Which Really Useful Boxes stack together?
"Really Useful Boxes" are great. They come in lots of sizes and are used everywhere. The sales literature gives examples of what you can store in them.But which sizes stack exactly on top of each other?
The list below shows the boxes that stack, grouped by those with the most common size.
(Scroll down for the Python script that was used to group the data).
Length Width (mm) Box Name
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395 255 4 litre Really Useful Box (ream of A4)
395 255 9 litre Really Useful Box (ream of A4)
395 255 9 litre XL Really Useful Box (7" small)
395 255 14 litre open front Really Useful Box (shoes)
395 255 19 litre Really Useful Box (A4 paper)
395 255 19 litre XL Really Useful Box (LP small)
395 255 25 litre Really Useful Box (12" x 12")
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710 440 20 litre Really Useful Box (board games)
710 440 33 litre Really Useful Box
710 440 50 litre Really Useful Box
710 440 64 litre Really Useful Box
710 440 64 litre open front Really Useful Box
710 440 84 litre Really Useful Box
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340 200 2.5 litre Really Useful Box
340 200 5 litre Really Useful Box
340 200 5 litre XL Really Useful Box
340 200 8 litre open front Really Useful Box
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480 390 18 litre Really Useful Box
480 390 18 litre XL Really Useful Box (7" medium)
480 390 35 litre Really Useful Box
480 390 35 litre XL Really Useful Box (LP medium)
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600 400 24.5 litre Really Useful Box
600 400 48 litre Really Useful Box
600 400 48 litre XL Really Useful Box
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465 270 6 litre Really Useful Box
465 270 12 litre Really Useful Box
465 270 24 litre Really Useful Box
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The following boxes only have one 'partner in size':
Length Width (mm) Box Name
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090 065 0.07 litre Really Useful Box
090 065 0.14 litre Really Useful Box
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120 085 0.2 litre Really Useful Box
120 085 0.3 litre Really Useful Box
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155 100 0.35 litre Really Useful Box
155 100 0.7 litre Really Useful Box
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195 135 0.75 litre Really Useful Box
195 135 1.6 litre Really Useful Box
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220 100 0.55 litre Really Useful Box
220 100 0.9 litre Really Useful Box
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245 180 1.75 litre Really Useful Box
245 180 3 litre Really Useful Box
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355 100 0.8 litre Really Useful Box
355 100 1.5 litre Really Useful Box
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450 350 21 litre Really Useful Box
450 350 21 litre XL Really Useful Box
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456 356 11 litre Really Useful Box
455 356 11 litre XL Really Useful Box
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810 620 70 litre Really Useful Box
810 620 145 litre Really Useful Box
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The following boxes don't stack exactly with any other sized box.
180 135 1.7 litre folding Really Useful Box
240 130 2.1 litre Really Useful Box
430 180 6.5 litre Really Useful Box
400 350 7 litre Really Useful Box
520 340 10 litre Really Useful Box
820 255 22 litre Really Useful Box
470 342 32 litre folding Really Useful Box
485 390 35 litre folding Really Useful Box
520 440 42 litre Really Useful Box
390 570 45 litre folding Really Useful Box
1201 270 77 litre Really Useful Box
The Python Script
This section is intended for those interested in how the data was prepared.The data comes from the table here, and was copied-and-pasted into a text file. The top line was edited to make a tab-separated header row.
The python script was written as an exercise in using Pandas Dataframes. The goal was to read the file, parse, sort, and filter, then group the boxes on external length and width. Although this could have been done manually on this dataset (59 rows), the manual approach does not scale to larger datasets.
Here is the script.
#!/usr/bin/env python
'''
Parse the sizes of ReallyUsefulBoxes and group them by external dimension.
'''
import pandas as pd
filename = 'ReallyUsefulBoxesRaw.txt'
list_data = pd.read_csv(filename, sep='\t')
# force a rename of the columns
list_data.columns = ['BoxName','Extl','Intl','Wt']
# ---extract external dimension data into 3 new DataFrame columns:
extList = list_data['Extl'].str.split(' x ')
list_data['Length'] = [row[0] for row in extList]
list_data['Width'] = [row[1] for row in extList]
list_data['Height'] = [row[2] for row in extList]
# Just use the columns of interest
trimmed_data = list_data[['Length','Width','BoxName']]
grouped_data = trimmed_data.groupby(['Length','Width'])
#print grouped_data
# Print out each group: these are the boxes that have the same width and
# height and therefore stack together.
for name, group in grouped_data:
print '\n------------',name,'------------'
print(group)
