutorial #14: Dependency Injection with Hilt

In the previous tutorials, we created databases and ViewModels manually. We wrote DatabaseProvider singletons. We passed dependencies by hand. It worked — but it doesn’t scale. When your app has 10 ViewModels, 5 repositories, 3 data sources, and a database — wiring everything manually becomes a nightmare. One missing connection and your app crashes. Hilt fixes this. You add annotations to your classes, and Hilt connects everything automatically. What is Dependency Injection? Dependency injection (DI) means: instead of a class creating its own dependencies, someone else provides them. ...

March 23, 2026 · 7 min

Jetpack Compose Tutorial #13: Room Database — Saving Data Locally

Your app loads data from an API. But what happens when the user has no internet? The screen goes blank. Room database fixes this. It saves data on the device so your app works offline. And it integrates perfectly with Compose — when data changes in the database, the UI updates automatically. What is Room? Room is Google’s database library for Android. It sits on top of SQLite and gives you a clean Kotlin API instead of raw SQL. ...

March 23, 2026 · 7 min

Jetpack Compose Tutorial #12: Retrofit — Loading Data from APIs

Every real app needs data from the internet. A weather app calls a weather API. A social app loads posts from a server. A store app fetches products from a backend. Retrofit is the most popular library for making HTTP requests in Android. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use it with Compose to build a screen that loads, displays, and handles errors from a real API. What is Retrofit? Retrofit is an HTTP client library by Square. It turns your API into a Kotlin interface: ...

March 23, 2026 · 7 min

Jetpack Compose Tutorial #11: Side Effects — LaunchedEffect and Friends

Compose has one rule: Composable functions should be pure. They take state in and produce UI out. No database calls. No API requests. No timers. No logging. But real apps need those things. You need to start a timer when a screen opens. You need to load data when an ID changes. You need to clean up a listener when a screen closes. That is what side effects are for. They let you safely run “impure” code inside Compose. ...

