[Python-ideas] 'where' statement in Python? (original) (raw)

Jack Diederich jackdied at gmail.com
Tue Jul 20 03:52:47 CEST 2010

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 9:45 PM, Sergio Davis <sergdavis at gmail.com> wrote:

Dear members of the python-ideas mailing list,

I'm not quite sure if this is the right place to ask for feedback about the idea, I apologize if this is not the case. I'm considering the following extension to Python's grammar: adding the 'where' keyword, which would work as follows: whereexpr : expr 'where' NAME '=' expr The idea is to be able to write something like: a = (z**2+5) where z=2 being equivalent to (current Python syntax): a = (lambda z: z**2+5)(z=2) I thinkg this would be especially powerful in cases where the variable to be substituted ('z' in the example) comes in turn from a complicated expression, which makes it confusing to "embed" it in the main expression (the body of the 'lambda'), or in cases where the substitution must be performed more than once, and it may be more efficient to evaluate 'z' once. A more complicated example: vtype = decl[parpos+1:FindMatching(parpos, decl)].strip() where parpos=decl.find('(') equivalent to (current Python syntax): vtype = (lambda parpos: decl[parpos+1:FindMatching(parpos,decl)].strip())(parpos=decl.find('(')) Extending this syntax to several assignments after the 'where' keyword could be implemented as: whereexpr: expr 'where' NAME '=' expr (',' NAME '=' expr )* or (which I think may be more "pythonic"): whereexpr: expr 'where' NAME (',' NAME)* '=' expr (',' expr)* as it mimics the same syntax for unpacking tuples. I would appreciate any feedback on the idea, especially if it has some obvious flaw or if it's redundant (meaning there is a clearer way of doing this 'trick' which I don't know about). I think the "trick" to making it readable is putting the assignment first.

par_pos = decl.find('(') vtype = decl[par_pos+1:FindMatching(par_pos, decl)].strip()

versus:

vtype = decl[par_pos+1:FindMatching(par_pos, decl)].strip() where par_pos=decl.find('(')

-Jack

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