constants.rst

.. _built-in-consts:

Built-in Constants
==================

A small number of constants live in the built-in namespace.  They are:

.. data:: False

   The false value of the :class:`bool` type. Assignments to ``False``
   are illegal and raise a :exc:`SyntaxError`.


.. data:: True

   The true value of the :class:`bool` type. Assignments to ``True``
   are illegal and raise a :exc:`SyntaxError`.


.. data:: None

   The sole value of the type ``NoneType``.  ``None`` is frequently used to
   represent the absence of a value, as when default arguments are not passed to a
   function. Assignments to ``None`` are illegal and raise a :exc:`SyntaxError`.


.. data:: NotImplemented

   Special value which should be returned by the binary special methods
   (e.g. :meth:`__eq__`, :meth:`__lt__`, :meth:`__add__`, :meth:`__rsub__`,
   etc.) to indicate that the operation is not implemented with respect to
   the other type; may be returned by the in-place binary special methods
   (e.g. :meth:`__imul__`, :meth:`__iand__`, etc.) for the same purpose.
   Its truth value is true.

   .. note::

      When a binary (or in-place) method returns ``NotImplemented`` the
      interpreter will try the reflected operation on the other type (or some
      other fallback, depending on the operator).  If all attempts return
      ``NotImplemented``, the interpreter will raise an appropriate exception.
      Incorrectly returning ``NotImplemented`` will result in a misleading
      error message or the ``NotImplemented`` value being returned to Python code.

      See :ref:`implementing-the-arithmetic-operations` for examples.

   .. note::

      ``NotImplementedError`` and ``NotImplemented`` are not interchangeable,
      even though they have similar names and purposes.
      See :exc:`NotImplementedError` for details on when to use it.


.. data:: Ellipsis

   The same as ``...``.  Special value used mostly in conjunction with extended
   slicing syntax for user-defined container data types.


.. data:: __debug__

   This constant is true if Python was not started with an :option:`-O` option.
   See also the :keyword:`assert` statement.


.. note::

   The names :data:`None`, :data:`False`, :data:`True` and :data:`__debug__`
   cannot be reassigned (assignments to them, even as an attribute name, raise
   :exc:`SyntaxError`), so they can be considered "true" constants.


Constants added by the :mod:`site` module
-----------------------------------------

The :mod:`site` module (which is imported automatically during startup, except
if the :option:`-S` command-line option is given) adds several constants to the
built-in namespace.  They are useful for the interactive interpreter shell and
should not be used in programs.

.. data:: quit(code=None)
          exit(code=None)

   Objects that when printed, print a message like "Use quit() or Ctrl-D
   (i.e. EOF) to exit", and when called, raise :exc:`SystemExit` with the
   specified exit code.

.. data:: copyright
          license
          credits

   Objects that when printed, print a message like "Type license() to see the
   full license text", and when called, display the corresponding text in a
   pager-like fashion (one screen at a time).