Month & Country Conversion Delight

Main Dish (Idea): A multilingual appetizer providing conversions between month names/IDs and country names/IDs, served two ways: a quick in-memory version and a more robust database-backed version.

Ingredients (Concepts & Components):

• Base Data: CSV file containing country names and IDs, and a hardcoded month name to ID dictionary.
• FastAPI Framework: The chef’s knife, providing structure and quick handling of requests.
• API Endpoints: Four separate serving plates, each offering a different conversion.
• SQLAlchemy: A robust tool to interact with a PostgreSQL database.
• PostgreSQL database: Table with Country IDs to Country Names
• Error Handling: A dash of try...except to prevent the kitchen from burning down.
• Query Parameters: Served as optional toppings, to give the end user more flexibility.

Cooking Process (How It Works):

1. Setting the Stage (Initialization): The FastAPI application is initialized, and the in-memory data (month dictionary, countries.csv) is loaded. A connection is stablished with a Postgres Database.
2. The In-Memory Conversions (Quick Stir-Fry):
   • When a request hits a /convert_month_to_id/ endpoint, it first checks for valid month. If the month name is valid, it’s looked up in the month dictionary, and a month ID is calculated based on the provided year and a base year.
   • When a request hits a /convert_id_to_month_year/ endpoint, the month ID is validated, the month name is calculated based on a base year.
   • When a request hits a /convert_country_name_to_id/ endpoint, it searches the countries.csv for a matching country. If the country name is valid, it’s ID is extracted and passed on.
   • When a request hits a /convert_id_to_country_name/ endpoint, it searches the countries.csv for a matching ID. If the ID is valid, it’s name is extracted and passed on.
3. The Database Conversions (Slow Simmer):
   • When a request hits a /convert_country_name_to_id_db/ endpoint, a SQL query is constructed to find the country ID matching the provided name.
   • When a request hits a /convert_country_id_to_name_db/ endpoint, a SQL query is constructed to find the country name matching the provided ID.
   • SQLAlchemy then executes this query against the PostgreSQL database.
4. The Plating (Response):
   • For successful conversions, the resulting ID or name is neatly packaged into a JSON response.
   • If anything goes wrong (invalid input, database issues), a formatted error message (HTTPException) is served instead.

Serving Suggestion (Outcome):

This project provides an easy-to-use and efficient API for converting between month/country names and IDs. The in-memory version offers speed, while the database version provides scalability and data persistence. It’s a versatile dish, useful for applications that need to handle multilingual data or work with external datasets.