The Python Oracle

How to break a line of chained methods in Python?

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Chapters
00:00 Question
00:39 Accepted answer (Score 316)
00:56 Answer 2 (Score 71)
01:56 Answer 3 (Score 21)
02:12 Answer 4 (Score 12)
02:34 Thank you

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Full question
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4768...

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Content licensed under CC BY-SA
https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/lice...

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Tags
#python #codingstyle #pep8

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 329


You could use additional parentheses:

subkeyword = (
        Session.query(Subkeyword.subkeyword_id, Subkeyword.subkeyword_word)
        .filter_by(subkeyword_company_id=self.e_company_id)
        .filter_by(subkeyword_word=subkeyword_word)
        .filter_by(subkeyword_active=True)
        .one()
    )



ANSWER 2

Score 72


This is a case where a line continuation character is preferred to open parentheses. The need for this style becomes more obvious as method names get longer and as methods start taking arguments:

subkeyword = Session.query(Subkeyword.subkeyword_id, Subkeyword.subkeyword_word) \
                    .filter_by(subkeyword_company_id=self.e_company_id)          \
                    .filter_by(subkeyword_word=subkeyword_word)                  \
                    .filter_by(subkeyword_active=True)                           \
                    .one()

PEP 8 is intend to be interpreted with a measure of common-sense and an eye for both the practical and the beautiful. Happily violate any PEP 8 guideline that results in ugly or hard to read code.

That being said, if you frequently find yourself at odds with PEP 8, it may be a sign that there are readability issues that transcend your choice of whitespace :-)




ANSWER 3

Score 21


My personal choice would be:

subkeyword = Session.query(
    Subkeyword.subkeyword_id,
    Subkeyword.subkeyword_word,
).filter_by(
    subkeyword_company_id=self.e_company_id,
    subkeyword_word=subkeyword_word,
    subkeyword_active=True,
).one()



ANSWER 4

Score 12


Just store the intermediate result/object and invoke the next method on it, e.g.

q = Session.query(Subkeyword.subkeyword_id, Subkeyword.subkeyword_word)
q = q.filter_by(subkeyword_company_id=self.e_company_id)
q = q.filter_by(subkeyword_word=subkeyword_word)
q = q.filter_by(subkeyword_active=True)
subkeyword = q.one()