.p.eval errors on expressions containing assignments or function definitions

[clovetea]

.p.eval errors on expressions containing assignments or function definitions

[jhanna-kx]

To do this I think you'll need to use .p.e. not .p.eval`

.p.eval and p.e (used when prefixing code with p)) run the PyRun_String C API function internally, the difference is that .p.e run's it with Py_file_input allowing multiple expressions with side effects but not returning any value and .p.eval uses Py_eval_input which returns a value but is not allowed to have side effects.

.p.e is analogous to python's exec
.p.eval/pyeval are analogous to python eval

>>> eval('x=2')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<string>", line 1
    x=2
     ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> y=exec('z=10')
>>> print(y,z)
None 10

There's a longer explanation at the link below here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2220699/whats-the-difference-between-eval-exec-and-compile-in-python

[clovetea]

Great explanation, thank you. It would be helpful if the difference between .p.e and .p.eval was mentioned in the readme.

[jhanna-kx]

Thanks, we'll add a note to the README for this