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Dive Into PythonPython for experienced programmers |
Now that you think you know everything about dictionaries, tuples, and lists (oh my!), let’s get back to our example program, odbchelper.py.
Python has local and global variables like most other languages, but it has no explicit variable declarations. Variables spring into existence by being assigned a value, and are automatically destroyed when they go out of scope.
if __name__ == "__main__": myParams = {"server":"mpilgrim", \ "database":"master", \ "uid":"sa", \ "pwd":"secret" \ }
Several points of interest here. First, note the indentation. An if statement is a code block and needs to be indented just like a function.
Second, the variable assignment is one command split over several lines, with a backslash (“\”) serving as a line continuation marker.
When a command is split among several lines with the line continuation marker (“\”), the continued lines can be indented in any manner; Python’s normally stringent indentation rules do not apply. If your Python IDE auto-indents the continued line, you should probably accept its default unless you have a burning reason not to. |
Strictly speaking, expressions in parentheses, straight brackets, or curly braces (like defining a dictionary) can be split into multiple lines with or without the line continuation character (“\”). I like to include the backslash even when it’s not required because I think it makes the code easier to read, but that’s a matter of style. |
Third, you never declared the variable myParams, you just assigned a value to it. This is like VBScript without the option explicit option. Luckily, unlike VBScript, Python will not allow you to reference a variable that has never been assigned a value; trying to do so will raise an exception.
>>> x Traceback (innermost last): File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ? NameError: There is no variable named 'x' >>> x = 1 >>> x 1
You will thank Python for this one day.
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Assigning multiple values at once >> |