Question

On a Python assignment, I had to make the following two functions:

move(board, move)
undomove(board, move)

Having an argument with the same name as the function seems like a bad practice to me. I already contacted the professor to change it, but out of curiosity, is it possible to call the move function from inside the undomove, or to use recursion on the move? Inside these functions, move refers to the argument.

(Python 3, if it matters)

Answer 1

You can get a handle on move (the function), however it will require some additional gymnastics.

def move(move):
    print(move,"inside move")

def undomove(move):
    print (move,"inside undomove")
    this_mod =__import__(__name__)
    this_mod.move(move)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    move(1)
    undomove(2)

Generally though, I would definitely avoid naming a local variable with the same name as a function that I will need in that function.

As far as style is concerned, creating a function def move(move): ... is definitely a little weird, and it would make the casual reader think that you’re trying to write a recursive function, so I would definitely avoid that. Writing undomove(move) when move is already defined in the module scope as a function is a little less weird, but it still might cause confusion at a quick glance (is it a local variable? is it the function?) so I would probably avoid that one as well.