Using self.xxxx as a default parameter - Python

Question

I\'m trying to simplify one of my homework problems and make the code a little better. What I\'m working with is a binary search tree. Right now I have a function in my

Answer 1

larsmans answered your first question

For your second question, can you simply look before you leap to avoid recursion?

def makeList(self, aNode=None):
    if aNode is None:
        aNode = self.root
    treeaslist = [aNode.data]
    if aNode.lChild:
        treeaslist.extend(self.makeList(aNode.lChild))
    if aNode.rChild:
        treeaslist.extend(self.makeList(aNode.rChild))
    return treeaslist