[Python-Dev] Proposal: defaultdict (original) (raw)

Steve Holden steve at holdenweb.com
Sun Feb 19 04:38:39 CET 2006

Martin v. Löwis wrote:

Guido van Rossum wrote:

Feedback? I would like this to be part of the standard dictionary type, rather than being a subtype. d.setdefault([]) (one argument) should install a default value, and d.cleardefault() should remove that setting; d.default should be read-only. Alternatively, d.default could be assignable and del-able. The issue with setting the default this way is that a copy would have to be created if the behavior was to differ from the sometimes-confusing default argument behavior for functions.

Also, I think haskey/in should return True if there is a default. It certainly seems desirable to see True where d[some_key] doesn't raise an exception, but one could argue either way.

regards Steve

Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC www.holdenweb.com PyCon TX 2006 www.python.org/pycon/

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