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See exactly what a function has returned

Brad Tilley bradtilley at usa.net
Wed Sep 15 17:19:45 EDT 2004 
Jeff Shannon wrote:
> Brad Tilley wrote:
> 
>>
>> def print_whats_returned(function):
>>     ## A function that shows what another function has returned
>>     ## as well as the 'type' of the returned data.
>>     print function
>>     print type(function)
>>
>> def send_net_params_to_admin(ip_param, port_param):
>>     ip = get_server_ip()
>>     port = get_server_port()
>>     return ip, port
>>
>> print_whats_returned(send_net_params_to_admin(get_server_ip(), 
>> get_server_port()))
> 
> 
> 
> Note here that the argument to print_whats_returned() is *not* a 
> function; it is the value returned from a function.  You're not passing 
> the function send_net_params_to_admin();  you're passing whatever is 
> returned from it.  It is effectively equivalent to the following:
> 
>    return_value = send_net_params_to_admin(get_server_ip(), 
> get_server_port())
>    print_whats_returned(return_value)
> 
> Thus, your function would be much more clear with different names, since 
> it really has nothing to do with functions.
> 
>    def print_value_and_type(value):
>        print value
>        print type(value)
> 
> With these names, you wouldn't have had all of these people talking 
> about dynamic typing and such, because it would've been clear that 
> you're not attempting to find the intended return value of a theoretical 
> future function call, but rather trying to inspect the actual value 
> that's already been returned by a previously-executed function call.
> And no, there isn't really an easier way to do this.  :)
> 
> Jeff Shannon
> Technician/Programmer
> Credit International

Thanks Jeff,

You said what I was trying to say better than I could say it. I'm not
crazy after all... just picked the wrong words. This made sense to me at
first, then everyone said, "You can't do that," and I was almost at the
point of believing them when you posted. ;)

Brad
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