None weirdness

[Ian McConnell]

Can someone explain what is going on here?


#!/usr/bin/python2.2

def main():
    a = None
    None = 1

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()


Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "sub.py", line 8, in ?
    main()
  File "sub.py", line 4, in main
    a = None
UnboundLocalError: local variable 'None' referenced before assignment
Exit 1



Python seems to be doing the 'None=1' assignment before 'a=None'!


If this seems like pretty weird code, then it resulted from me trying to do
        a, None = func()

func() returns a pair of answers, but I was only interested in the first, so
I thought that "a, None" would just drop the second value. However, it
redefined None. 

I now use
        a, = func()
which works, but doesn't seem as clear to me.