Python Faker
last modified January 29, 2024
In this article we show how to generate fake data in Python with Faker package.
We use the joke2k/faker library.
Faker
Faker is a Python library that generates fake data. Fake data is often used for testing or filling databases with some dummy data. Faker is heavily inspired by PHP's Faker, Perl's Data::Faker, and by Ruby's Faker.
Setting up Faker
The package is installed with composer.
$ pip install Faker
We install the Faker module.
$ pip install Dumper
In addition, we install the Dumper, which provides nicer console output when dumping variables.
Faker generator
The faker.Faker creates and initializes a faker generator, which
can generate data by accessing properties named after the type of data.
Faker delegates the data generation to providers. The default provider uses the English locale. Faker supports other locales; they differ in level of completion.
Simple Faker
The following example is a simple demonstration of Faker.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
print(f'name: {faker.name()}')
print(f'address: {faker.address()}')
print(f'text: {faker.text()}')
The example outputs a fake name, address, and text.
$ ./simple.py name: Arthur Patton address: 0638 Larsen Way Tylermouth, CA 48344 text: Save general start bar. Become class both bank Mrs so myself. Each difficult performance even. Total anyone develop her raise research both. Laugh sport necessary tree. As during day up fall.
Faking names
In the second example, we fake data related to user names.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
print(f'Name: {faker.name()}')
print(f'First name: {faker.first_name()}')
print(f'Last name: {faker.last_name()}')
print('--------------------------')
print(f'Male name: {faker.name_male()}')
print(f'Female name: {faker.name_female()}')
The example creates fake full names, first names, last names of males and females.
$ ./names.py Name: Tara Brown First name: Stephanie Last name: Martin -------------------------- Male name: John Banks Female name: Lacey Roberts
Faking jobs
Jobs are generated with job.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
for _ in range(6):
print(faker.job())
The example creates six fake jobs.
$ ./jobs.py Town planner Paediatric nurse Geographical information systems officer Water quality scientist Engineer, maintenance Designer, ceramics/pottery
Faking locale data
The Faker supports localized data to some extent. The locale is passed to the constructor method. Note that the locales are finished to various levels.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker('cz_CZ')
for i in range(3):
name = faker.name()
address = faker.address()
phone = faker.phone_number()
print(f'{name}, {address}, {phone}')
The example generates fake data in Czech language.
$ ./localized.py Irena Novotná, Nad Šancemi 725 055 80 Bojkovice, 606 136 053 Stanislav Svoboda, Březanova 225 621 17 Bystřice pod Hostýnem, 727 057 251 Klára Moravcová, Neužilova 6/3 134 97 Česká Kamenice, 606 374 469
This is a sample output. Notice that Czech language has accents.
Faking currencies
The following example creates fake data for currencies.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
print(f'currency: {faker.currency()}')
print(f'currency name: {faker.currency_name()}')
print(f'currency code: {faker.currency_code()}')
The program generates fake currencies.
$ ./currencies.py
currency: ('ISK', 'Icelandic króna')
currency name: Israeli new shekel
currency code: DJF
Faking words
Faker allows to create dummy words.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
print(f'a word: {faker.word()}')
print(f'six words: {faker.words(6)}')
words = ['forest', 'blue', 'cloud', 'sky', 'wood', 'falcon']
print(f'customized unique words: {faker.words(3, words, True)}')
The example creates dummy words.
print(f'a word: {faker.word()}')
This line generates a fake word.
print(f'six words: {faker.words(6)}')
Here we generate six dummy words.
words = ['forest', 'blue', 'cloud', 'sky', 'wood', 'falcon']
print(f'customized unique words: {faker.words(3, words, True)}')
We can also create fake words from a predefined list of words.
$ ./words.py a word: show six words: ['value', 'its', 'those', 'wish', 'enter', 'hold'] customized unique words: ['forest', 'blue', 'sky']
Faking profiles
Faker can create simple dummy profiles with simple_profile and
extended profiles with profile.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
import dumper
faker = Faker()
profile1 = faker.simple_profile()
dumper.dump(profile1)
print('--------------------------')
profile2 = faker.simple_profile('M')
dumper.dump(profile2)
print('--------------------------')
profile3 = faker.profile(sex='F')
dumper.dump(profile3)
The example creates dummy profiles for both males and females.
