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authorRaymond Hettinger <python@rcn.com>2013-06-02 17:03:05 (GMT)
committerRaymond Hettinger <python@rcn.com>2013-06-02 17:03:05 (GMT)
commitd71001749dfb97db677c7720f53f4a8df56dcf63 (patch)
tree27e6c3cd1bc869c8bdda409d520d3259a4feb201
parentdcdadfe39afd9b7cddf1e20efa37babdad61ff77 (diff)
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Clarify which dictionaries are updateable
by using the wording from the Py2.7 docs.
-rw-r--r--Doc/library/functions.rst20
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/library/functions.rst b/Doc/library/functions.rst
index c82e03f..3059e17 100644
--- a/Doc/library/functions.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/functions.rst
@@ -1355,14 +1355,18 @@ are always available. They are listed here in alphabetical order.
.. function:: vars([object])
- Without an argument, act like :func:`locals`.
+ Return the :attr:`__dict__` attribute for a module, class, instance,
+ or any other object with a :attr:`__dict__` attribute.
- With a module, class or class instance object as argument (or anything else that
- has a :attr:`__dict__` attribute), return that attribute.
+ Objects such as modules and instances have an updateable :attr:`__dict__`
+ attribute; however, other objects may have write restrictions on their
+ :attr:`__dict__` attributes (for example, classes use a
+ dictproxy to prevent direct dictionary updates).
+
+ Without an argument, :func:`vars` acts like :func:`locals`. Note, the
+ locals dictionary is only useful for reads since updates to the locals
+ dictionary are ignored.
- .. note::
- The returned dictionary should not be modified:
- the effects on the corresponding symbol table are undefined. [#]_
.. function:: zip(*iterables)
@@ -1481,7 +1485,3 @@ are always available. They are listed here in alphabetical order.
.. [#] Note that the parser only accepts the Unix-style end of line convention.
If you are reading the code from a file, make sure to use newline conversion
mode to convert Windows or Mac-style newlines.
-
-.. [#] In the current implementation, local variable bindings cannot normally be
- affected this way, but variables retrieved from other scopes (such as modules)
- can be. This may change.