[Python-ideas] [Python-Dev] Dict access with double-dot (syntactic sugar)
Josiah Carlson
josiah.carlson at gmail.com
Fri Mar 25 18:25:18 CET 2011
On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 9:00 AM, Jameson Quinn <jameson.quinn at gmail.com> wrote:
> I realized that python already has a way to access the string-based members
> of a dict without using quotes:
> def expect_a_chair(chair, **kw):
> print "Thanks. That chair is %s." % chair
> if kw:
> for key, val in kw.iteritems():
> print "I wasn't expecting the (%s) %s!" % (val, key)
> d = json.loads('{"chair":"comfy","inquisition":"Spanish"}')
> expect_a_chair(**d)
> try:
> expect_a_chair({})
> except TypeError:
> print "No chair."
> The ** operator does this. Notice that nowhere in that python code (not
> counting the json) do I have to put "chair" in quotes.
> Honestly, this solves my current use case. I can use functions like
> expect_a_chair for everything I need right now.
> But perhaps, if there were a quote-free way to access string-based dict
> items, it should be based on this. The problem is, this ** operator is a
> unary operator, and the non-unary ** is already taken.
> So, I don't have a perfect name for my proposed quoteless synonym for
> '["..."]'. My best option is '*.'. Note that this could also be used for
> unpacking, and with defaults:
> d*.(x,y,z) #=== (d["x"], d["y"], d['z'])
> e=d*.(e=None) #like 'e=d.get("e", None)'.
> Does this sound worth-it to anyone?
Gut reaction:
Dear gods, how and why does * have a . operator, and why is there a
function being called on it?!?
Huh; x,y,z aren't defined in that scope, that's gotta return a
NameError for sure.
Or wait, is that some new way to specify a vector for multiplication?
When did Python get a vector type and literal?
If punctuation is the answer, Perl is the question. Since this is
Python, and punctuation is decidedly not the answer, I'm going to go a
little further than before: -sys.maxint
Regards,
- Josiah
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