Understanding Duck Typing in Python: Behavior Over Type
By
Trey Hunner
Crackling crust, pillowy middle. The kind of bagel that earns a second cup of coffee.
Summary
An explanation of duck typing in Python, a programming concept where object behavior is prioritized over explicit type checking. The article uses the classic analogy "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck" to illustrate how Python developers typically check what behavior an object supports rather than its formal type, often by attempting operations and handling exceptions.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledIf it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then we consider it a duck.
We don't have to check the duck's DNA to see whether it's a duck, we just observe its behavior.
In Python we care about the behavior of an object more than the type of an object.
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