[Python-Dev] Let's just keep lambda (original) (raw)

skip at pobox.com skip at pobox.com
Thu Feb 9 15:52:19 CET 2006 

>> Hmm. Can you give real-world examples (of existing code) where you
>> needed this?

Jiwon> Apparently, simplest example is,

Jiwon> collection.visit(lambda x: print x)

Sure, but has several other people have indicated, statements are not expressions in Python as they are in C (or in Lisp, which doesn't have statements). You can't do this either:

if print x:
    print 5

because "print x" is a statement, while the if statement only accepts expressions.

Lambdas are expressions. Statements can't be embedded in expressions. That statements and expressions are different is a core feature of the language. That is almost certainly not going to change.

Skip

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