Writing a function in Python is easy but writing a good function is not that easy. Most Python programmers are often not aware of how to write clear and concise functions, let alone using Type Dispatch. Let us see how we can write better functions in Python using Type Dispatch.

Before we get into what is Type Dispatch? or How Type dispatch can make you a better Python programmer, let us get some basics out of the way like What is a good python function? To be honest, I would rather let Jeff Knupp explain it.

I truly believe that the only way to really understand howsomething works is by breaking it into granular pieces and putting it back together or building it from scratch. Let us take a very well-defined use case and write a function for it from scratch. By scratch, I mean starting with the one-to-one translation of the pseudo-code to python code without thinking about any best practices.

Then by analyzing what works & what didn’t, we can build on top of this. We are going to repeat this process until we run out of ideas to improve the code. So this post is going to be not one, but many versions of a function for the same use case.

If you are wondering Why? Because we are going to unlearning everything we know about writing a function and question each line of code as we write it. In this way, we can clearly see how each piece fits. Rather than blindly following a checklist of items about writing a function, we will create our own checklist. In case this post missed something that is of value, then please let me know I will gladly update it.

We will try to write the best or at least my best python function for a particular use case in 4 iterations. Each iteration is going to be an improvement over the last one, with a clear objective declared upfront. Getting better at anything is an iterative process, depending on where you are in the spectrum of python proficiency, one of the 4 iterations is going to resonate more with you than others. The next step of this post is understanding the use case. Buckle up, it’s going to be a very interesting journey.

#python #function #programming