Keyword arguments - strange behaviour?

[harold fellermann]

Hi,

I cannot see any strange behavior. this code works exacly as you and I 
suspect:

 >>> def otherfunction(x) :
...     return x
...
 >>> def function(arg=otherfunction(5)) :
...     return arg
...
 >>> function(3)
3
 >>> function()
5

Or is this not what you excepted?

- harold -

On 21.12.2004, at 15:47, brian.bird at securetrading.com wrote:

> def function(arg=otherfunction(value)):
> return arg
>
> My expectation would have been that otherfunction(value) would be
> called if (and only if) the arg keyword parameter was missing from the
> function() call (ie. the optional value is evaluated the lazy way).
> Also, otherfunction would be called each and every time this function()
> is called without the arg keyword. (At least, I would have assumed this
> before today)
>
> Still, I can see why it's been implemented the way it has, it just
> seems a shame there isn't a neat shortcut to default lots of optional
> arguments to new mutable objects. And since I'm not the only one to
> fall into this trap it makes me wonder why the default behaviour isn't
> made to be what most people seem to expect?
>
> -- 
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>
>
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