I have a dictionary of methods in Python that is inside of a definition. This def is called outside of the class using an object. Whenever the def is called I am returned the results of the last item in the dictionary. In this case I am returned the results of def spc_summary:.
def setStyles(self):
# Assign function to file
functions = {
'app_server.php':self.app_server(),
'dcrm2nlyte.php':self.dcrm2nlyte(),
'export.php':self.export(),
'host_server.php':self.host_server(),
'spc.php':self.spc(),
'spc_approved.php':self.spc_approved(),
'spc_approved_by_dc.php':self.spc_approved_by_dc(),
'spc_by_dc.php':self.spc_by_dc(),
'spc_complete.php':self.spc_complete(),
'spc_summary.php':self.spc_summary()
}
filename = self.phpfile
functions.get(filename)
Can someone please explain what is happening here? Let me know if more detail is required. Thanks!
Let me add some detail:
The functions.get(filename) is retreiving the last dictionary item reguardless of what filename is. I have done this => functions('spc.php') and it still returned results for `def spc_summary'. And those def's should not have the same results.
Your function dict seems to be doing the wrong thing. While defining your dict you are mapping the keys to the function result instead of the function object. If you map it to the function object the function gets called when you invoke functions.get(filename)()
Your dict should probably be like below:
functions = {
'app_server.php':self.app_server,
'dcrm2nlyte.php':self.dcrm2nlyte,
'export.php':self.export,
'host_server.php':self.host_server,
'spc.php':self.spc,
'spc_approved.php':self.spc_approved,
'spc_approved_by_dc.php':self.spc_approved_by_dc,
'spc_by_dc.php':self.spc_by_dc,
'spc_complete.php':self.spc_complete,
'spc_summary.php':self.spc_summary
}
Dictionaries are unordered, so the last object returned from iterating over a dict will probably not be the last item inserted into that dict.
functions.get(filename) is going to take the current value of filename and look it up in functions. filename gets its value from self.phpfile, so in your example self.phpfile must be set to 'spc_summary.php'.
Related
I'm trying to store a function in a list, retrieve the function from the list later, and then call on that function. This is basically what I want to do, without any specifics. It doesn't show my purpose, but it's the same issue.
elements: list = [] # List meant to contain a tuple with the name of the item and the function of the item.
def quit_code():
exit()
element.append(("quit", quit_code))
Now, somewhere else in the code, I want to be able to use an if statement to check the name of the item and, if it's the right one at that time, run the function.
user_input = "quit" # For brevity, I'm just writing this. Let's just imagine the user actually typed this.
if elements[0][0] == user_input:
#This is the part I don't understand so I'm just going to make up some syntax.
run_method(elements[0][1])
The method run_method that I arbitrarily made is the issue. I need a way to run the method returned by elements[0][1], which is the quit_code method. I don't need an alternative solution to this example because I just made it up to display what I want to do. If I have a function or object that contains a function, how can I run that function.
(In the most simplified way I can word it) If I have object_a (for me it's a tuple) that contains str_1 and fun_b, how can I run fun_b from the object.
To expand on this a little more, the reason I can't just directly call the function is because in my program, the function gets put into the tuple via user input and is created locally and then stored in the tuple.
__list_of_stuff: list = []
def add_to_list(name, function):
__list_of_stuff.append((name, function))
And then somewhere else
def example_init_method():
def stop_code():
exit()
add_to_list("QUIT", stop_code())
Now notice that I can't access the stop_code method anywhere else in the code unless I use it through the __list_of_stuff object.
Finally, It would be nice to not have to make a function for the input. By this, I mean directly inserting code into the parameter without creating a local function like stop_code. I don't know how to do this though.
Python treats functions as first-class citizens. As such, you can do things like:
def some_function():
# do something
pass
x = some_function
x()
Since you are storing functions and binding each function with a word (key), the best approach would be a dictionary. Your example could be like this:
def quit_code():
exit()
operations = dict(quit=quit_code)
operations['quit']()
A dictionary relates a value with a key. The only rule is the key must be immutable. That means numbers, strings, tuples and other immutable objects.
To create a dictionary, you can use { and }. And to get a value by its key, use [ and ]:
my_dictionary = { 'a' : 1, 'b' : 10 }
print(my_dictionary['a']) # It will print 1
You can also create a dictionary with dict, like so:
my_dictionary = dict(a=1, b=10)
However this only works for string keys.
But considering you are using quit_code to encapsulate the exit call, why not using exit directly?
operations = dict(quit=exit)
operations['quit']()
If dictionaries aren't an option, you could still use lists and tuples:
operations = [('quit',exit)]
for key, fun in operations:
if key == 'quit':
fun()
I am working with dictionaries in Python and I am searching for a value using:
my_dictionary_object.get("key")
As we all know if the key is missing in dictionary, it will return None object.