$ ./profiles.py
<dict at 0x20d590a7678>:
username: 'gmorgan'
name: 'Jessica Clark'
sex: 'F'
address: '694 Joseph Valleys\nJohnfort, ME 81780'
mail: 'bettybuckley@yahoo.com'
birthdate: <str at 0x20d5bcbd7b0>: 'datetime.date(1938, 9, 18)'
--------------------------
<dict at 0x20d5b0065e8>:
username: 'mrios'
name: 'Harold Wagner'
sex: 'M'
address: '26439 Robinson Radial\nWest Meghanmouth, PA 85463'
mail: 'josechoi@gmail.com'
birthdate: <str at 0x20d5bcbd7b0>: 'datetime.date(1986, 8, 18)'
--------------------------
<dict at 0x20d5bd24990>:
job: 'Engineer, communications'
company: 'Jackson-Willis'
ssn: '430-41-6118'
residence: 'USNS Odom\nFPO AP 47095'
current_location: <tuple at 0x20d5bca9a88>
0: <str at 0x20d5bd248a0>: "Decimal('74.1885785')"
1: <str at 0x20d5bd248a0>: "Decimal('119.951995')"
blood_group: 'O-'
website: ['http://roberson.com/']
username: 'ygutierrez'
name: 'Lindsay Walker'
sex: 'F'
address: '22968 Beverly Road Suite 918\nTimothyborough, SD 10494'
mail: 'aliciamccall@yahoo.com'
birthdate: <str at 0x20d5bcbd7b0>: 'datetime.date(1979, 1, 4)'
Faking numbers
The Faker allows to generate random digits and integers.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
print(f'Random int: {faker.random_int()}')
print(f'Random int: {faker.random_int(0, 100)}')
print(f'Random digit: {faker.random_digit()}')
The example generates random digits and integers.
print(f'Random int: {faker.random_int(0, 100)}')
We can specify the bounds in the random_int method.
$ ./fake_numbers.py Random int: 5181 Random int: 91 Random digit: 9
Faking hashes and uuids
Faker support for dummy hashes and uuids.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
print(f'md5: {faker.md5()}')
print(f'sha1: {faker.sha1()}')
print(f'sha256: {faker.sha256()}')
print(f'uuid4: {faker.uuid4()}')
The example generates three fake hash and one uuid values.
$ ./hash_uuid.py md5: aace57d56794686acec9eb190d401d46 sha1: 9f8f6af3089e7b5ed571591701afcfd9c2bb7a0e sha256: 8b117b58599809f50735c701f598312b0f64203a8ffacde09af23db69cfd62d5 uuid4: 38092dcd-0e49-4ac0-b39b-7edf6db62290
Faking internet related data
Faker has several accessors for faking internet related data.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
print(f'Email: {faker.email()}')
print(f'Safe email: {faker.safe_email()}')
print(f'Free email: {faker.free_email()}')
print(f'Company email: {faker.company_email()}')
print('------------------------------------')
print(f'Host name: {faker.hostname()}')
print(f'Domain name: {faker.domain_name()}')
print(f'Domain word: {faker.domain_word()}')
print(f'TLD: {faker.tld()}')
print('------------------------------------')
print(f'IPv4: {faker.ipv4()}')
print(f'IPv6: {faker.ipv6()}')
print(f'MAC address: {faker.mac_address()}')
print('------------------------------------')
print(f'Slug: {faker.slug()}')
print(f'Image URL: {faker.image_url()}')
The example shows various internet related data, including emails, domain names, slugs, IP addresses and URLs.
$ ./internet.py Email: hescobar@acevedo.info Safe email: jonesgregory@example.net Free email: zchambers@yahoo.com Company email: paulbailey@gordon-woods.com ------------------------------------ Host name: desktop-12.rodriguez-underwood.com Domain name: henry.com Domain word: davis TLD: com ------------------------------------ IPv4: 192.31.48.26 IPv6: 75cd:2c43:37f5:774c:dd:5a2f:ae5d:bfc9 MAC address: 3d:b1:39:ec:c6:53 ------------------------------------ Slug: of-street-fight Image URL: https://placeimg.com/311/871/any
Faking date and time
Faker has plenty of methods for faking date and time values.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
print(f'Date of birth: {faker.date_of_birth()}')
print(f'Century: {faker.century()}')
print(f'Year: {faker.year()}')
print(f'Month: {faker.month()}')
print(f'Month name: {faker.month_name()}')
print(f'Day of week: {faker.day_of_week()}')
print(f'Day of month: {faker.day_of_month()}')
print(f'Time zone: {faker.timezone()}')
print(f'AM/PM: {faker.am_pm()}')
The first example shows fake methods for date of birth, datetime parts, timezone, and AM/PM.
$ ./date_time.py Date of birth: 2008-08-07 Century: IV Year: 1981 Month: 05 Month name: January Day of week: Saturday Day of month: 26 Time zone: Asia/Oral AM/PM: AM
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
print(f'Datetime this century: {faker.date_time_this_century()}')
print(f'Datetime this decade: {faker.date_time_this_decade()}')
print(f'Datetime this year: {faker.date_time_this_year()}')
print(f'Datetime this month: {faker.date_time_this_month()}')
print('-------------------------')
print(f'Date this century: {faker.date_this_century()}')
print(f'Date this decade: {faker.date_this_decade()}')
print(f'Date this year: {faker.date_this_year()}')
print(f'Date this month: {faker.date_this_month()}')
print('-------------------------')
TOTAL_SECONDS = 60*60*24*2 # two days
series = faker.time_series(start_date='-12d', end_date='now', precision=TOTAL_SECONDS)
for val in series:
print(val[0])
The second example shows methods for generating datetime values in the current century, decade, year, or month. It also includes the generation of time series values.
