Underscore _ as variable name in Python

Peter Norvig has an essay describing a program to solve sudoku puzzles, even the hardest ones, by combining deterministic logical operations and smart traversal of the possible solutions. The latter is done recursively; here’s that function (source):

def search(values):
    "Using depth-first search and propagation, try all possible values."
    if values is False:
        return False ## Failed earlier
    if all( len( values[s]) == 1 for s in squares): 
        return values ## Solved!
    ## Chose the unfilled square s with the fewest possibilities
    _,s = min( (len( values[s]), s) 
                for s in squares 
                if len(values[s]) > 1
            )
    return some( search( assign( values.copy(), s, d)) 
                for d in values[s]
            )

(I’ve added some spaces, CRs, and tabs for the sake of my eyes; apologies to Dr. Norvig.)

Right below the comment there’s a line starting with “_,s“. That seems to be the unpacked tuple (len(values[s]),s) with the minimal value of s. Is Dr. Norvig using “_” as a variable name just to indicate it’s a “don’t care” result, or is something else going on? Are there times when “_” is recommended as a variable name? In interactive mode, “_” holds the answer of the previous operation; is there a similar function in non-interactive code?

Update

Thanks for the good answers. I guess The Answer goes to Alex Martelli for “value added”; he points out that the “_, vbl_of_interest” idiom is often a side effect of the DSU idiom, which itself has been made largely unnecessary.

Answers:

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Method 1

Yep, _ is a traditional name for “don’t care” (which unfortunately clashes with its use in I18N, but that’s a separate issue;-). BTW, in today’s Python, instead of:

_,s = min( (len( values[s]), s) 
            for s in squares 
            if len(values[s]) > 1
        )

you might code

s = min((s for s in squares if len(values[s])>1), 
        key=lambda s: len(values[s]))

(not sure what release of Python Peter was writing for, but the idiom he’s using is an example of “decorate-sort-undecorate” [[DSU]] except with min instead of sort, and in today’s Python the key= optional parameter is generally the best way to do DSU;-).

Method 2

Your interpretation is correct. Outside of the special meaning in interactive mode _ is just used as a “don’t care” variable name, especially in unpacking.

Method 3

You are correct. In non-interactive mode _ has no special meaning. Indeed, Norvig just wants to convey that he doesn’t care about the value of that variable.

_{Offtopic: That article by Norvig is very nice. A recommended read.}

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