So to save extra line and to make my code more interesting I am trying:
def my_function():
'''do some calculations'''
return missing_value_from_dictionary
Now here is the fun part; when I do
my_dictionary_object.get("key", my_function())
it executes the function whether the key is missing or not so I thought let's remove the brackets and I did:
my_dictionary_object.get("key", my_function)
and (just in case)
my_dictionary_object.get("key", lambda: my_function())
but the one without lambda didn't execute (because it was never called) same happened with the one with lambda.
TL;DR
My question is why is the function get executed if the key is present in the dictionary?
Is it something that I am doing wrong or something I am missing here?
In: my_dictionary_object.get("key", my_function()) the execution looks something like:
Evaluate the first argument ("key")
Evaluate the second argument which is an expression: my_function(). So let's call the function, and use the return value in its place. Very much like in: a = my_function(), python would call the function and put the returned value in its place.
Call the mydictionary_object.get(..) with the above two evaluated arguments.
In other words, dictionary.get("key", default) will simply return the 2nd argument if the key doesn't exist. If it is a lambda, lambda is returned. A lambda is an object. Note that in .get("key", my_function()), my_function() is not technically the second argument. The resultant value returned as a result of execution of that function is the second argument -- which explains where you're wrong, hopefully.
What you are looking for is actually captured in another container called defaultdict.
What you'd do is:
from collections import defaultdict
my_dictionary_object = defaultdict(my_function) # my_function should not take any argument.
my_dictionary_object["non-existing-key"] # Magic happens, see below.
What happens is, if the key (=x) doesn't exist, my_function is called without any arguments and the dictionary is updated with the value returned by the function against the key (=x). Something like:
if "key" not in dictionary:
dictionary["key"] = my_function()
return dictionary["key"]
I have a dictionary defined as
BREED_CLASS = {
'bdcl': ['Border Collie', BreedBdcl, 'BreedBdcl'],
}
and a model defined as
class Dog(models.Model):
breed_code = models.CharField(max_length=4, default='')
I'm trying to use the breed_code as a key to access the items in the dictionary, for example like this
return BREED_CLASS[instance.breed_code][0]
but that raises a KeyError, with exception value '' aka the default value.
I've tried doing something like
bc = instance.breed_code
and that correctly returns the value saved to that instantiated object ('bdcl'). But when I put that into the dictionary access as so
return BREED_CLASS[bc][0]
it gets me the same exact KeyError with the same exact exception value. How do I figure this out?
The CharField class seems to be using the __str__ magic method to return a string when you print it, giving you the illusion it is a string but it's actually an object. Your dictionary uses the actual string for storing the value but when you use BREED_CLASS[instance.breed_code] you are passing it the object. Converting your object to a string should fix it. Try this:
BREED_CLASS[str(instance.breed_code)][0]
So I figured out a workaround that gets me what I want, but I have no idea why it works.
This by itself does not work
return BREED_CLASS[instance.breed_code][2]
But having this for loop that iterates through the keys does
for key in BREED_CLASS:
if key == instance.breed_code:
return BREED_CLASS[instance.breed_code][2]
Notice that both return calls are identical, with instance.breed_code being used for the dict key index.
Does anyone have an answer as for why this is?
I've heard that python functions are objects, similar to lists or dictionaries, etc. However, what would be a similar way of performing this type of action with a function?
# Assigning empty list to 'a'
a = list()
# Assigning empty function to 'a'
a = lambda: pass
# ???
How would you do this? Further, is it necessary or proper?
Here is the sense in which I would like to use it for better context:
I have a QListWidget for selecting items which are associated with keys in a dictionary. The values in this dictionary are also dictionaries, which hold certain properties of the items, which I can add. These certain properties are stored as keys, and the values in them are initialized or updated by calling different functions. So, I'm storing a variable in the window which gets updated when a button is pressed to tell this script which property to update.
As you can see, I would like to store the function to map to the data using the correct function based on the situation.
# Get selection from the list
name = selected_item
# Initialize an empty function
f = lambda: pass
# Use property that is being added now, which was updated by the specific button that was pushed
property_list = items[name][self.property_currently_being_added]
if self.property_currently_being_added == "prop1":
f = make_property1()
elif self.property_currently_being_added == "prop2":
f = make_property2()
elif self.property_currently_being_added == "prop3":
f = make_property3()
elif self.property_currently_being_added == "prop4":
f = make_property4()
# map the certain function to the data which was retrieved earlier
added_property = map(f, data)
property_list.append(added_property)
First, the reason this doesn't work:
a = lamdba: pass
… is that lambda only allows an expression, and defines a function that returns the value of the expression. Since pass is a statement, not an expression, this is illegal.
