what's the deal of "_" in Python?

[Yun Mao]

Can someone give me some pointers to the related docs? Thanks.

-Yun

 

[phansen]

Can someone give me some pointers to the related docs? Thanks.

It's a variable name. See http://docs.python.org/ref/identifiers.html

If you were hoping of a more elaborate answer, please refer to
http://groups.google.ca/[email protected]
and also give just a *little* more detail in your next question,
so we don't have to mindread about which use of "_" you are
talking about. It's used as a standalone variable name, as a
prefix in several different ways, sometimes as a substitute for
self, and so on. Which do you mean?

-Peter

 

[Erik Heneryd]

It's a variable name. See http://docs.python.org/ref/identifiers.html

....and is special in interactive mode. See
http://docs.python.org/ref/id-classes.html


Erik

 

[Elaine Jackson]

The python interpreter understands "_" as a reference to the last value it
computed, exactly analogous to "%" in the maple interpreter if you're familiar
with that. I think it's also used as a (loop-) variable name with the
implication that the variable will never be referenced. (Personally I like to
use the name "anonymous" for that purpose.)

 

[Alex Martelli]

...and is special in interactive mode. See
http://docs.python.org/ref/id-classes.html

....and is used in the gettext module for internationalization (as a
function name, in that case).


Alex