Python - Assignment expressions
There is new syntax := that assigns values to variables as part of a larger expression. It is affectionately known as “the walrus operator” due to its resemblance to the eyes and tusks of a walrus.
In this example, the assignment expression helps avoid calling len() twice:
if (n := len(a)) > 10:
print(f"List is too long ({n} elements, expected <= 10)")
A similar benefit arises during regular expression matching where match objects are needed twice, once to test whether a match occurred and another to extract a subgroup:
discount = 0.0
if (mo := re.search(r'(\d+)% discount', advertisement)):
discount = float(mo.group(1)) / 100.0
The operator is also useful with while-loops that compute a value to test loop termination and then need that same value again in the body of the loop:
# Loop over fixed length blocks
while (block := f.read(256)) != '':
process(block)
Another motivating use case arises in list comprehensions where a value computed in a filtering condition is also needed in the expression body:
[clean_name.title() for name in names
if (clean_name := normalize('NFC', name)) in allowed_names]
Try to limit use of the walrus operator to clean cases that reduce complexity and improve readability.
In this example, the assignment expression helps avoid calling len() twice:
if (n := len(a)) > 10:
print(f"List is too long ({n} elements, expected <= 10)")
A similar benefit arises during regular expression matching where match objects are needed twice, once to test whether a match occurred and another to extract a subgroup:
discount = 0.0
if (mo := re.search(r'(\d+)% discount', advertisement)):
discount = float(mo.group(1)) / 100.0
The operator is also useful with while-loops that compute a value to test loop termination and then need that same value again in the body of the loop:
# Loop over fixed length blocks
while (block := f.read(256)) != '':
process(block)
Another motivating use case arises in list comprehensions where a value computed in a filtering condition is also needed in the expression body:
[clean_name.title() for name in names
if (clean_name := normalize('NFC', name)) in allowed_names]
Try to limit use of the walrus operator to clean cases that reduce complexity and improve readability.
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