Possible To Format A List Without * Magic?

Question

I wrote some Python code which works but Pylint doesn't like the star. It keeps telling me:

Used * or ** magic (star-args)

Is it possible to write my code without the star? Some info: I'm using lxml; self.xml is an objectified XML file.

@property
def version_string(self):
    '''Return the version as a string.'''
    try:
        version_format = self.xml.version.get("format")
    except AttributeError:
        return None
    version_values = (v.text for v in self.xml.version.v)
    return version_format.format(*version_values)

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered May 18 '14 at 19:26

11

There's nothing wrong with the splat operator. Without knowing what the version_format function does, it's not possible to say if you could pass an iterable, or iterate the function directly, but frankly there's no reason to.

answered May 18 '14 at 19:26

Marcin

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6

I totally agree, nothing wrong with using argument unpacking to format strings. I'd simply [disable that PyLint warning](http://stackoverflow.com/a/20639659/1599111). – Lukas Graf May 18 '14 at 19:29

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered May 19 '14 at 06:19

7

If you don't like that pylint warning, disable it. It was originally introduced because having lots of

def some_function(*args, **kwargs):
    pass

lowers the readability / maintainability of the code.

answered May 19 '14 at 06:19

gurney alex

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That seems like a bug in their specifications, to catch a splat call, rather than a splat function definition. – Marcin May 19 '14 at 13:07

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 15 '15 at 15:41

4

star-args (W0142) is no longer present in pylint (at least since version 1.4.3). It appears to have been removed fairly recently.

answered Jun 15 '15 at 15:41

Six

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Possible To Format A List Without * Magic?

3 Answers3