Python conditional assignment operator

Question

Does a Python equivalent to the Ruby ||= operator (\"set the variable if the variable is not set\") exist?

Example in Ruby :

 variable_n         


        

Answer 1

No, not knowing which variables are defined is a bug, not a feature in Python.

Use dicts instead:

d = {}
d.setdefault('key', 1)
d['key'] == 1

d['key'] = 2
d.setdefault('key', 1)
d['key'] == 2