what does ` ` do in ' '.join([`x * x` for x in range(1, 6)])?

[process]

' '.join([`x * x` for x in range(1, 6)])

exactly what does this symbol do and what does it stand for?

 

[alex23]

' '.join([`x * x` for x in range(1, 6)])

exactly what does this symbol do and what does it stand for?

`<object>` is the same as repr(<object>). I'm pretty sure the backtick
operator has been removed from 3.0.

In the context of the code sample you posted, it appears to be used to
convert the result of x*x into a string for the join method, but I
personally think it's a misuse of repr() and think a call to str()
would be more appropriate:
'1 4 9 16 25'

 

[r0g]

' '.join([`x * x` for x in range(1, 6)])

exactly what does this symbol do and what does it stand for?

Which symbol, the '*' ???

Are you kidding?

 

[r0g]

' '.join([`x * x` for x in range(1, 6)])

exactly what does this symbol do and what does it stand for?

Ah, just spotted the backticks - they just return whatever's inside them
as a string.

 

[alex23]

Ah, just spotted the backticks - they just return whatever's inside them
as a string.

No, they return the repr() of the object inside. The output of
__repr__ -has- to be a string, but typecasting into string isn't the
intention of repr() (or the ` operator).

 

[Roy Smith]

' '.join((str(x * x) for x in range(1,6)))

Aren't the outer set of parens redundant? This works just as well:

' '.join(str(x * x) for x in range(1,6))

 

[MRAB]

' '.join([`x * x` for x in range(1, 6)])

exactly what does this symbol do and what does it stand for?

It's an obsolete, deprecated syntactic sugar for (what is now
implemented as) the built-in 'repr' function.

Instead, write the above as:

    ' '.join([repr(x * x) for x in range(1, 6)])

I'd classify it as one of Guido's mistakes!