Computer Science 15-112, Fall 2012
Class Notes:  More on Functions

  1. Function Documentation Strings
  2. Parameter Lists
    1. Default Argument Values
    2. Keyword Arguments
    3. Variable-Length or Arbitrary Argument Lists
    4. Unpacking Argument Lists
  3. First-class Functions (Functions as first-class data types)
    1. Custom Comparators
    2. Callback functions (say, in Tkinter event handling)
  4. Lambda Expressions (Anonymous functions)
  5. Nested Function Definitions and Closures
  6. Case Study: Global-Free Tkinter Animations
  7. More Topics (not covered this semester)
  1. Function Documentation Strings
    1. Using doc strings
      print max.__doc__

# or, if you prefer...

from pydoc import help
help(max)
    2. Creating doc strings
      def isNumeric(n):
    """Returns True if n is a numeric type, and False otherwise."""
    return type(n) in (int, long, float, complex)

def getNumeric(n):
    """Returns n if it is numeric, or None otherwise."""
    return n if isNumeric(n) else None

def larger(x,y):
    """Returns the larger value of x and y if both are numeric.
    Non-numeric values are treated as None."""
    return max(getNumeric(x), getNumeric(y))

print isNumeric.__doc__
print larger.__doc__
print larger(42, "amazing!")

    Parameter Lists

    1. Default Argument Values
      1. Simple Example
        def repeat(msg, times=5):
    for i in xrange(times):
        print msg,
    print

repeat("wow")        # wow wow wow wow wow
repeat("amazing", 2) # amazing amazing
      2. Warning: Default values evaluated only once (so mutable lists accumulate values!)
        def seen(value, seenSet=set()):
    # return True if value has been seen, False otherwise.
    # Either way, add value to the seenSet
    result = value in seenSet
    seenSet.add(value)
    return result

print seen(3) # False
print seen(4) # False
print seen(4) # True

mySet = set()
print seen(4, mySet) # False
print seen(4, mySet) # True
print seen(4)        # True (still)
    2. Keyword Arguments
      def repeat(msg, times=5, onePerLine=True):
    for i in xrange(times):
        print msg,
        if (onePerLine): print
    if (not onePerLine): print

repeat("wow", times=2)
repeat("wow", times=2, onePerLine=False)
    3. Variable-Length or Arbitrary Argument Lists
      1. *args
        def longestWord(*args):
    if (len(args) == 0): return None
    result = args[0]
    for word in args:
        if (len(word) > len(result)):
            result = word
    return result

print longestWord("this", "is", "really", "nice") # really
      2. **kwargs
         
    4. Unpacking Argument Lists
      1. *args
        def hasRoot(a, b, c):
    """Returns True if y=ax**2+bx+c has a root (crosses the x axis)."""
    return (b**2 - 4*a*c >= 0)

coeffs = (1,3,-5)
print hasRoot(coeffs[0], coeffs[1], coeffs[2])

(a,b,c) = coeffs
print hasRoot(a,b,c)

print hasRoot(coeffs) # crashes!

print hasRoot(*coeffs)
      2. **kwargs
         
  2. First-class Functions (Functions as first-class data types)
    1. Custom Comparators
      def compareLengths(a, b):
    return len(a) - len(b)

def compareLengthsByAlpha(a, b):
    if (len(a) != len(b)):
        return len(a) - len(b)
    else:
        return cmp(a, b)

names = ["fred", "wilma", "barney", "betty", "dino"]

print sorted(names)                        # ['barney', 'betty', 'dino', 'fred', 'wilma']
print sorted(names, compareLengths)        # ['fred', 'dino', 'wilma', 'betty', 'barney']
print sorted(names, compareLengthsByAlpha) # ['dino', 'fred', 'betty', 'wilma', 'barney']
    2. Callback functions (say, in Tkinter event handling)
      root.bind("<Key>", keyPressed)
  3. Lambda Expressions (Anonymous functions)
    1. Simple Example
      f = lambda x,y:  x+y
print f(2,3)  # 5
    2. Python Limitation (only expressions, not statements)
      f = lambda x:  print x  # syntax error!
  4. Nested Function Definitions and Closures
    1. Simple Example
      def f(a):
    def evens(a):
        return [value for value in a if (value % 2) == 0]
    return list(reversed(evens(a)))

print f(range(10))     # [8, 6, 4, 2, 0]
print evens(range(10)) # NameError: 'evens' not defined!
    2. Example using a closure (non-local "free" variable defined in enclosing scope)
      def makeAdderFn(delta):
    def f(x):
        return x + delta
    return f

add3 = makeAdderFn(3)
add4 = makeAdderFn(4)

print add3(5) # 8
print add4(5) # 9
    3. Closures are read-only (until Python 3's "nonlocal" variables)
      def makeIncreasingAdderFn(delta):
    def f(x):
        delta += 1        # does not work!
        return x + delta
    return f

f = makeIncreasingAdderFn(3)
print f(5)
print f(5)
    4. Mutable closure workaround (use a mutable data structure such as a List or Struct)
      1. List example
        def makeIncreasingAdderFn(delta):
    deltaList = [delta] # hack, but it works
    def f(x):
        deltaList[0] += 1
        return x + deltaList[0]
    return f

f = makeIncreasingAdderFn(3)
print f(5)  # 9
print f(5)  # 10
      2. Struct example
        def makeIncreasingAdderFn(delta):
    class Struct: pass
    scope = Struct()
    scope.delta = delta   # this is cleaner
    def f(x):
        scope.delta += 1
        return x + scope.delta
    return f

f = makeIncreasingAdderFn(3)
print f(5)  # 9
print f(5)  # 10
  5. Case Study: Global-Free Tkinter Animations
  6. More Topics (not covered this semester)
    1. Recursion (in 2 weeks!)
    2. Higher-Order Functions (Functions over functions and/or returning functions)
      1. map/reduce/filter
        1. Python Limitation
          (map/reduce return lists; parenthesized list comprehensions return generators)
          (map/reduce cannot work on infinite streams, say itertools.count())
      2. Currying (from functools import partial as curry)
    3. Lazy Evaluation with Generators (itertools.count()) and generator functions (yield)
    4. Function Decorators
    5. The Tao of Functional Programming
      • No mutable values or side effects
        1. Calling the same function with the same arguments always produces the same result
        2. Supports verification, parallelization, thread-safety, even optimization (say, with memoization)

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