Stackoverflow question: Is there a built-in identity function in Python?

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Dec 8, 2017 at 5:53 AM, Peter Otten <__peter__ at web.de> wrote:
> Ethan Furman wrote:
>
>> The simple answer is No, and all the answers agree on that point.
>>
>> It does beg the question of what an identity function is, though.
>>
>> My contention is that an identity function is a do-nothing function that
>> simply returns what it was given:
>>
>> --> identity(1)
>> 1
>>
>> --> identity('spam')
>> 'spam'
>>
>> --> identity('spam', 'eggs', 7)
>> ('spam', 'eggs', 7)
>
> Hm, what does -- and what should --
>
> identity(('spam', 'eggs', 7))
>
> produce?

The same thing. And so should identity((('spam', 'eggs', 7))) and
identity(((('spam', 'eggs', 7)))) and identity((((('spam', 'eggs',
7))))).

For consistency, identity 'spam', 'eggs', 7 should work too.

ChrisA