[Python-ideas] Null coalescing operators

[Mark E. Haase]

Andrew, I really like that idea. Turning back to the null coalescing
operator (spelled ?? in other languages), how do you think that fits in?

Consider this syntax:

>>> None? or 1
1

This works if NoneQuestion overrides __nonzero__ to return False.

>>> 0? or 1
0

This doesn't work, because 0? returns 0, and "0 or 1" is 1.

We could try this instead, if NoneQuestion overrides __or__:

>>> 0? | 1
0
>>> 0 ?| 1
0

This looks a little ugly, and it would be nice (as MRAB pointed out) if
null coalescing short circuited.

>>> None? or None?

This also doesn't work quite right. If both operands are None, we want the
expression to evaluate to None, not NoneQuestion. *Should null coalescing
be a separate operator? And if so, are "?" and "??" too similar?*

Can anybody think of realistic use cases for overriding a magic method for
the "?" operator? I would like to include such use cases in a PEP. One
possible use case: being able to coalesce empty strings.

>>> s1 = MyString('')
>>> s2 = MyString('foobar')
>>> s1? or s2
MyString('foobar')



On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 9:10 PM, Andrew Barnert via Python-ideas <
python-ideas at python.org> wrote:

> On Sep 18, 2015, at 18:00, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On Sat, Sep 19, 2015 at 10:49 AM, Andrew Barnert <abarnert at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >> Obviously "spam?" returns something with a __getattr__ method that just
> passes through to spam.__getattr__, except that on NoneType it returns
> something with a __getattr__ that always returns None. That solves the eggs
> case.
> >>
> >> Next, "spam?.cheese?" returns something with a __call__ method that
> just passed through to spam?.cheese.__call__, except that on NoneType it
> returns something with a __call__ that always returns None. That solves the
> cheese case.
> >
> > Hang on, how do you do this? How does the operator know the difference
> > between "spam?", which for None has to have __getattr__ return None,
> > and "spam?.cheese?" that returns (lambda: None)?
>
> >>> spam
> None
> >>> spam?
> NoneQuestion
> >>> spam?.cheese
> None
> >>> spam?.cheese?
> NoneQuestion
> >>> spam?.cheese?()
> None
>
> All you need to make this work is:
>
> * "spam?" returns NoneQuestion if spam is None else spam
> * NoneQuestion.__getattr__(self, *args, **kw) returns None.
> * NoneQuestion.__call__(self, *args, **kw) returns None.
>
> Optionally, you can add more None-returning methods to NoneQuestion. Also,
> whether NoneQuestion is a singleton, has an accessible name, etc. are all
> bikesheddable.
>
> I think it's obvious what happens is "spam" is not None and "spam.cheese"
> is, or of both are None, but if not, I can work them through as well.
>
>
> > ChrisA
> > _______________________________________________
> > Python-ideas mailing list
> > Python-ideas at python.org
> > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas
> > Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
> _______________________________________________
> Python-ideas mailing list
> Python-ideas at python.org
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas
> Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
>



-- 
Mark E. Haase
202-815-0201
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/attachments/20150918/56822fa2/attachment-0001.html>