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110

To clarify why this doesn't meet the critera provided by the question: it's not a single expression and it doesn't return z.
– Alexander Oh
Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 13:15
24

Put it this way: if you need to put two lines of comments explaining your one line of code to the people you hand your code off to...have you really done it in one line? :) I fully agree Python is not good for this: there should be a much easier way. While this answer is more pythonic, is it really all that explicit or clear? Update is not one of the "core" functions that people tend to use a lot.
– eric
Commented Oct 19, 2017 at 13:07
17

Well, if people insist on making it a oneliner, you can always do (lambda z: z.update(y) or z)(x.copy()) :P
– towr
Commented Feb 24, 2020 at 12:43
2

@AlexanderOh I am not sure whenever this is a joke or not; I see this as a perfectly (valid) answ! (at least in terms of it works) but Of course; yeah; the second comment sets a precedent! either way; it is Indeed pythonic!
– William Martens
Commented Jul 15, 2022 at 4:08
9

@WilliamMartens it wasn't a joke. But let's face it, if you optimize for single line expressions,you are optimizing for the wrong thing.
– Alexander Oh
Commented Jul 15, 2022 at 9:15

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