On 10/31/16, Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> wrote:
For "everything to the right" it would seem we have some freedom: e.g. if we have "foo.bar?.baz(bletch)" is the call included? The answer is yes -- the concept we're after here is named "trailer" in the Grammar file in the source code ( https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Grammar/Grammar#L119), and "primary" in the reference manual ( https://docs.python.org/3/reference/expressions.html#primaries). This means all attribute references ("x.y"), index/slice operations ("x[...]"), and calls ("x(...)").
Note that in almost all cases the "?." operator will be used in an context where there is no other operator of lower precedence before or after it -- given the above meaning, it doesn't make a lot of sense to write "1 + x?.a" because "1 + None" is always an error (and ditto for "x?.a + 1"). However it still makes sense to assign such an expression to a variable or pass it as an argument to a function.
So you can ignore the preceding four paragraphs: just remember the simplified rule (indented and in bold, depending on your email client) and let your intuition do the rest. Maybe it can even be simplified more:
*The "?." operator splits the expression in two parts; the second part is skipped if the first part is None.*
Eventually this *will* become intuitive. The various constraints are all naturally imposed by the grammar so you won't have to think about them consciously.
--Guido
If we skip function call then we also skip argument evaluation? def fnc(): print('I am here') None(fnc()) # behavior similar to this? None()[fnc()] # or to this? PL