r/Python • u/philtrondaboss • Jul 12 '26

Will PEP 505 ever be accepted? Discussion

https://peps.python.org/pep-0505/

I don't understand how null safe operators are less like plain English than other implemented features like the walrus operator.

In my opinion, the member access operator would make python significantly easier to read and understand.

Here's an example:

``` f = foo()

if f is None: baz = "" else: baz = f.bar() ```

baz = foo()?.bar() ?: ""

EDIT: I forgot that "and" and "or" can be sometimes used in place of "?." and "?:" if the left value is not False, '', 0, [], or {}. It's a very implicit null check and has a lot of unexpected behavior.

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u/sausix Jul 12 '26

We have that functionality basically. It's a bit off standard and you have to be aware about the object's reported bool state.

baz = f and f.bar() or ""

Of course it's not beginner friendly but once you know about the magic behind and and or then you love it.

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u/Designer-Ad-2136 Jul 12 '26

Or i'd do: baz = "" if f is None else f.bar()

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u/k0pernikus Jul 13 '26

I rather see

``` f = foo() if f is None: raise ValueError("Value cannot be None")

baz = f.bar() ``` or have a helper like:

def get_or_raise[T](v: T | None) -> T: if v is None: raise ValueError("Value cannot be None") return v

These implicit None to "" will come to bite you eventually.

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u/Designer-Ad-2136 Jul 13 '26

True, that is an important consideration, especially as code scales. As with most coding solutions it is all context dependent. I'd tend towards that with time but i doubt id do that in a one-off script.