PEP 824: Expand 'How to Teach This' to a mini-tutorial (#5179)

Original by me; updates by ChatGPT and myself working together; reviewed by me and @cdce8p.

Author: gvanrossum

peps/pep-0824.rst

@@ -307,20 +307,92 @@ There are no new security implications from this proposal.
 How to Teach This
 =================
 
-In a practical sense it might be helpful to think of the "``None``-coalescing"
-operator ``??`` as a special case for the conditional ``or``
-operator, with the caveat that ``??`` checks for ``is not None`` instead
-of truthiness. As such it makes sense to include ``??`` when teaching
-the other conditional operators ``and`` and ``or``.
-
-The "``None``-coalescing assignment" operator ``??=`` can be best
-thought of as a conditional assignment operator. As it is closely
-related to ``??``, explaining these together would make sense.
-Though it looks related to binary assignment operators like ``+=``
-as well, it is worth pointing out the distinction between these.
-Since ``??=`` is a **conditional** assignment operator, the right-hand
-side will be skipped entirely in some case, while ``+=`` always
-evaluates both sides.
+Prerequisites
+-------------
+
+Students should already know how the short-circuit operators ``and`` and
+``or`` work, and what counts as truthy and falsy values.
+
+Basics
+------
+
+The ``??`` operator is a short-circuit operator like ``and`` and ``or``
+that only checks whether its left argument is ``None``. The others check
+for truthiness or falsiness, and treat values like ``0``, ``""`` and ``[]``
+as falsy.
+
+``a ?? b`` is equivalent to ``a if a is not None else b``, except that
+``a`` is only evaluated once. Similarly, ``a or b`` is equivalent to
+``a if a else b``, with ``a`` evaluated only once.
+
+For example, ``d.get(key) ?? make_default()`` calls ``make_default()``
+only when the key is missing or its value is ``None``. By contrast,
+``d.get(key, make_default())`` always evaluates ``make_default()``, and
+still returns ``None`` when the key is present with a ``None`` value.
+
+The ``??=`` operator is the conditional assignment operator derived from
+``??``. ``a ??= b`` has the same effect as ``a = a ?? b``, except that
+there is no assignment when ``a`` is not ``None``. Like augmented
+assignment, it evaluates the target only once. For example, in
+``a[index()] ??= b``, ``index()`` is called only once. The right-hand
+side is evaluated only when the target's value is ``None``.
+
+Chaining
+--------
+
+An expression like ``a ?? b ?? c ?? d`` evaluates its subexpressions
+(``a``, ``b``, etc.) from left to right until it finds a value that is
+not ``None`` or reaches the end. If all values are ``None``, the result
+is ``None``.
+
+Like ``or``, ``??`` is associative: ``(a ?? b) ?? c`` has the same
+meaning as ``a ?? (b ?? c)``.
+
+Operator precedence
+-------------------
+
+The ``??`` operator has a lower precedence than ``or`` and ``and``.
+Thus, ``a or b ?? c`` means ``(a or b) ?? c``, and ``a ?? b and c``
+means ``a ?? (b and c)``. To get the opposite grouping, use
+``a or (b ?? c)`` or ``(a ?? b) and c``.
+
+This precedence is a convention. For clarity, we recommend always adding
+parentheses when mixing ``??`` with ``and`` or ``or``.
+
+When to use
+-----------
+
+This is useful when you find yourself writing expressions like
+``a if a is not None else b`` a lot. It can also replace
+``a if a else b`` and ``a or b`` when a ``None`` check is intended:
+use ``a ?? b`` for either.
+
+The ``??=`` operator is handy for providing defaults for arguments.
+For example:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    def add_default_user(users: list[User] | None = None) -> list[User]:
+        if users is None:
+            users = []
+        users.append(create_default_user())
+        return users
+
+This can be compacted to:
+
+.. code-block:: py824
+
+    def add_default_user(users: list[User] | None = None) -> list[User]:
+        users ??= []
+        users.append(create_default_user())
+        return users
+
+When not to use
+---------------
+
+Do not use these operators when you also want to check for other falsy
+values. For example, ``name ?? "unknown"`` preserves an empty string,
+whereas ``name or "unknown"`` replaces ``""`` with ``"unknown"``.
 
 Reading expressions out loud
 ----------------------------
@@ -612,6 +684,12 @@ Footnotes
    (https://perldoc.perl.org/perlop#Assignment-Operators)
 
 
+Change History
+==============
+
+* 20-Oct-2026: Turned `How to Teach This`_ into a mini-tutorial.
+
+
 Copyright
 =========