Introducing a Safe Navigation Operator in Python

[Rosuav (Chris Angelico)]

@ehomrich

It’s too easy/tempting to keep adding ?. and performing nullish coalescing to save time, until these things start piling up and you notice that half of an object structure is being tested attribute by attribute. Of course, there are scenarios where there is no escape, but indiscriminate use can make code a burden to read and interpret.

The argument “we should avoid this feature because it can be misused” is a dangerous one. We already have MANY features in the language which can be misused to create horrific code. I’m more interested in how something can be used well than in how it can be used badly.