Getting started with Tweepy. Accompanies this brief explainer: https://davidfloyd91.github.io/tweepy/

tweepy_futzting.py

# https://davidfloyd91.github.io/tweepy/

# install Tweepy: 
# $ pip install tweepy

# set Twitter credentials as temporary environment variables (see post for further explanation)
# $ export CONSUMER_KEY="blahblahthisismykey98725987"
# repeat for CONSUMER_SECRET, ACCESS_TOKEN, ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET

# test environment variables with:
# $ echo $CONSUMER_KEY

import tweepy
import os

twitter_app_auth = {
    'consumer_key': os.environ.get('CONSUMER_KEY'),
    'consumer_secret': os.environ.get('CONSUMER_SECRET'),
    'access_token': os.environ.get('ACCESS_TOKEN'),
    'access_token_secret': os.environ.get('ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET'),
}

auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(twitter_app_auth['consumer_key'], twitter_app_auth['consumer_secret'])
auth.set_access_token(twitter_app_auth['access_token'], twitter_app_auth['access_token_secret'])

api = tweepy.API(auth)

def get_input():
    print('What user would you like to see?')
    return input()

input = get_input()

user = api.get_user(input)

print('creation date:', user.created_at)
print('default profile image?', user.default_profile_image)
print('statuses count:', user.statuses_count)
print('favorites count:', user.favourites_count)
print('followers count:', user.followers_count)
print('friends count:', user.friends_count)

print('friends:')
friends = user.friends()

for friend in friends:
    print(friend.screen_name)