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`mantid.utils`¶

This module is intended to contain code that can be shared between algorithms, such as helper functions and constants. Additionally, it can be used as a library to pull internal functions from an algorithm so that the code can be shared with external software needing the same functionality without the need to duplicate code.

Unit tests for functions in this module should be placed in the Framework/PythonInterface/test/python/mantid/utils/ directory and added to its CMakeLists.txt to make sure the testing code gets registered with Mantid.

Calling functions from `utils`¶

To use functions defined within the mantid.utils module, the particular file can be imported and used similarly to the other python modules. The code below shows an example usage for importing and calling a function within a hypothetical file. The following applies to accessing inside another algorithm, as well as within from Mantid Workbench.

from mantid.utils import examplelibrary

# Call a stand-alone function defined in examplelibrary:
result = examplelibrary.do_something()

A basic real-world example is shown below to compute absorption correction on data using functions extracted from SNSPowderReduction so they can be called from different algorithms.

from mantid.kernel import PropertyManagerDataService
from mantid.simpleapi import Load, PDLoadCharacterizations, PDDetermineCharacterizations
from mantid.utils import absorptioncorrutils

# Load characterization file
char_files = ["PG3_char_2020_01_04_PAC_limit_1.4MW.txt", "PG3_char_2020_05_06-HighRes-PAC_1.4_MW.txt"]
charfile = ','.join(char_files)
charTable = PDLoadCharacterizations(Filename=charfile)
chars = charTable[0]

data = Load(Filename="PG3_46577.nxs.h5", MetaDataOnly=True)

PDDetermineCharacterizations(InputWorkspace=data,
                             Characterizations=chars,
                             ReductionProperties="props")

props = PropertyManagerDataService.retrieve("props")

# Sample only absorption correction
abs_sample, _ = absorptioncorrutils.calculate_absorption_correction(
    "PG3_46577.nxs.h5",  # input filename
    "SampleOnly",        # absorption correction method
    props,               # PropertyManager
    "Si",                # sample_formula
    1.165,               # mass_density
    element_size=2,      # integration element cube in mm
    cache_dir="/tmp",    # cache diretory for speeding up repeated calculation
    )