Zen of Python

File:The_Zen_of_Python_illustrated.png

The principles are listed as follows:{{efn|Wikipedia links below are added for further reference and understanding, and were not explicitly linked in the Zen of Python}}

{{Plainlist|

• Beautiful is better than ugly.
• Explicit is better than implicit.
• Simple is better than complex.
• Complex is better than complicated.
• Flat is better than nested.
• Sparse is better than dense.
• Readability counts.
• Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
• Although practicality beats purity.
• Errors should never pass silently.
• Unless explicitly silenced.
• In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
• There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.{{efn|The formatting of the dashes in this line and the final is purposely inconsistent, in reference to the varying formatting conventions.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Issue 3364: An ortographical typo in Zen of Python text - Python tracker|url=https://bugs.python.org/issue3364|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-02-10|website=}}}}
• Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
• Now is better than never.
• Although never is often better than {{em|right}} now.{{efn|In the interpreter easter egg, this is written as "Although never is often better than *right* now." This follows a longstanding convention of plain-text communication — in which common formatting features are often impossible — where emphasis is represented with asterisks.}}
• If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
• If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
• Namespaces are one honking great idea – let's do more of those!

}}

One of the principles, "There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it", can be referenced as the "Pythonic" way. The official definition of "Pythonic" is:{{Cite web |title=Glossary |url=https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-Pythonic |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=Python Documentation |language=en}}

An idea or piece of code which closely follows the most common idioms of the Python language, rather than implementing code using concepts common to other languages. For example, a common idiom in Python is to loop over all elements of an iterable using a for statement. Many other languages don’t have this type of construct, so people unfamiliar with Python sometimes use a numerical counter instead:

for i in range(len(food)):

print(food[i])

As opposed to the cleaner, Pythonic method:

for piece in food:

print(piece)

Code that is difficult to understand or reads like a rough transcription from another programming language is called unpythonic.{{Cite web|url=https://docs.python-guide.org/writing/style|title=Code Style – The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python|website=docs.python-guide.org|access-date=20 January 2021|archive-date=27 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127154341/https://docs.python-guide.org/writing/style/|url-status=live}}

Since the release of the Zen of Python, there has been research done on its effectiveness and actual use among developers. Despite the difference in interpretation between beginners and experienced Python programmers, interviews among 13 Python programmers of varying skill show that the Zen of Python "positively influences the way developers write and talk about code".{{Cite book |last1=Alexandru |first1=Carol V. |last2=Merchante |first2=José J. |last3=Panichella |first3=Sebastiano |last4=Proksch |first4=Sebastian |last5=Gall |first5=Harald C. |last6=Robles |first6=Gregorio |chapter=On the usage of pythonic idioms |date=2018-10-24 |title=Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3276954.3276960 |series=Onward! 2018 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=1–11 |doi=10.1145/3276954.3276960 |isbn=978-1-4503-6031-9 |s2cid=53057358 |oclc=1362712424 |url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/156901/1/paper.pdf |chapter-url-access=registration |archive-url=https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-156901 |archive-date=2018-10-03 }} Researchers extended this case study to explore the use of Python idioms on GitHub repositories, and found that the usage of "Pythonic idioms"{{Efn|A list of their Pythonic idioms can be found here https://slimshadyiam.github.io/ZenYourPython/}} increased over time.{{Cite book |last1=Farooq |first1=Aamir |last2=Zaytsev |first2=Vadim |chapter=There is more than one way to zen your Python |date=2021-11-22 |title=Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering |chapter-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3486608.3486909 |series=SLE 2021 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=68–82 |doi=10.1145/3486608.3486909 |isbn=978-1-4503-9111-5}} Writing Python code that aligns with the Zen of Python may save memory and run time of Python programs.{{Cite book |last1=Leelaprute |first1=Pattara |last2=Chinthanet |first2=Bodin |last3=Wattanakriengkrai |first3=Supatsara |last4=Kula |first4=Raula Gaikovina |last5=Jaisri |first5=Pongchai |last6=Ishio |first6=Takashi |chapter=Does coding in Pythonic zen peak performance?: Preliminary experiments of nine Pythonic idioms at scale |date=2022-10-20 |title=Proceedings of the 30th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3524610.3527879 |series=ICPC '22 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=575–579 |doi=10.1145/3524610.3527879 |isbn=978-1-4503-9298-3}} The desire to write in Pythonic code has led to refactoring tools to help programmers achieve this goal.{{Citation |last1=Zhang |first1=Zejun |title=Making Python Code Idiomatic by Automatic Refactoring Non-Idiomatic Python Code with Pythonic Idioms |date=2022-07-12 |arxiv=2207.05613 |last2=Xing |first2=Zhenchang |last3=Xia |first3=Xin |last4=Xu |first4=Xiwei |last5=Zhu |first5=Liming}}{{Citation |last1=Phan-udom |first1=Purit |title=Teddy: Automatic Recommendation of Pythonic Idiom Usage For Pull-Based Software Projects |date=2020-09-05 |arxiv=2009.03302 |last2=Wattanakul |first2=Naruedon |last3=Sakulniwat |first3=Tattiya |last4=Ragkhitwetsagul |first4=Chaiyong |last5=Sunetnanta |first5=Thanwadee |last6=Choetkiertikul |first6=Morakot |last7=Kula |first7=Raula Gaikovina}}

• Convention over configuration
• There's more than one way to do it

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{{reflist}}

• [https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/ PEP20 on Python website]
• [https://pep20.org/ PEP 20 ~ The Zen of Python by Tim Peters]

Category:2004 essays

Category:Essays about computing

Category:Programming principles

Category:Python (programming language)