Function overloading in Python: Missing [closed]

Question

As function overloading says:

Function overloading is absent in Python.

As far as I feel this a big handicap since its also an object-oriented (OO) language. Initially I found that unable to differentiate between the argument types was difficult, but the dynamic nature of Python made it easy (e.g. list, tuples, strings are much similar).

However, counting the number of arguments passed and then doing the job is like an overkill.

Answer 1

Now, unless you're trying to write C++ code using Python syntax, what would you need overloading for?

I think it's exactly opposite. Overloading is only necessary to make strongly-typed languages act more like Python. In Python you have keyword argument, and you have *args and **kwargs.

See for example: What is a clean, Pythonic way to have multiple constructors in Python?

Answer 2

As unwind noted, keyword arguments with default values can go a long way.

I'll also state that in my opinion, it goes against the spirit of Python to worry a lot about what types are passed into methods. In Python, I think it's more accepted to use duck typing -- asking what an object can do, rather than what it is.

Thus, if your method may accept a string or a tuple, you might do something like this:

def print_names(names):     """Takes a space-delimited string or an iterable"""     try:         for name in names.split(): # string case             print name     except AttributeError:         for name in names:             print name 

Then you could do either of these:

print_names("Ryan Billy") print_names(("Ryan", "Billy")) 

Although an API like that sometimes indicates a design problem.