However, this works just fine:
a = lambda: None
In Python, a function that falls off the end without a return statement always returns None. So, these are equivalent:
def a(): return None
def a(): pass
However, I don't see why you want to write this as a lambda and an assignment anyway; the def is shorter, and more readable, and gives you an introspectable function object with a nice name (a instead of <lambda>), and so on. The only reasons to ever use lambda are when you don't want to give the function a name, or when you need to define the function inside an expression. Obviously neither of those are true, because you use the lambda directly inside an assignment statement. So, just use def.
Meanwhile, this is in a sense an "empty function", or at least as empty as possible (as you can see by, e.g., calling dis.dis(a), it still takes two bytecodes to do nothing but fall off the end and return None), but it's not useful for your case. You don't want an "empty function". If you try passing your a to map, you're just going to get a TypeError, because you're trying to call a function of no arguments with one argument. (Because that's what map does.)
What you might want is an identity function, which just returns its argument as-is. Like this:
def a(x): return x
But I'm not sure that's what you want. Did you want to append data as-is in that case? Or did you want to do something different, like return early, or raise an exception, or not append anything, or …?
Finally, I don't see why you want a function at all. Why not just not call map if you have nothing to map? You have a perfectly good else clause that already catches that case (especially handy if what you want to do is return early or raise…). Or, if you prefer, you can start with f = None, and then use an if f: do decide whether to map or not. Or, if you really want:
added_property = [f(element) if f else element for element in data]
… or …
added_property = map(f, data) if f else data
As one last note, instead of a long if/elif chain that repeats the same thing over and over again, you might want a dict:
propfuncs = {'prop1': make_property1(),
'prop2': make_property2(),
'prop3': make_property3(),
'prop4': make_property4()}
Then, all that cruft turns into these two lines:
f = propfuncs.get(self.property_currently_being_added)
added_property = map(f, data) if f else data
Or course an even better design might be to replace all those make_propertyN functions with a single function that you call as make_property(1) or make_property('prop1')… but without seeing what they actually do, I can't be sure of that.
For completeness and since the title is "empty function object in python", more general case is an empty function object that takes any number of parameters, so you can use it in any callback. It's this one:
callback = lambda *_, **__: None
Explanation is here: http://echochamber.me/viewtopic.php?t=64825
I am surprised to learn that you can even do...
def a(): "This is a test"
a()
this feels so much like you're looking for a Nothing functor, I am guessing that if you had knowledge of Monads you wouldn't even need an empty function , as inspiration PyMonad has a nice Nothing implementation, I usually like to create my own, but it's a good starting point.
I want to read an external data source (excel) and create variables containing the data. Suppose the data is in columns and each column has a header with the variable name.
My first idea is to write a function so i can easily reuse it. Also, I could easily give some additional keyword arguments to make the function more versatile.
The problem I'm facing is that I want to refer to the data in python (interactively) via the variable names. I don't know how to do that (with a function). The only solution I see is returning the variable names and the data from my function (eg as lists), and do something like this:
def get_data()
(...)
return names, values
names, values = get_data(my_excel)
for n,v in zip(names, values):
exec(''.join([n, '= v']))
Can I get the same result directly?
Thanks,
Roel
Use a dictionary to store your mapping from name to value instead of creating local variable.
def get_data(excel_document):
mapping = {}
mapping['name1'] = 'value1'
# ...
return mapping
mapping = get_data(my_excel)
for name, value in mapping:
# use them
If you really want to populate variables from the mapping, you can modify globals() (or locals()), but it is generally considered bad practice.
mapping = get_data(my_excel)
globals().update(mapping)
If you just want to set local variables for each name in names, use:
for n, v in zip(names, values):
locals()[n] = v
If you'd rather like to have a single object to access the data, which is much cleaner, simply use a dict, and return that from your function.
def get_data():
(...)
return dict(zip(names, values))
To access the value of the name "a", simply use get_data()["a"].
Finally, if you want to access the data as attributes of an object, you can update the __dict__ of an object (unexpected behaviour may occur if any of your column names are equal to any special python methods).
class Data(object):
def __init__(self, my_excel):
(...)
self.__dict__.update(zip(names, values))
data = Data("test.xls")
print data.a
The traditional approach would be to stuff the key/value pairs into a dict so that you can easily pass the whole structure around to other functions. If you really want to store them as attributes instead of dict keys, consider creating a class to hold them:
class Values(object): pass
store = Values()
for key, value in zip(names, values):
setattr(store, key, value)
That keeps the variables in their own namespace, separate from your running code. That's almost always a Good Thing. What if you get a spreadsheet with a header called "my_excel"? Suddenly you've lost access to your original my_excel object, which would be very inconvenient if you needed it again.
But in any case, you should never use exec unless you know exactly what you're doing. And even then, don't use exec. For instance, I know how your code works and send you a spreadsheet with "os.system('echo rm -rf *')" in a cell. You probably don't really want to execute that.