$ ./date_time2.py Datetime this century: 2008-11-26 15:47:01 Datetime this decade: 2022-11-12 07:15:20 Datetime this year: 2023-05-05 09:35:05 Datetime this month: 2023-08-05 15:37:58 ------------------------- Date this century: 2006-12-17 Date this decade: 2021-07-23 Date this year: 2023-02-03 Date this month: 2023-08-03 ------------------------- 2023-07-27 15:59:46 2023-07-29 15:59:46 2023-07-31 15:59:46 2023-08-02 15:59:46 2023-08-04 15:59:46 2023-08-06 15:59:46
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
faker = Faker()
print(f'Unix time: {faker.unix_time()}')
print(f'Datetime: {faker.date_time()}')
print(f'iso8601: {faker.iso8601()}')
print(f'Date: {faker.date()}')
print(f'Time: {faker.time()}')
print('-------------------------')
print(f"Datetime between: {faker.date_time_between(start_date='-15y', end_date='now')}")
print(f"Date between: {faker.date_between()}")
print('-------------------------')
print(f"Future datetime: {faker.future_datetime()}")
print(f"Future date: {faker.future_date()}")
print(f"Past datetime: {faker.past_datetime()}")
print(f"Past date: {faker.past_date()}")
The third example shows methods for various datetime formats, for getting datetime values for a chosen range, and for generating future or past values.
$ ./date_time3.py Unix time: 1309385098 Datetime: 1974-06-28 07:08:47 iso8601: 2003-06-13T07:08:07 Date: 1981-08-31 Time: 08:41:29 ------------------------- Datetime between: 2023-02-23 17:32:58 Date between: 1998-03-21 ------------------------- Future datetime: 2023-08-13 15:22:10 Future date: 2023-09-05 Past datetime: 2023-07-29 05:54:17 Past date: 2023-07-28
Generate CSV fake data
Together with the csv module, we create a new CSV file with fake
data.
#!/usr/bin/python
from faker import Faker
import csv
faker = Faker()
with open('users.csv', 'w', newline='') as f:
fieldnames = ['id', 'first_name', 'last_name', 'occupation']
writer = csv.DictWriter(f, fieldnames=fieldnames)
writer.writeheader()
for i in range(1, 101, 1):
_id = i
fname = faker.first_name()
lname = faker.last_name()
occupation = faker.job()
writer.writerow({'id': _id, 'first_name': fname,
'last_name': lname, 'occupation': occupation})
The data contains id, first name, last name, and job title. The data is written
to the users.csv file.
fieldnames = ['id', 'first_name', 'last_name', 'occupation'] writer = csv.DictWriter(f, fieldnames=fieldnames)
We use the dictionary writer with the given field names.
writer.writeheader()
We write the header line.
for i in range(1, 101, 1):
_id = i
fname = faker.first_name()
lname = faker.last_name()
occupation = faker.job()
writer.writerow({'id': _id, 'first_name': fname,
'last_name': lname, 'occupation': occupation})
We generate 100 users. Each user is written to the file with
writerow method.
Generating XML data with Faker
In the following example, we generate XML data with Faker and Jinja2 template. The XML file will contain users.
$ pip install jinja2
We install the Jinja2 template engine.
#!/usr/bin/python
from jinja2 import Environment, FileSystemLoader
from faker import Faker
class User:
def __init__(self, first_name, last_name, occupation):
self.first_name = first_name
self.last_name = last_name
self.occupation = occupation
faker = Faker()
users = []
for _ in range(10):
first_name = faker.first_name()
last_name = faker.last_name()
occupation = faker.job()
user = User(first_name, last_name, occupation)
users.append(user)
file_loader = FileSystemLoader('templates')
env = Environment(loader=file_loader)
template = env.get_template('users.xml.j2')
output = template.render(users=users)
print(output, file=open('users.xml', 'w'))
The program generates a list of ten users. The list is passed to the
Jinja2 template to be processed. The template is located in the templates
directory. The generated content is written to the users.xml file.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<users>
{% for user in users %}
<user id="{{ loop.index }}">
<firstname>{{ user.first_name }}</firstname>
<lastname>{{ user.last_name }}</lastname>
<occupation>{{ user.occupation }}</occupation>
</user>
{% endfor %}
</users>
In the template, we use the for directive to process the list
of users.
Source
In this article we have used Python Faker to generate fake data in Python.
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