CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonfunctionoptional-parameters
compguy24
compguy24

Reputation: 957

Exposing optional arguments of a nested method in python

A similar question has been asked before but I don't know that I like the answer. You have a parent function, which calls a child function.

def parent(a):
   return child(a) * 2

def child(a, b=10, c=20):
   return a + b + c

If I want the parent method to expose b and c, I can do something like below. It works, but seems cumbersome, as I'm reaching for it a lot (maybe that suggests some other problem).

def parent(a, b=None, c=None):

    kwargs = {}
    if b is not None:
        kwargs['b']=b
    if c is not None:
        kwargs['c']=c

    return child(a, **kwargs)

Is there a better (i.e. less code) way to do this?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 683

Answers (1)

Brad Fallon
Brad Fallon

Reputation: 169

If parent and child are both your own functions, then you could have the default values defined as a constant that is shared for both functions.

B_DEF = 10
C_DEF = 20

def parent(a, b=B_DEF, c=C_DEF):
   return child(a,b,c) * 2

def child(a, b=B_DEF, c=C_DEF):
   return a + b + c

Upvotes: 3

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