Consequences of shadowing built-in types/functions
Question:
I’m wondering what could be some consequences of reusing the names of built-in types or functions.
To illustrate what I mean, read the following example:
list() is a built-in function.
If I create another list() method I suppose it will override the original one so that the mine will be executed instead of the built-in one.
But what happen if i do list=[a,z,e,r,t,y]? Is there a risk for the built-in list type or list() function?
I know it’s not good to do such a thing. But my goal is only to understand what could happen in these cases…
Answers:
No, you will not damage the built-in list in any way. It will just confuse everyone.
You can still get the original list via __builtin__.list. Assigning to __builtin__.list will, however, break list for everyone.
I’m wondering what could be some consequences of reusing the names of built-in types or functions.
To illustrate what I mean, read the following example:
list() is a built-in function.
If I create another list() method I suppose it will override the original one so that the mine will be executed instead of the built-in one.
But what happen if i do list=[a,z,e,r,t,y]? Is there a risk for the built-in list type or list() function?
I know it’s not good to do such a thing. But my goal is only to understand what could happen in these cases…
No, you will not damage the built-in list in any way. It will just confuse everyone.
You can still get the original list via __builtin__.list. Assigning to __builtin__.list will, however, break list for everyone.