Python’s default arguments are evaluated once when the function is defined, not each time the function is called (like it is in say, Ruby). This means that if you use a mutable default argument and mutate it, you will and have mutated that object for all future calls to the function as well.
Important warning: The default value is evaluated only once. This makes a difference when the default is a mutable object such as a list, dictionary, or instances of most classes. For example, the following function accumulates the arguments passed to it on subsequent calls:
Actually, this is not a design flaw, and it is not because of internals, or performance.
It comes simply from the fact that functions in Python are first-class objects, and not only a piece of code.
As soon as you get to think into this way, then it completely makes sense: a function is an object being evaluated on its definition; default parameters are kind of “member data” and therefore their state may change from one call to the other - exactly as in any other object.
In any case, Effbot has a very nice explanation of the reasons for this behavior in Default Parameter Values in Python.
I found it very clear, and I really suggest reading it for a better knowledge of how function objects work.
This is not a design flaw. It is a design decision; perhaps a bad one, but not an accident. The state thing is just like any other closure: a closure is not a function, and a function with mutable default argument is not a function.
甚至还有反驳者抛开实现逻辑,单纯从设计角度认为:只要是违背程序猿基本思考逻辑的行为,都是设计缺陷!下面是他们的一些论调:
> Sorry, but anything considered “The biggest WTF in Python” is most definitely a design flaw. This is a source of bugs for everyone at some point, because no one expects that behavior at first - which means it should not have been designed that way to begin with.
The phrases “this is not generally what was intended” and “a way around this is” smell like they’re documenting a design flaw.