python-peps/pep-0505.txt

PEP: 505
Title: None coalescing operators
Version: $Revision$
Last-Modified: $Date$
Author: Mark E. Haase <mehaase@gmail.com>
Status: Draft
Type: Standards Track
Content-Type: text/x-rst
Created: 18-Sep-2015
Python-Version: 3.6

Abstract
========

Several modern programming languages have so-called "null coalescing" or
"null aware" operators, including C#, Dart, Perl, Swift, and PHP (starting in
version 7). These operators provide syntactic sugar for common patterns
involving null references. [1]_ [2]_

* The "null coalescing" operator is a binary operator that returns its first
  first non-null operand.
* The "null aware member access" operator is a binary operator that accesses
  an instance member only if that instance is non-null. It returns null
  otherwise.
* The "null aware index access" operator is a binary operator that accesses a
  member of a collection only if that collection is non-null. It returns null
  otherwise.

Python does not have any directly equivalent syntax. The ``or`` operator can
be used to similar effect but checks for a truthy value, not ``None``
specifically. The ternary operator ``... if ... else ...`` can be used for
explicit null checks but is more verbose and typically duplicates part of the
expression in between ``if`` and ``else``. The proposed ``None`` coalescing
and ``None`` aware operators ofter an alternative syntax that is more
intuitive and concise.


Rationale
=========

Null Coalescing Operator
------------------------

The following code illustrates how the ``None`` coalescing operators would
work in Python::

    >>> title = 'My Title'
    >>> title ?? 'Default Title'
    'My Title'
    >>> title = None
    >>> title ?? 'Default Title'
    'Default Title'

Similar behavior can be achieved with the ``or`` operator, but ``or`` checks
whether its left operand is false-y, not specifically ``None``. This can lead
to surprising behavior. Consider the scenario of computing the price of some
products a customer has in his/her shopping cart::

    >>> price = 100
    >>> requested_quantity = 5
    >>> default_quantity = 1
    >>> (requested_quantity or default_quantity) * price
    500
    >>> requested_quantity = None
    >>> (requested_quantity or default_quantity) * price
    100
    >>> requested_quantity = 0
    >>> (requested_quantity or default_quantity) * price # oops!
    100

This type of bug is not possible with the ``None`` coalescing operator, 
because there is no implicit type coersion to ``bool``::

    >>> price = 100
    >>> requested_quantity = 0
    >>> default_quantity = 1
    >>> (requested_quantity ?? default_quantity) * price
    0

The same correct behavior can be achieved with the ternary operator. Here is
an excerpt from the popular Requests package::

    data = [] if data is None else data
    files = [] if files is None else files
    headers = {} if headers is None else headers
    params = {} if params is None else params
    hooks = {} if hooks is None else hooks

This particular formulation has the undesirable effect of putting the operands
in an unintuitive order: the brain thinks, "use ``data`` if possible and use
``[]`` as a fallback," but the code puts the fallback *before* the preferred
value.

The author of this package could have written it like this instead::

    data = data if data is not None else []
    files = files if files is not None else []
    headers = headers if headers is not None else {}
    params = params if params is not None else {}
    hooks = hooks if hooks is not None else {}

This ordering of the operands is more intuitive, but it requires 4 extra
characters (for "not "). It also highlights the repetition of identifiers:
``data if data``, ``files if files``, etc. The ``None`` coalescing operator
improves readability::

    data = data ?? []
    files = files ?? []
    headers = headers ?? {}
    params = params ?? {}
    hooks = hooks ?? {}

The ``None`` coalescing operator also has a corresponding assignment shortcut.

::

    data ?= []
    files ?= []
    headers ?= {}
    params ?= {}
    hooks ?= {}

The ``None`` coalescing operator is left-associative, which allows for easy
chaining::

    >>> user_title = None
    >>> local_default_title = None
    >>> global_default_title = 'Global Default Title'
    >>> title = user_title ?? local_default_title ?? global_default_title
    'Global Default Title'

The direction of associativity is important because the ``None`` coalescing
operator short circuits: if its left operand is non-null, then the right
operand is not evaluated.

::

    >>> def get_default(): raise Exception()
    >>> 'My Title' ?? get_default()
    'My Title'


Null-Aware Member Access Operator
---------------------------------

::

    >>> title = 'My Title'
    >>> title.upper()
    'MY TITLE'
    >>> title = None
    >>> title.upper()
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
    AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'upper'
    >>> title?.upper()
    None


Null-Aware Index Access Operator
---------------------------------

::

    >>> person = {'name': 'Mark', 'age': 32}
    >>> person['name']
    'Mark'
    >>> person = None
    >>> person['name']
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
    TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable
    >>> person?['name']
    None


Specification
=============


References
==========

.. [1] Wikipedia: Null coalescing operator
   (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_coalescing_operator)

.. [2] Seth Ladd's Blog: Null-aware operators in Dart
   (http://blog.sethladd.com/2015/07/null-aware-operators-in-dart.html)


Copyright
=========

This document has been placed in the public domain.



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