Repeat function a couple times without for loop in python

Question

Is there a way to quickly repeat a function (and generate a tuple) in Python 2?

I'm hoping the syntax looks something like:

x, y = repeat(fxn, 2)

where fxn takes no arguments and 2 is the length of the output tuple.

Answer 1

You can use generator expressions:

x, y = (fxn() for _ in range(2))

Answer 2

Just one more way

import itertools
result = itertools.imap(lambda _:fxn(), range(0, 2)

Answer 3

Recursion approach

If you insist you really want a repeat function which repeatedly invokes a function at a given number of times and returns a tuple of all return values from all calls, you may probably write in a recursion:

x, y = repeat(fxn, 2) #repeat fxn 2 times, accumulate the return tuples

So

def repeat(f,n):
   ret, n = (f(),), n-1
   if n>0:
       ret = ret + (repeat(f,n))
   return ret

To test if it works

Given you define a test function:

def F():
    return 'foo'

Test the repeat

a = repeat(F,1) # a <-- 'foo'
a, b = repeat(F,2) # a = 'foo', b = 'foo'
a, b, c, d, e = repeat(F,5) # returns tuples of ('foo','foo','foo','foo','foo') correctly

Bingo!