exists

Zeta Utils Documentation

Introduction

Zeta Utils is a simple utility library that provides utilitarian functions that can be used in a variety of general programming scenarios. The utility's functions center around various common tasks such as checking if a variable is not None. This document provides a deep and thorough understanding of the methods of the zeta.utils library with ample examples of usage.

exists Function

The exists function belongs to the zeta.utils library. This function performs a simple but often recurring check in programming to determine whether the passed value is not None. In Python, None represents the absence of value and often used as a default value for arguments in the function. Let's see how to use it.

Function Definition

def exists(val: any) -> bool:
    """
    Check if the value is not None.

    Args:
        val: Any type. The value to check.

    Returns:
        bool: True if value exists (is not None), False otherwise.
    """
    return val is not None

Parameters

The exists function takes one argument.

Argument	Datatype	Description
val	any	The value that you want to check if it exists (is not None).

Returns

Return Type	Description
bool	Returns True if the val is not None, else it returns False.

Functionality

The exists function checks if a value is None. If the value is not None it returns True indicating that the value exists. In many instances in code, there is a need to check whether a variable or argument that was passed exists or not. Instead of writing the explicit condition to check this, the exists function can be used.

Examples

Example 1

For this basic example, we are creating a variable x and setting it to None. We are then checking the value of x using the exists function. Since x is None, exists will return False.

from zeta.utils import exists

x = None
print(exists(x))  # Output: False

Example 2

In this example, we are setting x to an integer. When we pass x to exists, it will return True since x is not None.

from zeta.utils import exists

x = 5
print(exists(x))  # Output: True

Example 3

Here, we are setting x to an empty string. Even though the string is empty, it is still not None. Therefore, exists will return True.

from zeta.utils import exists

x = ""
print(exists(x))  # Output: True

The exists function is simple, but it can be instrumental in making code cleaner and more readable.

Other Notes

Always remember that the exists function simply checks if the provided value is not None. It doesn’t check if the value is semantically ‘empty’ like "" or [] or {} or 0 etc.

Consider the above examples and note how to use each function effectively in your code. It is always beneficial to grasp a deeper understanding of these utility functions to ensure error-free and efficient coding.