[Feature Request] dict.setdefault()

[MRAB]

On 11/04/2011 23:16, Westley Martínez wrote:
> On Mon, 2011-04-11 at 14:35 -0700, rantingrick wrote:
>> setdefault should take **kw args in the case of needing to set
>> multiple defaults at one time. I would even settle for an *arg list if
>> i had to. Anything is better than...
>>
>> d.setdefault(blah, blah)
>> d.setdefault(blah, blah)
>> d.setdefault(blah, blah)
>> d.setdefault(blah, blah)
>> if blah is not blah:
>>      d.setdefault(blah, blah)
>>
>> ...nuff said.
>>
>> PS: And to counter the very *extemely* likely chance of some smart
>> arse responses
>>    * YES, i know i could create my own setdefault method but that is
>> not the point.
>>    * I know we are under the moratorium but someone had to mention it,
>>
>> --rr
>
> Go to bugs.python.org
>
I'm not sure that "setdefault" should take **kw args for this because
of its existing argument structure (key + optional value).

A new method like "updatedefault" may be better, IMHO. It would act
like "update" except that it wouldn't overwrite existing values.