There are two issues** here:
(1) def foo(L=[]):
the [] is a single list, not a new list created every time the function is
called.
(2) def foo(L=list()):
the list() is evaluated once when the function is declared.
I think (1) is easy to explain; I find (2) confusing. (**Yes, I realize that
these can be considered the same issue, but I'm speaking here as a person
writing python programs, not designing the language.) On the other hand,
consider this code:
bar = 1
def foo(arg=bar):
print(arg)
bar = 2
foo()
I would be very surprised if foo() printed 2 rather than 1. The difference
to my (programmer's) mind is that in this case bar looks like a simple value
and list() looks like a function call. So it's not quite that simple. At
least the way it works now is completely consistent and the code:
def foo(arg=None):
arg = bar if arg is None else arg
arg2 = list() if arg is None else arg
is unambiguous if clumsy.
Now thinking as a language designer, C# has a ?? operator where A??B is
shorthand for (B if A is None else A) except you only have to write A once
and A is only evaluated once. A Pythonesque version of this would be just
"else":
def foo(arg=None, arg2=None):
arg = arg else bar
arg2 = arg2 else list()
And I think that metaphor is easy to read. Chains of else operators can be
useful:
x = f() else g() else h() else 0
--- Bruce
_______________________________________________
Python-3000 mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000
Unsubscribe:
http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/archive%40mail-archive.com
