Running one function while waiting for another to finish

 import sys
 import threading

 #  
 # this function does a cool spinny thing  
 #  
 def draw_ascii_spinner(delay=0.2):  
  for char in '/-\|': # there should be a backslash in here.  
   sys.stdout.write(char)  
   sys.stdout.flush()  
   time.sleep(delay)  
   sys.stdout.write('\r') # this should be backslash r.  
 #  
 # the below two functions   
 # do the work of backgrounding a process  
 # so we can print a progress indicator  
 #  
 def backGround(func,args,job):  
   job.append(func(*args))  
   
 def whileWeWait(func,arg):  
  job = []  
  t = threading.Thread(target=backGround, args=(func, (arg,), job))  
  t.start()  
  while t.is_alive():  
   draw_ascii_spinner()  
   t.join(0.2)  
   
  return job[0]  

## this is how we run it ..
## assuming we have a function named findCluster that needs a companyid
print whileWeWait(findCluster, companyid)
   

Printing a Grid with Python

I'm learning python and I wanted to print a grid (table) of data on the command line from a list

and here is what I ended up with ...

def printGrid(list):
  if list:
    # the character we use to demarc columns
    splitchar = '|'
    # how much padding 
    # (spaces to add to the data in each cell)
    pad = 1 
    # 2d dictionary with each row of data
    myArray = {}
    # the array that keeps count how wide the columns should be
    myColCount = {}
    # how many rows
    rownum = 0
    # how many columns
    colnum = 0
    # how wide the column
    colwidth = 0 


    # find out how many rows we have
    rownum = len(list)
    
    # find out how many columns we have 
    for cols in list[0].split(splitchar):
      # we also initialize the values of 
      # myColCount for each column and 
      # we set it to 0
      myColCount[colnum] = 0
      # increase the colnum value by 1
      colnum += 1 
    
    # for each row ...
    for r in range(rownum):
      # we populate myArray dictionary
      # with a list created by splitting
      # on a defined character (default is |)
      myArray[r] = list[r].split('|')
    
    #loop through columns
    for c in range(colnum):
      #then loop through rows
      for r in range(rownum):
        length = len(myArray[r][c])

        #if the length of the string is bigger or equal 
        # than what is in the myColCount dictionary ...
        if length >= myColCount[c]:
          # we set the new value to length + padding
          # and that is how we populate the myColCount dictionary
          # with column width values
          myColCount[c] = (length + pad)
          colwidth = myColCount[c]

    # for each row of data ...
    for r in range(rownum):
      # we reset str and border on each iteration of this outer loop
      str = ''
      border = ''
      # for each column ...
      for c in range(colnum):
        #all our column widths are stored in the myColCount dictionary
        colwidth = myColCount[c]
        # we set the border by multiplying dashes by the column width
        border += '+' + "%-*s" % (colwidth,'-'*(colwidth))
        # we set the string with a pipe character and set it 
        # to the width specified by colwidth and we use the - to left align
        str += "|" + "%-*s" % (colwidth, myArray[r][c])

      # we add an ending mark and newline
      border += "+\n"
      # we add an ending mark and newline
      str += "|\n"
      print border
      print str
    # we print the bottom border    
    print border