NameError: name 'self' is not defined

nameerror, python

Solution

Default argument values are evaluated at function define-time, but `self` is an argument only available at function call time. Thus arguments in the argument list cannot refer each other.

It's a common pattern to default an argument to `None` and add a test for that in code:

def p(self, b=None):
    if b is None:
        b = self.a
    print b

Update 2022: Python developers are now considering late-bound argument defaults for future Python versions.

Problem

Why such structure ``` class A: def __init__(self, a): self.a = a def p(self, b=self.a): print b ``` gives an error `NameError: name 'self' is not defined`?

Original source

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