Python 3 print without parenthesis
The print
used to be a statement in Python 2, but now it became a function that requires parenthesis in Python 3.
Is there anyway to suppress these parenthesis in Python 3? Maybe by re-defining the print function?
So, instead of
print ("Hello stack over flowers")
I could type:
print "Hello stack over flowers"
Although you need a pair of parentheses to print in Python 3, you no longer need a space after print
, because it's a function. So that's only a single extra character.
If you still find typing a single pair of parentheses to be "unnecessarily time-consuming," you can do p = print
and save a few characters that way. Because you can bind new references to functions but not to keywords, you can only do this print
shortcut in Python 3.
Python 2:
>>> p = print
File "<stdin>", line 1
p = print
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Python 3:
>>> p = print
>>> p('hello')
hello
It'll make your code less readable, but you'll save those few characters every time you print something.
Using print
without parentheses in Python 3 code is not a good idea. Nor is creating aliases, etc. If that's a deal breaker, use Python 2.
However, print
without parentheses might be useful in the interactive shell. It's not really a matter of reducing the number of characters, but rather avoiding the need to press Shift twice every time you want to print something while you're debugging. IPython lets you call functions without using parentheses if you start the line with a slash:
Python 3.6.6 (default, Jun 28 2018, 05:43:53)
Type 'copyright', 'credits' or 'license' for more information
IPython 6.4.0 -- An enhanced Interactive Python. Type '?' for help.
In [1]: var = 'Hello world'
In [2]: /print var
Hello world
And if you turn on autocall
, you won't even need to type the slash:
In [3]: %autocall
Automatic calling is: Smart
In [4]: print var
------> print(var)
Hello world
Use Autohotkey to make a macro. AHK is free and dead simple to install. www.autohotkey.com
You could assign the macro to, say, alt-p:
!p::send print(){Left}
That will make alt-p put out print() and move your cursor to inside the parens.
Or, even better, to directly solve your problem, you define an autoreplace and limit its scope to when the open file has the .py extension:
#IfWinActive .py ;;; scope limiter
:b*:print ::print(){Left} ;;; I forget what b* does. The rest should be clear
#IfWinActive ;;; remove the scope limitation
This is a guaranteed, painless, transparent solution.
No. That will always be a syntax error in Python 3. Consider using 2to3
to translate your code to Python 3