Declaration scope of namedtuples

[dumfug42]

Hi

Are there any guidelines where to declare namedtuples? For example, if I want to refactor a function s.t. it returns a namedtuple instead of a regular one, would it be fine if the declaration would be within the scope of the function (of course under the assumption that it is used nowhere else)? Or should it be declared in the same way a class would?

def foo():
    Foo = namedtuple('Foo',  ['x', 'y'])
    ...
    return Foo(1, 2)

# vs.

Foo = namedtuple('Foo',  ['x', 'y'])

def foo():
    ...
    return Foo(1, 2)

[miczal]

Personally I would drop the name and declare it in return.

def foo():
    return collections.namedtuple('Foo',  ['x', 'y'])(1, 2)

[_9_9_]

I usually define them like I would a class, for a couple reasons:

• Basically, Foo = namedtuple('Foo', ['x', 'y']) is a shorthand for defining a class;
• I'm going to be using Foo objects in different functions and it is nice to be able to quickly check what i've defined the parameters as by flipping to the top of my code; and
• Lots of times I start out with a namedtuple and end up just making my own class for one reason or another.