diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst | 20 |
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst b/Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst index 91ca855..4f7f001 100644 --- a/Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst +++ b/Doc/reference/lexical_analysis.rst @@ -385,10 +385,20 @@ classes are identified by the patterns of leading and trailing underscore characters: ``_*`` - Not imported by ``from module import *``. The special identifier ``_`` is used - in the interactive interpreter to store the result of the last evaluation; it is - stored in the :mod:`builtins` module. When not in interactive mode, ``_`` - has no special meaning and is not defined. See section :ref:`import`. + Not imported by ``from module import *``. + +``_`` + In a ``case`` pattern within a :keyword:`match` statement, ``_`` is a + :ref:`soft keyword <soft-keywords>` that denotes a + :ref:`wildcard <wildcard-patterns>`. + + Separately, the interactive interpreter makes the result of the last evaluation + available in the variable ``_``. + (It is stored in the :mod:`builtins` module, alongside built-in + functions like ``print``.) + + Elsewhere, ``_`` is a regular identifier. It is often used to name + "special" items, but it is not special to Python itself. .. note:: @@ -396,6 +406,8 @@ characters: refer to the documentation for the :mod:`gettext` module for more information on this convention. + It is also commonly used for unused variables. + ``__*__`` System-defined names, informally known as "dunder" names. These names are defined by the interpreter and its implementation (including the standard library). |