Naive Country ISO3166 Alpha2 Resolver/Guesser

alpha2_guesser.py

import difflib
import pycountry

def baseline_country(country_input, default="US"):
    """
    Given a string input, return a two-character ISO3166 code.
    """
    try:
        if country_input and len(country_input) > 0:
            if len(country_input) == 3:  # Let's find the alpha2 for this probably-alpha3. Are there 3-letter countries?
                matches = [c for c in pycountry.countries if c.alpha3.upper() == country_input.upper()]
                if len(matches):
                    return matches[0].alpha2
            elif len(country_input) == 2:  # It's probably already an alpha2.
                matches = [c for c in pycountry.countries if c.alpha2.upper() == country_input.upper()]
                if len(matches):
                    return matches[0].alpha2
            
            # If neither above condition finds a match, try a difflib string guess.
            countries = [c for c in pycountry.countries]
            names = [c.name.lower() for c in countries]
            matching_name = difflib.get_close_matches(country_input, names)[0] # Could throw IndexError, but we handle it.
            country = [c for c in countries if c.name.lower() == matching_name][0]  # Could throw IndexError, but we handle it.
            return country.alpha2
        else:
            return default
    except Exception as e:
        return default