March 23, 2026 · 9 min

Python Cheat Sheet 2026 — Syntax, Data Structures, and Common Patterns

Bookmark this page. Use Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F on Mac) to find what you need. This cheat sheet covers Python syntax from basics to advanced patterns. Try examples at pythontutor.com. Last updated: March 2026 Variables and Types name = "Alex" # str age = 25 # int height = 1.75 # float is_active = True # bool nothing = None # NoneType Type Example Notes int 42 No size limit float 3.14 64-bit decimal str "hello" Immutable bool True, False Capitalized None None Null equivalent list [1, 2, 3] Mutable, ordered tuple (1, 2, 3) Immutable, ordered dict {"a": 1} Key-value pairs set {1, 2, 3} Unique values, unordered Type Conversions int("42") # 42 float("3.14") # 3.14 str(42) # "42" list((1, 2, 3)) # [1, 2, 3] tuple([1, 2, 3]) # (1, 2, 3) set([1, 1, 2]) # {1, 2} bool(0) # False bool("") # False bool([]) # False bool("hello") # True Strings name = "Alex" f"Hello {name}" # f-string: Hello Alex f"Age: {age + 1}" # f-string with expression f"{price:.2f}" # format: 9.99 f"{name!r}" # repr: 'Alex' f"{num:,}" # thousands separator: 1,000,000 f"{value:>10}" # right-align, width 10 f"{value:<10}" # left-align, width 10 # Common methods "hello".upper() # "HELLO" "HELLO".lower() # "hello" "hello world".title() # "Hello World" " hello ".strip() # "hello" "hello world".split() # ["hello", "world"] "hello world".split("o") # ["hell", " w", "rld"] ", ".join(["a", "b", "c"]) # "a, b, c" "hello".replace("l", "r") # "herro" "hello".startswith("he") # True "hello".endswith("lo") # True "hello world".find("world") # 6 (-1 if not found) "hello world".count("l") # 3 "42".isdigit() # True # Multi-line strings text = """ First line Second line """ # Raw strings (no escape processing) path = r"C:\Users\name\folder" Lists nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] # Access nums[0] # 1 (first) nums[-1] # 5 (last) nums[1:3] # [2, 3] (slice) nums[:3] # [1, 2, 3] (first 3) nums[2:] # [3, 4, 5] (from index 2) nums[::2] # [1, 3, 5] (every 2nd) nums[::-1] # [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] (reversed) # Modify nums.append(6) # add to end nums.insert(0, 0) # insert at index nums.extend([7, 8]) # add multiple nums.remove(3) # remove first occurrence nums.pop() # remove and return last nums.pop(0) # remove and return at index nums.sort() # sort in place nums.sort(reverse=True) # sort descending nums.reverse() # reverse in place nums.clear() # remove all # Functions len(nums) # length min(nums) # smallest max(nums) # largest sum(nums) # total sorted(nums) # new sorted list reversed(nums) # reversed iterator Dictionaries user = {"name": "Alex", "age": 25, "city": "Berlin"} # Access user["name"] # "Alex" (KeyError if missing) user.get("name") # "Alex" user.get("phone", "N/A") # "N/A" (default if missing) # Modify user["age"] = 26 # update user["email"] = "alex@mail.com" # add new key del user["city"] # delete key user.pop("age") # remove and return value # Iterate user.keys() # dict_keys(["name", "age", ...]) user.values() # dict_values(["Alex", 25, ...]) user.items() # dict_items([("name", "Alex"), ...]) for key, value in user.items(): print(f"{key}: {value}") # Merge (Python 3.9+) merged = dict1 | dict2 # dict2 values win on conflict Sets and Tuples # Sets — unique values, unordered colors = {"red", "green", "blue"} colors.add("yellow") colors.remove("red") # KeyError if missing colors.discard("red") # no error if missing a | b # union a & b # intersection a - b # difference a ^ b # symmetric difference # Tuples — immutable point = (10, 20) x, y = point # unpacking name, *rest = ("Alex", 25, "Berlin") # name="Alex", rest=[25, "Berlin"] Control Flow # if / elif / else if age < 18: print("minor") elif age < 65: print("adult") else: print("senior") # Ternary status = "adult" if age >= 18 else "minor" # for loop for item in items: print(item) for i in range(5): # 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 for i in range(2, 10): # 2, 3, ..., 9 for i in range(0, 10, 2): # 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 for i, item in enumerate(items): # index + value print(f"{i}: {item}") for a, b in zip(list1, list2): # parallel iteration print(a, b) # while loop while count > 0: count -= 1 # break / continue for item in items: if item == "skip": continue # skip this iteration if item == "stop": break # exit loop Pattern Matching (Python 3.10+) match status_code: case 200: print("OK") case 404: print("Not Found") case 500: print("Server Error") case _: print(f"Unknown: {status_code}") # Match with destructuring match point: case (0, 0): print("Origin") case (x, 0): print(f"On x-axis at {x}") case (0, y): print(f"On y-axis at {y}") case (x, y): print(f"Point at ({x}, {y})") # Match with guards match user: case {"role": "admin", "name": name}: print(f"Admin: {name}") case {"role": "user", "name": name} if name != "blocked": print(f"User: {name}") Comprehensions # List comprehension squares = [x**2 for x in range(10)] evens = [x for x in nums if x % 2 == 0] pairs = [(x, y) for x in range(3) for y in range(3)] # Dict comprehension word_lengths = {word: len(word) for word in words} filtered = {k: v for k, v in data.items() if v > 0} # Set comprehension unique_lengths = {len(word) for word in words} # Generator expression (lazy, memory-efficient) total = sum(x**2 for x in range(1000000)) Functions # Basic function def greet(name): return f"Hello {name}" # Default parameters def greet(name="World"): return f"Hello {name}" # *args and **kwargs def func(*args, **kwargs): print(args) # tuple of positional args print(kwargs) # dict of keyword args # Lambda double = lambda x: x * 2 sorted(users, key=lambda u: u["age"]) # Type hints (Python 3.10+) def greet(name: str) -> str: return f"Hello {name}" def process(items: list[int]) -> dict[str, int]: return {"sum": sum(items), "count": len(items)} Classes class User: def __init__(self, name: str, age: int): self.name = name self.age = age def greet(self) -> str: return f"Hi, I'm {self.name}" def __repr__(self) -> str: return f"User({self.name!r}, {self.age})" user = User("Alex", 25) # Dataclass (Python 3.7+) — auto-generates __init__, __repr__, __eq__ from dataclasses import dataclass @dataclass class User: name: str age: int city: str = "Unknown" # Inheritance class Admin(User): def __init__(self, name, age, level): super().__init__(name, age) self.level = level Error Handling try: result = 10 / 0 except ZeroDivisionError: print("Cannot divide by zero") except (ValueError, TypeError) as e: print(f"Error: {e}") else: print("Success") # runs if no exception finally: print("Always runs") # cleanup # Raise an exception raise ValueError("Invalid input") File I/O # Read entire file with open("file.txt", "r") as f: content = f.read() # Read lines with open("file.txt", "r") as f: lines = f.readlines() # list of lines # or for line in f: print(line.strip()) # Write with open("file.txt", "w") as f: # overwrite f.write("Hello\n") with open("file.txt", "a") as f: # append f.write("More text\n") # JSON import json data = json.loads('{"name": "Alex"}') # parse string text = json.dumps(data, indent=2) # to string with open("data.json", "r") as f: data = json.load(f) # parse file with open("data.json", "w") as f: json.dump(data, f, indent=2) # write file Async / Await import asyncio async def fetch_data(url: str) -> str: # simulate async work await asyncio.sleep(1) return f"Data from {url}" # Run async function async def main(): result = await fetch_data("https://api.example.com") print(result) asyncio.run(main()) # Run tasks in parallel async def main(): results = await asyncio.gather( fetch_data("https://api1.example.com"), fetch_data("https://api2.example.com"), ) print(results) # both complete in ~1 second, not 2 Common Built-in Functions Function Description Example len(x) Length len([1,2,3]) → 3 range(n) Sequence 0..n-1 range(5) → 0,1,2,3,4 enumerate(x) Index + value enumerate(["a","b"]) zip(a, b) Pair elements zip([1,2], ["a","b"]) map(fn, x) Apply function map(str, [1,2,3]) filter(fn, x) Filter elements filter(bool, [0,1,"",2]) any(x) True if any truthy any([False, True]) → True all(x) True if all truthy all([True, True]) → True sorted(x) New sorted list sorted([3,1,2]) → [1,2,3] reversed(x) Reversed iterator list(reversed([1,2,3])) isinstance(x, type) Type check isinstance(42, int) → True type(x) Get type type(42) → <class 'int'> dir(x) List attributes dir([]) help(x) Show docs help(str.split) Virtual Environments python -m venv .venv # create source .venv/bin/activate # activate (macOS/Linux) .venv\Scripts\activate # activate (Windows) pip install requests # install package pip freeze > requirements.txt # save dependencies pip install -r requirements.txt # install from file deactivate # deactivate Common Mistakes Mutable default arguments — def add(item, items=[]) shares the same list across all calls. Use def add(item, items=None) and items = items or [] inside the function. ...

