ex_ottoyuhr wrote: > I'm trying to create a function that can take arguments, say, foo and > bar, and modify the original copies of foo and bar as well as its local > versions -- the equivalent of C++ funct(&foo, &bar). > > I've looked around on this newsgroup and elsewhere, and I gather that > this is a very common concern in Python, but one which is ordinarily > answered with "No, you can't. Neat, huh?" A few websites, newsgroup > posts, etc. have recommended that one ask for a more "Pythonic" way of > doing things; so, is there one, or at least one that doesn't involve > using objects as wrappers for mutable arguments? > > And, indeed, would that approach work? Would declaring: > > class FooWrapper : > __init__(fooToLoad) : > self.foo = fooToLoad > > mean that I could now declare a FooWrapper holding a foo, pass the > FooWrapper to a function, and have the function conclude with the foo > within the FooWrapper now modified?
Well, you can test it yourself: >>> class wrapper(object): ... def __init__(self, val): ... self.val = val ... >>> w = wrapper(42) >>> w.val 42 >>> def foo(w): ... w.val = 11 ... >>> foo(w) >>> w.val 11 >>> > > Thanks in advance for everyone's time; I hope I'm comprehensible. You're comprehensible, but I think that you're also thinking in C++. The object model that Python follows is very different -- instead of thinking of assignment meaning "Stick this value into this named location", you need to switch to thinking of assignment as meaning "stick this name onto that object until I tell you otherwise". If you're trying to return multiple values from a function, Python lets you do that >>> def multiFoo(x, y, z): ... return x*2, y*2, z*2 ... >>> x = 1 >>> y = 2 >>> z = 3 >>> x, y, z = multiFoo(x, y, z) >>> x 2 >>> y 4 >>> z 6 >>> -- // Today's Oblique Strategy (© Brian Eno/Peter Schmidt): // Repetition is a form of change // Brett g Porter * [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
