Add more examples and correct description of existing ones

This commit is contained in:
Satwik Kansal 2017-08-30 03:12:17 +05:30
parent 57386e5a1b
commit 585f02fe39
2 changed files with 129 additions and 4 deletions

127
README.md
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@ -439,7 +439,20 @@ UnboundLocalError: local variable 'a' referenced before assignment
```
### Explanation
When you make an assignment to a variable in a scope, it becomes local to that scope. So `a` becomes local to the scope of `another_func` but it has not been initialized previously in the same scope which throws an error. Read [this](http://sebastianraschka.com/Articles/2014_python_scope_and_namespaces.html) short but awesome guide to learn more about how namespaces and scope resolution works in Python.
* When you make an assignment to a variable in a scope, it becomes local to that scope. So `a` becomes local to the scope of `another_func` but it has not been initialized previously in the same scope which throws an error.
* Read [this](http://sebastianraschka.com/Articles/2014_python_scope_and_namespaces.html) short but awesome guide to learn more about how namespaces and scope resolution works in Python.
* To actually modify the outer scope variable `a` in `another_func`, use `global` keyword.
```py
def another_func()
global a
a += 1
return a
```
**Output:**
```py
>>> another_func()
2
```
## The disappearing variable from outer scope
@ -716,6 +729,34 @@ False
- `is not` is a single binary operator, and has behavior different than using `is` and `not` separated.
- `is not` evaluates to `False` if the variables on either side of the operator point to the same object and `True` otherwise.
## Time for some hash brownies!
```py
some_dict = {}
some_dict[5.5] = "Ruby"
some_dict[5.0] = "JavaScript"
some_dict[5] = "Python"
```
**Output:**
```py
>>> some_dict[5.5]
"Ruby"
>>> some_dict[5.0]
"Python"
>>> some_dict[5]
"Python"
```
### Explaination
* `5` (an `int` type) is implicitly converted to `5.0` (a `float` type) before calculating the hash in Python.
```py
>>> hash(5) == hash(5.0)
True
```
* This StackOverflow [answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/32211042/4354153) explains beautifully the rationale behind it.
## Identical looking names
```py
@ -802,7 +843,7 @@ None
### Explaination
The functions like append
Most methods that modiy the items of sequence/mapping objects like `list.append`, `dict.update`, `list.sort`, etc modify the objects in-place and return `None`. The rationale behind this is to improve performance by avoiding making a copy of the object if the operation can be done in-place (Referred from [here](http://docs.python.org/2/faq/design.html#why-doesn-t-list-sort-return-the-sorted-list))
## Deleting a list item while iterating over it
@ -849,6 +890,7 @@ for idx, item in enumerate(list_4):
139798779601192
```
**Difference between `del`, `remove`, and `pop`:**
* `remove` removes the first matching value, not a specific index, raises `ValueError` if value is not found.
* `del` removes a specific index (That's why first `list_1` was unaffected), raises `IndexError` if invalid index is specified.
@ -858,8 +900,77 @@ for idx, item in enumerate(list_4):
* See this StackOverflow [thread](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45877614/how-to-change-all-the-dictionary-keys-in-a-for-loop-with-d-items) for a similar example related to dictionaries in Python.
## Explicit typecast of strings
## Minor ones
```py
a = float('inf')
b = float('nan')
c = float('-iNf') #These strings are case-insensitive
d = float('nan')
```
**Output:**
```py
>>> a
inf
>>> b
nan
>>> c
-inf
>>> float('some_other_string')
ValueError: could not convert string to float: some_other_string
>>> a == -c #inf==inf
True
>>> b == d #but nan!=nan
False
>>> 50/a
0
>>> a/a
nan
>>> 23 + b
nan
```
### Explanation
`'inf'` and `'nan'` are special strings (case-insensitieve), which when explicitly type casted to `float` type, are used to represent mathematical "infinity" and "not a number" respectively.
## Well, something is fishy...
```py
def square(x):
sum_so_far = 0
for counter in range(x):
sum_so_far = sum_so_far + x
return sum_so_far
print(square(10))
```
**Output (Python 2.x):**
(After pasting the above snippet in the interactive Python interpreter)
```py
10
```
**Output (Python 3.x):**
```py
TabError: inconsistent use of tabs and spaces in indentation
```
**Note:** If you're not able to reproduce this, try running the file [mixed_tabs_and_spaces.py](/mixed_tabs_and_spaces.py) via the shell.
### Explaination
* **Don't mix tabs and spaces!** The character just preceding return is a "tab" and the code is indented by multiple of "4 spaces" elsewhere in the example.
* This is how Python handle tabs:
> First, tabs are replaced (from left to right) by one to eight spaces such that the total number of characters up to and including the replacement is a multiple of eight <...>
* So the "tab" at the last line of `square` function is replace with 8 spaces and it gets into the loop.
## Minor Ones
- `join()` is a string operation instead of list operation. (sort of counter-intuitive at first usage)
**Explanation:**
@ -879,7 +990,15 @@ for idx, item in enumerate(list_4):
print(dis.dis(f))
```
- No multicore support yet
- **Explicit type cast of string**
```py
>>> float('inf')
inf
>>> float('nan') #case-insensitive
nan
>>> float('some_other_string')
ValueError: could not convert string to float: some_other_string
```
## "Needle in a Haystack" bugs

6
mixed_tabs_and_spaces.py Executable file
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@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
def square(x):
runningtotal = 0
for counter in range(x):
runningtotal = runningtotal + x
return runningtotal
print(square(10))