[Python-ideas] Unpacking a dict

[Sven R. Kunze]

On 25.05.2016 16:06, Ian Foote wrote:
> I can see this being useful if I have a Django Rest Framework validate 
> method 
> (http://www.django-rest-framework.org/api-guide/serializers/#object-level-validation) 
> which takes a dictionary argument.
>
> def validate(self, data):
>     {'name': name, 'address': address} = data
>
> Currently, this would look like:
>
> def validate(self, data):
>     name, address = data['name'], data['address']

Now, that you mention it (the restframework), I remember a concrete 
usecase for our systems as well. We receive a YAML resource (via the 
restframework -- that's the association) and we know it must be a dict 
and contain several items. Additionally, we need the remaining items to 
store somewhere else depending on some of the received data.

{'needed1': needed1, 'needed2': needed2, **rest}  = yaml_data
store_there(needed1, rest)
store_somewhere(needed2, rest)

Please note, that needed1 and needed2 are not allowed to be part of the 
data which is supposed to be stored. These are mere flags.


>
> It does get more useful with the extension:
>
> def validate(self, data):
>     {'name': name, 'address': address, **rest} = data

@Michael
Does using ** instead of * seem more appropriate?

>
> instead of:
>
> def validate(self, data):
>     rest = data.copy()
>     name = rest.pop('name')
>     address = rest.pop('address')
>
> In the rest framework case, mutating data directly might not be a 
> problem, but this does feel like a nice syntax when avoiding mutation 
> is required.
>
> Regards,
> Ian


Best,
Sven

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