> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.sourcery.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Inline Immediately Returned Variables

#### Sourcery refactoring id: `inline-immediately-returned-variable`

#### Description

Inlines a variable to a `return` in the case when the variable being declared is
immediately returned

#### Before

```python
def state_attributes(self):
    """Return the state attributes."""
    state_attr = {
        ATTR_CODE_FORMAT: self.code_format,
        ATTR_CHANGED_BY: self.changed_by,
    }
    return state_attr
```

#### After

```python
def state_attributes(self):
    """Return the state attributes."""
    return {
        ATTR_CODE_FORMAT: self.code_format,
        ATTR_CHANGED_BY: self.changed_by,
    }
```

#### Explanation

Something that we often see in people's code is assigning to a result variable
and then immediately returning it.

Returning the result directly shortens the code and removes an unnecessary
variable, reducing the mental load of reading the function.

Where intermediate variables can be useful is if they then get used as a
parameter or a condition, and the name can act like a comment on what the
variable represents. In the case where you're returning it from a function, the
function name is there to tell you what the result is - in the example above
it's the state attributes, and the `state_attr` name wasn't providing any extra
information.

One point to note is that if the variable has a type annotation, we will not
suggest inlining it, since this would lose that information, possibly leading to
type checking errors.

#### Related refactorings

- [inline-immediately-yielded-variable](/reference/refactorings/python/inline-immediately-yielded-variable/)