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Zen of Python

The Zen of Python output in a terminal

The Zen of Python is a collection of 19 "guiding principles" for writing computer programs that influence the design of the Python programming language. Python code that aligns with these principles is often referred to as "Pythonic".

Software engineer Tim Peters wrote this set of principles and posted it on the Python mailing list in 1999. Peters' list left open a 20th principle "for Guido to fill in", referring to Guido van Rossum, the original author of the Python language. The vacancy for a 20th principle has not been filled.

Peters' Zen of Python was included as entry number 20 in the language's official Python Enhancement Proposals and was released into the public domain. It is also included as an Easter egg in the Python interpreter, where it can be displayed by entering

  • Beautiful is better than ugly.
  • Explicit is better than implicit.
  • Simple is better than complex.
  • Complex is better than complicated.
  • Flat is better than nested.
  • Sparse is better than dense.
  • Readability counts.
  • Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
  • Although practicality beats purity.
  • Errors should never pass silently.
  • Unless explicitly silenced.
  • In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
  • There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
  • Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
  • Now is better than never.
  • Although never is often better than right now.
  • If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
  • If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
  • Namespaces are one honking great idea – let's do more of those!

Being Pythonic

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One of the principles, "There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it", can be referenced as the "Pythonic" way. The official definition of "Pythonic" is:

An idea or piece of code which closely follows the most common idioms of the Python language, rather than implementing code using concepts common to other languages. For example, a common idiom in Python is to loop over all elements of an iterable using a for statement. Many other languages don’t have this type of construct, so people unfamiliar with Python sometimes use a numerical counter instead:

Peters, Tim (June 4, 1999). "The Python Way". Python Software Foundation. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  • 1 2 Warsaw, Barry (23 May 2020). The Zen of Python. YouTube. The Zbwedicon. Archived from the original on 2021-12-11. Archived 2020-06-03 at the Wayback Machine
  • ↑ "Code Style – The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python". docs.python-guide.org. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
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