How to make the number of executions of an algorithm a function of processing capacity and not of time?

Question

I wrote a little program to send a message on my father’s Whatsapp to remind him to take his meds. Below I present the code that can be replicated by anyone with a mobile number and a record in the twilio API. in addition to the spreadsheet medications.csv (see below)

My problem is: I want my Father to receive a single message for every remedy in the database medications.csv, but I don’t know how to specify it. A hackish Solution What I found was to specify the exact second the message should be sent. However, I believe that there should be a better solution since if the program runs on a PC faster than mine it is likely that the logical test and the loop run at a speed of more than half a second, in which case my Father would receive n identical messages (where n is the number of complete operations per second).

How do I run this algorithm only once independent of hardware capability?

from twilio.rest import Client
import pandas as pd 
from datetime import datetime
import re
from time import sleep

account_sid = '' #insira seu sid aqui
auth_token = '' #insira seu token aqui
client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)

def to_list_integer(dt_time):
    return [dt_time.year,dt_time.month,dt_time.day, dt_time.hour,dt_time.minute]



df=pd.read_csv('medications.csv')

while True:
    data_lista =  to_list_integer(datetime.now())
    x=datetime(*data_lista)
    hora = x.strftime("%Hh%M")
    for i in range(len(df)):
        if (datetime.now().hour==df['hour'][i]) & (datetime.now().minute==5) & (datetime.now().second==1):
            text = '''*Lembrete: {0}*\n
Olá sr(a). Fulano, agora são {1}, 
\nestá na hora de tomar {2} comprimido(s) de {0}
\n\n*recomendação médica: {3}*'''.format(df['name'][i],hora,re.search(r'\d+',df['recomendation'][i]).group(),
                                                df['recomendation'][i])
            for person in ['whatsapp:+55XXXXXXXXXXX','whatsapp:+XXXXXXXXXXX']:#insira o seu número e do familiar aqui. Oseu é apenas pra controlar
                message = client.messages.create(
                                            body=text,
                                            from_='whatsapp:+XXXXXXXXXXX',#insira seu número twilio aqui
                                            to=person
                                        )
            print(message.sid)

medications.csv:

name,dosage,recomendation,hour,minute
remédio 1,100mg,Tomar 1 comprimido pela manhã,6,9
remédio 1 Plus,20/12.5 mg,Tomar 1 comprimido pela manhã,6,10
remédio 1 XR,500mg,Tomar 2 comprimidos após o café e após a última refeição da noite,7,10
remédio 2,75mg,Tomar 1 comprimido após o almoço,16,5
remédio 3,100mg,Tomar 1 comprimido após o almoço,16,6
remédio 1,10mg,Tomar 2 comprimidos à noite,20,10
remédio 1 XR,500mg,Tomar 2 comprimidos após o café e após a última refeição da noite,20,11
Rosuvastatina,20mg,Tomar 1 comprimido após a última refeição da noite,20,12

P.S: It was hard to summarize my doubt in the question’s title. I accept suggestions to make it clearer and more objective

Answer 1

Hello, you asked for ideas and suggestions. But your code is not very clear at least for me. But from what I understand you want a routine that calls a function at predetermined times on a single correct day? The routine I could imagine for that was this.

import pandas as pd
import time

T = pd.Timestamp.today()
print(T)
hora1 = pd.Timestamp(T.year, T.month,T.day, T.hour,T.minute,20)
hora2 = pd.Timestamp(T.year, T.month,T.day, T.hour,T.minute,30)
hora3 = pd.Timestamp(T.year, T.month,T.day, T.hour,T.minute,40)

hora_reset = pd.Timestamp(T.year, T.month,T.day, 23,59,55)

d = {'Horário': [hora1,hora2,hora3], 'Controle':[False,False,False],'Lembretes': ['Remedio1', 'Remedio2', 'Remedio1']}

while True:
    t = pd.Timestamp.now()
    for x in range(len(d['Horário'])):
        if (t > d['Horário'][x] ) and (d['Controle'][x] == False):
            print(d['Lembretes'][x])
            d['Controle'][x] = True
        if (t > hora_reset):
            d['Horário'][0] = pd.Timestamp(t.year, t.month,(t.day+1), 8,0,0)
            d['Horário'][1] = pd.Timestamp(t.year, t.month,(t.day+1), 12,0,0)
            d['Horário'][2] = pd.Timestamp(t.year, t.month,(t.day+1), 16,0,0)
            hora_reset = pd.Timestamp(t.year, t.month,(t.day+1), 23,59,55)
            d['Lembretes'][0] = False
            d['Lembretes'][1] = False
            d['Lembretes'][2] = False
    time.sleep(1)

In case the program prints the message in the next 20, 30 and 40 seconds to test, but if you change the time setting lines to 8h00, 12h00, 16h00, etc. It looks like this:

hora1 = pd.Timestamp(T.year, T.month,T.day, 8,0,0)
hora2 = pd.Timestamp(T.year, T.month,T.day, 12,0,0)
hora3 = pd.Timestamp(T.year, T.month,T.day, 16,0,0)

How do I make this algorithm run only once independent of hardware capacity?

I believe the answer to that is function time.sleep() which is in the code. In case it causes a delay of 'x' seconds in each while loop and you can adjust to how to get better for your application and save computer processing. In the case of medicines you can have a delay of 60 until some 300 seconds that is well acceptable.