dict.get(key, default) evaluates default even if key exists

[Mark Polesky]

Hi.

# Running this script....

D = {'a':1}
def get_default():
    print('Nobody expects this')
    return 0
print(D.get('a', get_default()))

# ...generates this output:

Nobody expects this
1

###

Since I'm brand new to this community, I thought I'd ask here first... Is this worthy of a bug report?  This behavior is definitely unexpected to me, and I accidentally coded an endless loop in a mutual recursion situation because of it.  Calling dict.get.__doc__ only gives this short sentence: Return the value for key if key is in the dictionary, else default.  Nothing in that docstring suggests that the default value is evaluated even if the key exists, and I can't think of any good reason to do so.

Am I missing something?

Thanks,
Mark