Is it possible to have multiple statements in a python lambda expression?

Question

I am a python newbie trying to achieve the following:

I have a list of lists:

lst = [[567,345,234],[253,465,756, 2345],[333,777,111, 555]]

I want map lst into another list containing only the second smallest number from each sublist. So the result should be:

[345, 465, 333]

For example if I were just interested in the smallest number, I could do:

map(lambda x: min(x),lst)

I wish I could do this:

map(lambda x: sort(x)[1],lst)

but sort does not chain. (returns None)

neither is something like this allowed:

map(lambda x: sort(x); x[1],lst) #hence the multiple statement question

Is there a way to do this with map in python but without defining a named function? (it is easy with anonymous blocks in ruby, for example)

Answer 1

There are several different answers I can give here, from your specific question to more general concerns. So from most specific to most general:

Q. Can you put multiple statements in a lambda?

A. No. But you don't actually need to use a lambda. You can put the statements in a def instead. i.e.:

def second_lowest(l):
    l.sort()
    return l[1]

map(second_lowest, lst)

Q. Can you get the second lowest item from a lambda by sorting the list?

A. Yes. As alex's answer points out, sorted() is a version of sort that creates a new list, rather than sorting in-place, and can be chained. Note that this is probably what you should be using - it's bad practice for your map to have side effects on the original list.

Q. How should I get the second lowest item from each list in a sequence of lists?

A. sorted(l)[1] is not actually the best way for this. It has O(N log(N)) complexity, while an O(n) solution exists. This can be found in the heapq module.

>>> import  heapq
>>> l = [5,2,6,8,3,5]
>>> heapq.nsmallest(l, 2)
[2, 3]

So just use:

map(lambda x: heapq.nsmallest(x,2)[1],  list_of_lists)

It's also usually considered clearer to use a list comprehension, which avoids the lambda altogether:

[heapq.nsmallest(x,2)[1] for x in list_of_lists]

Answer 2

Putting the expressions in a list may simulate multiple expressions:

E.g.:

lambda x: [f1(x), f2(x), f3(x), x+1]

This will not work with statements.

Answer 3

Time traveler here. If you generally want to have multiple statements within a lambda, you can pass other lambdas as arguments to that lambda.

(lambda x, f: list((y[1] for y in f(x))))(lst, lambda x: (sorted(y) for y in x))

You can't actually have multiple statements, but you can simulate that by passing lambdas to lambdas.

Edit: The time traveler returns! You can also abuse the behavior of boolean expressions (keeping in mind short-circuiting rules and truthiness) to chain operations. Using the ternary operator gives you even more power. Again, you can't have multiple statements, but you can of course have many function calls. This example does some arbitrary junk with a bunch of data, but, it shows that you can do some funny stuff. The print statements are examples of functions which return None (as does the .sort() method) but they also help show what the lambda is doing.

>>> (lambda x: print(x) or x+1)(10)
10
11
>>> f = (lambda x: x[::2] if print(x) or x.sort() else print(enumerate(x[::-1]) if print(x) else filter(lambda (i, y): print((i, y)) or (i % 3 and y % 2), enumerate(x[::-1]))))
>>> from random import shuffle
>>> l = list(range(100))
>>> shuffle(l)
>>> f(l)
[84, 58, 7, 99, 17, 14, 60, 35, 12, 56, 26, 48, 55, 40, 28, 52, 31, 39, 43, 96, 64, 63, 54, 37, 79, 25, 46, 72, 10, 59, 24, 68, 23, 13, 34, 41, 94, 29, 62, 2, 50, 32, 11, 97, 98, 3, 70, 93, 1, 36, 87, 47, 20, 73, 45, 0, 65, 57, 6, 76, 16, 85, 95, 61, 4, 77, 21, 81, 82, 30, 53, 51, 42, 67, 74, 8, 15, 83, 5, 9, 78, 66, 44, 27, 19, 91, 90, 18, 49, 86, 22, 75, 71, 88, 92, 33, 89, 69, 80, 38]
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99]
(0, 99)
(1, 98)
(2, 97)
(3, 96)
(4, 95)
(5, 94)
(6, 93)
(7, 92)
(8, 91)
(9, 90)
(10, 89)
(11, 88)
(12, 87)
(13, 86)
(14, 85)
(15, 84)
(16, 83)
(17, 82)
(18, 81)
(19, 80)
(20, 79)
(21, 78)
(22, 77)
(23, 76)
(24, 75)
(25, 74)
(26, 73)
(27, 72)
(28, 71)
(29, 70)
(30, 69)
(31, 68)
(32, 67)
(33, 66)
(34, 65)
(35, 64)
(36, 63)
(37, 62)
(38, 61)
(39, 60)
(40, 59)
(41, 58)
(42, 57)
(43, 56)
(44, 55)
(45, 54)
(46, 53)
(47, 52)
(48, 51)
(49, 50)
(50, 49)
(51, 48)
(52, 47)
(53, 46)
(54, 45)
(55, 44)
(56, 43)
(57, 42)
(58, 41)
(59, 40)
(60, 39)
(61, 38)
(62, 37)
(63, 36)
(64, 35)
(65, 34)
(66, 33)
(67, 32)
(68, 31)
(69, 30)
(70, 29)
(71, 28)
(72, 27)
(73, 26)
(74, 25)
(75, 24)
(76, 23)
(77, 22)
(78, 21)
(79, 20)
(80, 19)
(81, 18)
(82, 17)
(83, 16)
(84, 15)
(85, 14)
(86, 13)
(87, 12)
(88, 11)
(89, 10)
(90, 9)
(91, 8)
(92, 7)
(93, 6)
(94, 5)
(95, 4)
(96, 3)
(97, 2)
(98, 1)
(99, 0)
[(2, 97), (4, 95), (8, 91), (10, 89), (14, 85), (16, 83), (20, 79), (22, 77), (26, 73), (28, 71), (32, 67), (34, 65), (38, 61), (40, 59), (44, 55), (46, 53), (50, 49), (52, 47), (56, 43), (58, 41), (62, 37), (64, 35), (68, 31), (70, 29), (74, 25), (76, 23), (80, 19), (82, 17), (86, 13), (88, 11), (92, 7), (94, 5), (98, 1)]