bpo-35224: Additional documentation for Assignment Expressions (GH-15935) (GH-15967)
Add or update assignment expression documentation for:
- FAQ - Design
- Reference - Expressions
- Reference - Lexical Analysis
https://bugs.python.org/issue35224
Automerge-Triggered-By: @matrixise
(cherry picked from commit 6357c95716
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Co-authored-by: Emily Morehouse <emily@cuttlesoft.com>
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@ -149,66 +149,15 @@ to tell Python which namespace to use.
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Why can't I use an assignment in an expression?
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-----------------------------------------------
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Many people used to C or Perl complain that they want to use this C idiom:
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Starting in Python 3.8, you can!
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.. code-block:: c
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Assignment expressions using the walrus operator `:=` assign a variable in an
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expression::
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while (line = readline(f)) {
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// do something with line
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}
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while chunk := fp.read(200):
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print(chunk)
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where in Python you're forced to write this::
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while True:
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line = f.readline()
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if not line:
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break
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... # do something with line
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The reason for not allowing assignment in Python expressions is a common,
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hard-to-find bug in those other languages, caused by this construct:
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.. code-block:: c
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if (x = 0) {
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// error handling
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}
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else {
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// code that only works for nonzero x
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}
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The error is a simple typo: ``x = 0``, which assigns 0 to the variable ``x``,
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was written while the comparison ``x == 0`` is certainly what was intended.
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Many alternatives have been proposed. Most are hacks that save some typing but
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use arbitrary or cryptic syntax or keywords, and fail the simple criterion for
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language change proposals: it should intuitively suggest the proper meaning to a
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human reader who has not yet been introduced to the construct.
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An interesting phenomenon is that most experienced Python programmers recognize
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the ``while True`` idiom and don't seem to be missing the assignment in
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expression construct much; it's only newcomers who express a strong desire to
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add this to the language.
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There's an alternative way of spelling this that seems attractive but is
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generally less robust than the "while True" solution::
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line = f.readline()
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while line:
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... # do something with line...
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line = f.readline()
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The problem with this is that if you change your mind about exactly how you get
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the next line (e.g. you want to change it into ``sys.stdin.readline()``) you
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have to remember to change two places in your program -- the second occurrence
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is hidden at the bottom of the loop.
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The best approach is to use iterators, making it possible to loop through
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objects using the ``for`` statement. For example, :term:`file objects
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<file object>` support the iterator protocol, so you can write simply::
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for line in f:
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... # do something with line...
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See :pep:`572` for more information.
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@ -1784,6 +1784,8 @@ precedence and have a left-to-right chaining feature as described in the
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+-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
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| Operator | Description |
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+===============================================+=====================================+
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| ``:=`` | Assignment expression |
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+-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
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| :keyword:`lambda` | Lambda expression |
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+-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
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| :keyword:`if <if_expr>` -- :keyword:`!else` | Conditional expression |
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@ -887,7 +887,7 @@ The following tokens are operators:
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+ - * ** / // % @
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<< >> & | ^ ~
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<< >> & | ^ ~ :=
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< > <= >= == !=
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@ -122,8 +122,6 @@ See :pep:`572` for a full description.
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(Contributed by Emily Morehouse in :issue:`35224`.)
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.. TODO: Emily will sprint on docs at PyCon US 2019.
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Positional-only parameters
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--------------------------
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