When is semicolon use in Python considered “good” or “acceptable”?

Question

Python is a \"whitespace delimited\" language. However, the use of semicolons are allowed. For example, the following works but is frowned upon:

p         


        

Answer 1

PEP 8 is the official style guide and says:

Compound statements (multiple statements on the same line) are generally discouraged.

(See also the examples just after this in the PEP.)

While I don't agree with everything PEP 8 says, if you're looking for an authoritative source, that's it. You should use multi-statement lines only as a last resort. (python -c is a good example of such a last resort, because you have no way to use actual linebreaks in that case.)

Answer 2

I use semicolons in code all of the time. Our code folds across lines quite frequently, and a semicolon is a definitive assertion that a statement is ending.

output, errors, status = generate_output_with_errors_and_status(
    first_monstrous_functional_argument(argument_one_to_argument
        , argument_two_to_argument)
    , second_argument);

See? They're quite helpful to readability.