{"id":71328,"date":"2019-10-17T17:34:41","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T12:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/data-flair.training\/blogs\/?p=71328"},"modified":"2026-04-25T12:20:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:50:29","slug":"whats-new-in-python","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/data-flair.training\/blogs\/whats-new-in-python\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s new in Python 3.8? – Unveiling the Latest Features of Python"},"content":{"rendered":"

Python has officially released its latest version Python 3.8 on 14th October 2019. This release has rolled out some great new features for all the Python programmers.<\/p>\n

Python 3.8 is faster than ever with some major improvements in its performance.<\/p>\n

In this Python 3.8 tutorial, let\u2019s see what has been changed from its previous version 3.7.<\/p>\n

Python 3.8 Features<\/h3>\n

\"whats<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, we will quickly dive into the latest features of Python 3.8:<\/p>\n

1. PEP 572 (Assignment Expressions) – The walrus operator (:=) in Python<\/h4>\n

You will get to see a new type of operator which is being known as the walrus operator (:=).<\/p>\n

This allows you to assign variables inside an expression. The major benefit of this is to save you some lines of code and you can write even cleaner and compact code in Python.<\/p>\n

Example of Walrus Operator in Python<\/strong><\/p>\n

num = [1,2,3,4,5]\r\nif( (size:=len(num)) < 10 ):\r\n  print(f\u201dLength of list is small, size={size}\u201d)<\/pre>\n
Example 2<\/strong><\/p>\n
This can be useful while writing loops, something like this.<\/p>\n
Item = getItem()\r\nwhile Item:\r\n  do_something(item)\r\n  Item = getItem()<\/pre>\n
Can be written as:<\/p>\n
while Item:= getItem():\r\n  do_something(Item)<\/pre>\n
Example 3<\/strong><\/p>\n
Simplifying list comprehensions when filtering a value<\/p>\n
[y for x in data if (y := f(x)) is not None]<\/pre>\n
2. PEP 570 (Positional only arguments) in Python<\/h4>\n
There is a new function parameter syntax (\/) to highlight that some of the functions must be stated positionally and not by keyword arguments.<\/p>\n
We also have an operator (*) that indicates that the arguments must be keyword only.<\/p>\n
This can be a little confusing but after seeing the code this gets easier to understand, so let\u2019s see them in action.<\/p>\n
def func(a, b, c, d):\r\n  print(a,b,c,d)\r\n<\/pre>\n
We can call this function however we want with keyword arguments or positions.<\/p>\n
func(d=2, a=3, b=2, c=6) #Valid - prints 3 2 6 2\r\nfunc(1,3,4,5) #Valid - prints 1 2 4 5\r\n<\/pre>\n
Now consider the following definition:<\/p>\n
def func( a,b,\/,c,d,*,e,f ):\r\n  print(a,b,c,d,e,f )<\/pre>\n
This will impose the way we can call this function:<\/p>\n