bpo-35224: Additional documentation for Assignment Expressions (GH-15935)

emilyemorehouse · miss-islington · commit 6357c95716d8 · 2019-09-11T07:37:12.000-07:00
Add or update assignment expression documentation for: - FAQ - Design - Reference - Expressions - Reference - Lexical Analysis https://bugs.python.org/issue35224 Automerge-Triggered-By: @matrixise
diff --git a/Doc/faq/design.rst b/Doc/faq/design.rst
@@ -151,66 +151,15 @@ to tell Python which namespace to use.
 Why can't I use an assignment in an expression?
 -----------------------------------------------
 
-Many people used to C or Perl complain that they want to use this C idiom:
+Starting in Python 3.8, you can!
 
-.. code-block:: c
+Assignment expressions using the walrus operator `:=` assign a variable in an
+expression::
 
-   while (line = readline(f)) {
-       // do something with line
-   }
-
-where in Python you're forced to write this::
-
-   while True:
-       line = f.readline()
-       if not line:
-           break
-       ...  # do something with line
-
-The reason for not allowing assignment in Python expressions is a common,
-hard-to-find bug in those other languages, caused by this construct:
-
-.. code-block:: c
-
-    if (x = 0) {
-        // error handling
-    }
-    else {
-        // code that only works for nonzero x
-    }
-
-The error is a simple typo: ``x = 0``, which assigns 0 to the variable ``x``,
-was written while the comparison ``x == 0`` is certainly what was intended.
-
-Many alternatives have been proposed.  Most are hacks that save some typing but
-use arbitrary or cryptic syntax or keywords, and fail the simple criterion for
-language change proposals: it should intuitively suggest the proper meaning to a
-human reader who has not yet been introduced to the construct.
-
-An interesting phenomenon is that most experienced Python programmers recognize
-the ``while True`` idiom and don't seem to be missing the assignment in
-expression construct much; it's only newcomers who express a strong desire to
-add this to the language.
-
-There's an alternative way of spelling this that seems attractive but is
-generally less robust than the "while True" solution::
-
-   line = f.readline()
-   while line:
-       ...  # do something with line...
-       line = f.readline()
-
-The problem with this is that if you change your mind about exactly how you get
-the next line (e.g. you want to change it into ``sys.stdin.readline()``) you
-have to remember to change two places in your program -- the second occurrence
-is hidden at the bottom of the loop.
-
-The best approach is to use iterators, making it possible to loop through
-objects using the ``for`` statement.  For example, :term:`file objects
-<file object>` support the iterator protocol, so you can write simply::
+   while chunk := fp.read(200):
+      print(chunk)
 
-   for line in f:
-       ...  # do something with line...
+See :pep:`572` for more information.
 
 
 
diff --git a/Doc/reference/expressions.rst b/Doc/reference/expressions.rst
@@ -1784,6 +1784,8 @@ precedence and have a left-to-right chaining feature as described in the
 +-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
 | Operator                                      | Description                         |
 +===============================================+=====================================+
+| ``:=``                                        | Assignment expression               |
++-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
 | :keyword:`lambda`                             | Lambda expression                   |
 +-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
 | :keyword:`if <if_expr>` -- :keyword:`!else`   | Conditional expression              |
diff --git a/Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst b/Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst
@@ -887,7 +887,7 @@ The following tokens are operators:
 
 
    +       -       *       **      /       //      %      @
-   <<      >>      &       |       ^       ~
+   <<      >>      &       |       ^       ~       :=
    <       >       <=      >=      ==      !=
 
 
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.8.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.8.rst
@@ -122,8 +122,6 @@ See :pep:`572` for a full description.
 
 (Contributed by Emily Morehouse in :issue:`35224`.)
 
-.. TODO: Emily will sprint on docs at PyCon US 2019.
-
 
 Positional-only parameters
 --------------------------
