How (At Symbol) @ Works In Python

Let's break it down loosy-goosy-style, no holds barred:

So, you slap an "@" in front of a function, like so:

Then you run it, and bam! It spits out ``. But hold up, you didn't see no `print()` in there? Don't sweat it, here's the lowdown:

It's just like:

Because of that "@" symbol, our little `print(hi)` party gets started – that's why our `hi()` function is getting cozy with the screen.

Now, let's talk shop – Decorator VS Decoratee:

Here, something's the big shot decorator function, and hello's the one getting dolled up – the decoratee function.

And how does it go down? Like this:

Our decorator something's like, "Hey there, hello, let me jazz you up a bit," and voila!

Now, a less pointless example:

Say you wanna spice up `hi(name)` without messin' with its insides. Time to play decorator!

Boom! We just gave `hi(name)` a makeover without touchin' its code.

See that extra exclamation? That's the work of our decorator – add_exclamation.

In summary, the "@" symbol is primarily used as a decorator syntax in function definitions, allowing functions to modify or extend the behavior of other functions or methods. When placed before a function definition, it indicates that the following function will be used as a decorator, which means it will wrap around or modify the behavior of the function immediately below it. Decorators are commonly employed for tasks such as logging, authorization, caching, and more, providing a concise and elegant way to enhance the functionality of functions without modifying their core code. Additionally, the "@" symbol is also used in matrix multiplication operations introduced in Python 3.5, where it serves as a concise and intuitive operator for performing matrix multiplications between two arrays or matrices using the `numpy` library.

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