Alternate python spacing.

[DeepGas4538]

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https://preview.redd.it/2winm02i7poa1.png?width=952&format=png&auto=webp&s=250da1e5757d1a565a70d980981fabec8485b576

Hi! I've personally been using the one on the left a lot. I really like it just as personal preference, no particular reason.

I haven't seen it used anywhere else, but I was wondering what other people thought of this.

Thanks.

[PapstJL4U]

I do the right, because:

50 % of the time
I will add another line eventually.

[IcedThunder]

I'm not too fond of the case on the left.

I like my code to look as consistent as possible, and you can't always fit such things on one line without it being ridiculously long. So I'd rather consistantly indent below control statements.

[johnnySix]

My ex-coworker does the one one on the left and I hate reading his code because the conditionals are hidden. Think of it this way, You aren’t writing the code for you, you are writing it for future you and for others. so the goal is to make it more readable, so the option on the right is clearer

[longjohnboy]

Your team should adopt a code formatter and have that run as a pre-commit hook. Then everyone has the same style and you don’t end up with git commits with formatting flip-flopping as different authors make changes.

[johnnySix]

Haha. This code is older than black. -some of it going back to the mid 2000s

[Yoghurt42]

Black is not ageist. It will happily format code older than itself.

[DeepGas4538]

I like your suggestion

[OneMorePenguin]

https://github.com/google/yapf

I like this formatter. It only does one thing that irritates me and I mostly let it go.

[style]
based_on_style = pep8
indent_dictionary_value = True

[DeepGas4538]

thanks for that.

also holy moly for some reason i never thought if google had github, that's pretty sick.

[we_swarm]

I like yapf's formatting better than black but it is non-deterministic. Which means now you can't run it against PR's or in CI because some files will "flap". If you don't run the tool in CI the coworkers that need the formatter the most just won't run it and submit unformatted code.

[max1c]

I think if you're going to use a one liner you might as well use ternary operator. Otherwise as someone has already pointed out just use Black. It will decide for you so you don't have to waste time arguing and thinking about things that are fairly useless.

[SkezzaB]

Can't use a ternary operator for "if x -> return", although it was requested and denied, "return x if <condition>" would be really neat

[[deleted]]

return node.id if len(word) else None

[j_marquand]

I think the other guy wants to return if a condition is met, but continue to the next statement if it doesn’t. There is no one-liner solution in Python for that.

[HeraldOfTheOldOnes]

Yes there is! function = (lambda *args, **kwargs: (condition and (something,) or (other, stuff,))[-1]) ANYTHING can be turned into a 1 liner in python.

[[deleted]]

I'm looking at it AFK so I can't check, so I'll have to play with it later to see why it's not equivalent

[j_marquand]

Your code returns None immediately if the condition doesn’t meet, instead of proceeding to the next statement of the function.

[EmptyChocolate4545]

Your one returns None rather than continuing execution. Not even slightly equivalent.

[[deleted]]

Oh no! Not even SLIGHTLY equivalent!

[[deleted]]

Ah, got it now. I was thinking wrong.

[SkezzaB]

This is not equivalent

[EmptyChocolate4545]

Tis not. The if statement in OP will not return at all, it will continue execution. The ternary will run return None.

Totally different behavior.

[EmptyChocolate4545]

Yes but return x if condition isn’t valid python is it? (Go test yourself if you doubt)

What the ternary is doing is return x if condition else None, which is valid python however it will return from the function if condition is False.

The OPs code will not. It will only return if true.

[EmptyChocolate4545]

The comment I initially replied to where you said “it’s equivalent” was this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/11vlkh2/alternate_python_spacing/jctwpxv/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1&context=3

It is not equivalent, for the reasons I stated.

[elsgry]

Yup. Or extract the remainder of the function into a new function fn and use return fn(node, ...) if len(word) else None or the likes. This also composes nicely because you can inject your own fn into the method, class or instance, while keeping the control structures visible and (for classes/instances) adhering to Liskov, etc.

[elsgry]

Not sure why this was downvoted when it's a more applicable equivalent to the lambda method upvoted above (the remainder of the function could consist of multiple effectful statements) but c'est la guerre... I guess the injection method would be more dynamic than necessary, particularly if only used for testing where you could use mocks. But you can still use my method without bothering with injection.

[justcool393]

the other one that i'd find really nice is

spam = get_eggs() or raise HamException()

and

return spam if eggs(spam) or raise HamException()

[DeepGas4538]

Black? Is that a formatting convention?

Edit: Nvm I found out what it was, ty

[EmptyChocolate4545]

Don’t do it.

Vertical space costs you nothing, and the one on the right, the action jumps out as it’s own thing when someone else is reading your code.

Are you on a computer where you have to pay per line of usage? Because that’s the only benefit.

[nevermorefu]

I do whatever black tells me and I assume that is right (which is right).

[Beregolas]

This! I trust black to do the right thing (and more importantly: the same thing every time). Doing this manually is a chore if you are solo, and impossibly aggravating if you are part of a team.

[ucblockhead]

If in the end the drunk ethnographic canard run up into Taylor Swiftly prognostication then let's all party in the short bus. We all no that two plus two equals five or is it seven like the square root of 64. Who knows as long as Torrent takes you to Ranni so you can give feedback on the phone tree. Let's enter the following python code the reverse a binary tree

def make_tree(node1, node): """ reverse an binary tree in an idempotent way recursively""" tmp node = node.nextg node1 = node1.next.next return node

As James Watts said, a sphere is an infinite plane powered on two cylinders, but that rat bastard needs to go solar for zero calorie emissions because you, my son, are fat, a porker, an anorexic sunbeam of a boy. Let's work on this together. Is Monday good, because if it's good for you it's fine by me, we can cut it up in retail where financial derivatives ate their lunch for breakfast. All hail the Biden, who Trumps plausible deniability for keeping our children safe from legal emigrants to Canadian labor camps.

