Setting the docstring to an expression inside def

Question

I would like to set the func_doc (as an expression) within def.

def f():
    \'\'\'My function help\'\'\' #Set the         


        

Answer 1

You cannot. The rule is: A string literal as first statement is taken as docstring. If it's an expression, it is not a string literal, and hence ignored.

You can also explicitly assign to the docstring attribute afterwards if you really need this. I don't see why you'd need it though. Your reasons seem fishy to me:

• Importing a function (or anything else, really) gives you the very same object, with the same docstring. Wrapping a function is another story, but for what we have functools.wraps.
• Factoring out parts of a regex into a separate variable doesn't make anything more readable per se. Having the token definition at hand is vital for understanding the action code.