I have occurrences of accidentally redeclared functions in a python codebase. The occurrences are simple function definitions, no functools.singledispatch involved. I want to fix that. However, I do not know which of the functions python actually uses. I want to keep only that function.
Please understand, that I ask this question to understand what happens behind the scene and how to solve the issue properly. Of course, I know that redeclaring functions in python is bad coding practice. I also know that a linter can hint you on that. But if the problem is there and I want to solve that, I must understand and find out all of which occurrences should be deleted.
I made a small test and it seems that python actually uses the last definition:
def func1(a: int):
print("Num", a)
def func1(a: int):
print("A number: ", a)
func1(100)
->
/home/user/PycharmProjects/project/.venv/bin/python /home/user/.config/JetBrains/PyCharm2023.1/scratches/redeclared_func.py
A number: 100
I just wanted to ask, to be sure that this interpretation is correct. In that case I would keep none but the last occurrence, of course. There may be a difference between, e.g. Python versions, Python interpreters etc. What happens, if a module with redeclared functions is imported and then the function is redeclared again?
The definition that holds is the last that was met in the flow of execution, just as if you were assigning a variable.
E.g.
def F():
print("First")
F()
if True:
def F():
print("Second")
F()
else:
def F():
print("Third")
F()
F()
says
First
Second
Second