Why does initializing a variable via a python default variable keep state across object instantiation?

Question

I hit an interesting python bug today in which instantiating a class repeatedly appears to be holding state. In later instantiation calls the variable is already defined.

I boiled down the issue into the following class/shell interaction. I realize that this is not the best way to initialize a class variable, but it sure should not be behaving like this. Is this a true bug or is this a "feature"? :D

tester.py:

class Tester():
        def __init__(self):
                self.mydict = self.test()

        def test(self,out={}):
                key = "key"
                for i in ['a','b','c','d']:
                        if key in out:
                                out[key] += ','+i
                        else:   
                                out[key] = i 
                return out

Python prompt:

Python 2.6.6 (r266:84292, Oct  6 2010, 00:44:09) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5664)] on darwin
>>> import tester
>>> t = tester.Tester()
>>> print t.mydict
{'key': 'a,b,c,d'}
>>> t2 = tester.Tester()
>>> print t2.mydict
{'key': 'a,b,c,d,a,b,c,d'}

Answer 1

It is a feature that pretty much all Python users run into once or twice. The main usage is for caches and the like to avoid repetitive lengthy calculations (simple memoizing, really), although I am sure people have found other uses for it.

The reason for this is that the def statement only gets executed once, which is when the function is defined. Thus the initializer value only gets created once. For a reference type (as opposed to an immutable type which cannot change) like a list or a dictionary, this ends up as a visible and surprising pitfall, whereas for value types, it goes unnoticed.

Usually, people work around it like this:

def test(a=None):
    if a is None:
        a = {}
    # ... etc.