From f6393a20fc0f382c6bab545f8f60ec8e10d5e099 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Sanket Dasgupta Date: Sat, 9 May 2020 19:02:29 +0530 Subject: [PATCH] Add preference of parantheses over backslashes in docs (#1399) Closes https://github.com/psf/black/issues/392 Revived from https://github.com/psf/black/pull/558 Relevant to https://github.com/psf/black/issues/664 --- README.md | 63 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 63 insertions(+) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 79e57aa..5bf6f06 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -238,6 +238,69 @@ def very_important_function( ... ``` +_Black_ prefers parentheses over backslashes, and will remove backslashes if found. + +```py3 +# in: + +if some_short_rule1 \ + and some_short_rule2: + ... + +# out: + +if some_short_rule1 and some_short_rule2: + ... + + +# in: + +if some_long_rule1 \ + and some_long_rule2: + ... + +# out: + +if ( + some_long_rule1 + and some_long_rule2 +): + ... + +``` + +Backslashes and multiline strings are one of the two places in the Python grammar that +break significant indentation. You never need backslashes, they are used to force the +grammar to accept breaks that would otherwise be parse errors. That makes them confusing +to look at and brittle to modify. This is why _Black_ always gets rid of them. + +If you're reaching for backslashes, that's a clear signal that you can do better if you +slightly refactor your code. I hope some of the examples above show you that there are +many ways in which you can do it. + +However there is one exception: `with` statements using multiple context managers. +Python's grammar does not allow organizing parentheses around the series of context +managers. + +We don't want formatting like: + +```py3 +with make_context_manager1() as cm1, make_context_manager2() as cm2, make_context_manager3() as cm3, make_context_manager4() as cm4: + ... # nothing to split on - line too long +``` + +So _Black_ will now format it like this: + +```py3 +with \ + make_context_manager(1) as cm1, \ + make_context_manager(2) as cm2, \ + make_context_manager(3) as cm3, \ + make_context_manager(4) as cm4 \ +: + ... # backslashes and an ugly stranded colon +``` + You might have noticed that closing brackets are always dedented and that a trailing comma is always added. Such formatting produces smaller diffs; when you add or remove an element, it's always just one line. Also, having the closing bracket dedented provides a -- 2.39.5