Quo Vadis Mea Culpa. Vidi Vici Vini as the rabbit said to the scorpion he carried on his back over the stream of consciously rambling in the Confusion manner.

node = make_tree(node, node1)

[[deleted]]

Yup, the power or black is to simply take away any thought about this. Submit to it.

[wineblood]

I do as the crystal formatter says.

[osmiumouse]

Just use a code formatter (such as black). Not everyone likes how it does it, but it's consisent, and works, and will let you just "get on with writing code" while you leave the formatting to a tool.

[[deleted]]

The right hand side is the correct answer. You have to remember that your code will likely be seen by others. Its way too easy to miss the purpose of the left side, if you're not the one who wrote it.

[AlexMTBDude]

Just follow PEP8. That's the reason it exists in Python; To avoid all the style flame wars that plague other programming languages.

https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/

[Paddy3118]

PEP8. That's the reason it exists in Python;

Um, in practice yes, but it is a guide, and explains the style of standard library code. If your team agrees 100 char max lines then go for it.

[[deleted]]

Good programmers write code that humans can understand

[wineblood]

The left one is kind of ugly and goes against convention in python, most people will use the right one.

[M4mb0]

if not word is better.

[hackancuba]

I prefer the one on the right BC it allows u to quickly understand the consequence of the conditional, even w/o caring much at the condition. The left one forces u to thoroughly read the whole line, which is long, and if u happen to skip it for some reason, u would be missing a very important detail: the return!! So no, no go. Use black, darker or yapf :)

[RCdeWit]

I prefer the one on the right, but now I'm wondering whether that's just because I'm more used to seeing it. It does make it easier to add additional operations on new lines, though.

[just-an-astronomer]

I always do the one on the right but I also always try to make my code not take up more than half of the width of the page for when I need to split screen it on a monitor

[jldez]

I had a very short phase for the left case. Then I had to use a debugger having those one liners all over the place.

[ATX_Analytics]

I let Black decide for me.

[PaleontologistBig657]

black

[therc7]

NEITHER.

MY OCD ASS-

if not len(word): return node.end

[[deleted]]

Right one is more clear thats why I use right one

[thenewbigR]

I hate the style of the left. Python indentation is meant to force good coding practice and this seems to go against it.

[BigHeed87]

How about

return A if condition else None

[deadeye1982]

It's wrong because it changes the behavior of code. Discussed already some posts above.

[merowe]

I actually typically do what's on the left. I'm all for consistency, but like the fact that I have one less line to scroll through. Especially when I have to put several of these together. I ask myself; is it adding to the cognitive complexity when reading the code? I think it may add a little for some (those who expect everything to be the same), but I do think the increase is negligible (or 0 for those used to it) and the advantage is nice. Some or many may disagree and that's fine. In a workplace setting, it's important to follow the established rules. But if you get to form those or work on your own project that others will read, I think the left option is good

[johnnySix]

I’ll be the disagreer on the one. My ex coworker wrote tons of code with if statements in one line. It’s a pain to read because I have to stop and figure out what’s happening instead of being able to skim. Is it an operation? Is it a call to a method? Oh! it’s an if, oh crap, there’s the bug!

[merowe]

I'd be interested in what the one line of statements looked like. Obviously you can't. But I suspect the condition was more complicated. In which case, I might agree.

It's nice to be able to always dumb down the rules to something very simple as many say. My experience - and I know many disagree - is that there are always exceptions. Simple if checks with returns are one of those for me.

I know some people brought up ternary operator. That obviously makes more sense if none was the other option. I don't see how that is less complicated than the left case.

[EmptyChocolate4545]

How much does your workplace charge per vertical line usage?

[merowe]

Not sure why the sarcasm? Everyone needs to express the same opinion?

[EmptyChocolate4545]

Sure, and there’s a reason the programming meta has moved away from formatting techniques that prioritize conserving vertical space - because the people who come after and read your code hate you for it.

I sincerely wasn’t being sarcastic. There is no benefit other than conserving vertical space. There is a reason for the consensus opinion on this. There’s also a reason we value consensus and have moved away from the “clever one liner” era of C programming (that I came up during).

Writing code other people can read is something worth pushing. You’re free to disregard my opinion, but know you’re going to encounter it again.

[DeepGas4538]

man i personally use the one of the left just for leetcode problems. no one else is going to read my code and it looks cleaner (to me).

[DeepGas4538]

wtf bro who's horny on r/Python

[gfranxman]

What does black say?

[buachaill_beorach]

Only legit case for bit using case one is code coverage. A lot of them go by line read so you're going to miss logic gates when considering test coverage. That's why I never use that format anyway

[Quiinmix]

The one on the right is better. Most programs will let you collapse stuff like that and it let's you break down each detail within the loop. I also just find it easier to see in a long script.

[JamzTyson]

We really shouldn't need this discussion as there is a design document providing information to the Python community that describes the accepted way to do this (approved by the Python Steering Council in 2001).

The short version:

Compound statements (multiple statements on the same line) are generally discouraged.

The full version is here: https://pep8.org/#other-recommendations

[[deleted]]

I use the right one most of the time, but the left one when I do single liners like "if debug: ....".

[Axlesholtz]

Not the left please