What is FastAPI?
FastAPI is a modern, high-performance Python web framework for building APIs quickly and efficiently. It is built on top of Starlette and Pydantic, which enable it to provide efficient asynchronous handling of requests and easy data validation. FastAPI offers automatic generation of OpenAPI and JSON Schema documentation, which makes it easy for developers to create and maintain API documentation.
Why use FastAPI?
Some benefits of using FastAPI include:
- Fast performance: Asynchronous programming support enables FastAPI to handle a large number of concurrent connections efficiently.
- Easy data validation: Pydantic integration allows for automatic data validation and serialization.
- Automatic documentation: FastAPI generates OpenAPI and JSON Schema documentation automatically, making it easy to create and maintain API documentation.
- Type hints: FastAPI uses Python’s type hints to provide better editor support, reduce development time, and improve code quality.
FastAPI example:
Here’s a simple example of creating a FastAPI application:
from fastapi import FastAPI
app = FastAPI()
@app.get("/")
def read_root():
return {"Hello": "World"}
@app.get("/items/{item_id}")
def read_item(item_id: int, q: str = None):
return {"item_id": item_id, "q": q}
To run the FastAPI application, you can use the following command:
$ uvicorn main:app --reload
This will start a development server on http://127.0.0.1:8000.
