n dimensional array creator in Python

Question

Is there any way I can make this function more inline?

def nDimensionalArray(n, s):
 x = 0
 for i in range(n):
 x = [x for j in range(s[i])]
 return x

• holroy: Cross-posted from Stack Overflow

Answer 1

You didn't write a docstring (which you should have done) or explain your function (which you should also have done), but it looks like n is supposed to be the same as the length of s. If so, why should n have to be specified?

Your function has some unintuitive behaviour:

>>> matrix = nDimensionalArray(3, [1,2,3])
>>> matrix
[[[0], [0]], [[0], [0]], [[0], [0]]]
>>> matrix[0][0][0] = 1
>>> matrix
[[[1], [1]], [[1], [1]], [[1], [1]]]

Changing one element changes everything! I assume that that is unintentional. If it is intentional, then it needs to be clearly documented.