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Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter?

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On Sat, Jan 17, 2015 at 9:20 AM, Gregory Ewing
<greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> The only thing I would change is to wrap it all up
> in a top-level function that takes care of creating
> the result set and returning it.
>
> def walk(obj):
>   res = set()
>   _walk(obj, res)
>   return res
>
> def _walk(obj, res):
>   ...

Point of style: I like to put these kinds of helpers _above_ the
corresponding public functions, to maintain a general policy of
Define-Before-Use. Tends to make code easier to read; the first
reference to a function name is its definition, then all usage comes
after that. It's not always possible, of course (eg mutual recursion),
but in simple cases like this, it's easy enough.

ChrisA

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Thread

recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Tim <jtim.arnold@gmail.com> - 2015-01-16 09:49 -0800
  Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-01-17 04:56 +1100
    Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2015-01-16 10:22 -0800
  Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2015-01-16 19:34 +0100
    Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Tim <jtim.arnold@gmail.com> - 2015-01-16 10:48 -0800
    Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Yawar Amin <yawar.amin@gmail.com> - 2015-01-16 18:23 -0800
      Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Yawar Amin <yawar.amin@gmail.com> - 2015-01-16 21:29 -0800
      Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2015-01-18 10:25 +1300
  Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2015-01-17 11:20 +1300
    Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-01-17 10:49 +1100
  Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2015-01-17 21:15 +1100
    Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2015-01-17 10:20 -0500
      Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2015-01-18 10:07 +1300
  Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2015-01-17 17:30 +0000
    Re: recursive function: use a global or pass a parameter? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-01-18 06:27 +1100

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