Brian Hafner Analytics

Google Gemini helped me figure out how to use Python to review a list of 2500 keywords and flag if it is a person’s proper name. Here’s a summary of the process we went through to get my Name Detector script working, along with explanations to help with future projects:

Problem:

You wanted to use Python to detect names in a list of words and update a CSV file accordingly.

Steps:

1. Environment Setup:

   • Virtual Environment (Key Recommendation): We created a virtual environment named ‘spacy_env’ to isolate your project dependencies and prevent conflicts with your system’s Python or other packages. This is done using:
     Bash

     python3 -m venv spacy_env
     source spacy_env/bin/activate 
     

   • Homebrew Considerations: We navigated Homebrew’s preferences for protecting its own Python environment.

2. Installing Dependencies:

   • spaCy: We installed the core spaCy library for natural language processing:
     Bash

     python3 -m pip install spacy 
     

   • Language Model: We downloaded a suitable language model (en_core_web_sm) for English named entity recognition:
     Bash

     python3 -m spacy download en_core_web_sm 
     

   • pandas: We installed pandas for working with the CSV file:
     Bash

     python3 -m pip install pandas
     

3. Coding the Script:

   • You provided a Python script named ‘name_detector.py’. We might have made minor adjustments if needed for file paths or error handling.

4. Troubleshooting Type Errors

   • CSV Data: We ensured that all values in the ‘Keyword’ column of your CSV were actually text strings. Numbers needed to be either converted to strings or filtered out for spaCy to process them correctly.

Key Takeaways

• Virtual Environments: Always use virtual environments to cleanly manage project dependencies.
• Language Models: spaCy relies on language models to perform its analysis. Make sure you download the appropriate model for your language.
• Data Types: Be aware of data types in your files (like CSVs) and ensure they match the requirements of the libraries you’re using.

Additional Notes

• pipx: We discussed pipx as an alternative for installing isolated Python applications.
• Python Version: Be mindful of potential conflicts if you’re working with multiple Python versions on your system.

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or want to explore customizing your name detection further!