March 22, 2026 · 7 min

Jetpack Compose Tutorial #9: ViewModel — Managing Screen Logic

In Tutorial #5, we learned about remember and mutableStateOf. They work great for simple state. But they have a big problem — when your app needs to load data from a database or API, where does that logic go? Not in the Composable. Composables are for UI, not business logic. That is what ViewModel is for. What is ViewModel? ViewModel is a class that holds your screen’s data and logic. It survives things that destroy and recreate your Composable — like screen rotation or system theme changes. ...

March 22, 2026 · 8 min

SQL Cheat Sheet 2026 — Queries, JOINs, and Performance

Bookmark this page. Use Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F on Mac) to find what you need. This cheat sheet covers SQL from basic queries to window functions and performance. Try examples at db-fiddle.com. Last updated: March 2026 SELECT Basics SELECT * FROM users; -- all columns SELECT name, email FROM users; -- specific columns SELECT DISTINCT city FROM users; -- unique values SELECT name AS full_name FROM users; -- column alias SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 10; -- first 10 rows SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 10 OFFSET 20; -- rows 21-30 (pagination) WHERE — Filtering Rows SELECT * FROM users WHERE age > 18; SELECT * FROM users WHERE city = 'Berlin'; SELECT * FROM users WHERE age BETWEEN 18 AND 30; SELECT * FROM users WHERE city IN ('Berlin', 'Munich', 'Hamburg'); SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE 'A%'; -- starts with A SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE '%son'; -- ends with son SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE '%alex%'; -- contains alex SELECT * FROM users WHERE email IS NULL; -- null check SELECT * FROM users WHERE email IS NOT NULL; SELECT * FROM users WHERE age > 18 AND city = 'Berlin'; SELECT * FROM users WHERE age > 65 OR age < 18; SELECT * FROM users WHERE NOT city = 'Berlin'; ORDER BY and LIMIT SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY name; -- ascending (default) SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY age DESC; -- descending SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY city, name; -- multiple columns SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY age DESC LIMIT 5; -- top 5 oldest INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE -- Insert one row INSERT INTO users (name, email, age) VALUES ('Alex', 'alex@example.com', 25); -- Insert multiple rows INSERT INTO users (name, email, age) VALUES ('Sam', 'sam@example.com', 30), ('Jordan', 'jordan@example.com', 22); -- Update UPDATE users SET age = 26 WHERE name = 'Alex'; -- Update multiple columns UPDATE users SET city = 'Munich', age = 27 WHERE id = 1; -- Delete DELETE FROM users WHERE id = 5; -- Delete all rows (use with caution!) DELETE FROM users; -- Faster delete all (resets table) TRUNCATE TABLE users; -- UPSERT — insert or update if exists (PostgreSQL) INSERT INTO users (email, name) VALUES ('alex@example.com', 'Alex') ON CONFLICT (email) DO UPDATE SET name = EXCLUDED.name; -- MySQL equivalent INSERT INTO users (email, name) VALUES ('alex@example.com', 'Alex') ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE name = VALUES(name); Warning: Always use WHERE with UPDATE and DELETE. Without it, every row is affected. ...

March 21, 2026 · 8 min

Jetpack Compose Tutorial #8: Navigation — Moving Between Screens

Welcome to Part 2 of the series. You can now build beautiful single-screen apps. But real apps have many screens — a home screen, a detail screen, a settings screen, a profile screen. Navigation is how you move between them. In this tutorial, you will learn everything about Compose navigation: Setting up navigation Creating screens and routes Type-safe navigation with Kotlin Serialization Passing data between screens Bottom navigation bar Nested navigation graphs Back stack management Best practices This is a long tutorial. Take your time. ...

March 20, 2026 · 11 min