Python’s scoping rules are wonky, but the walrus is generally useful in two cases. The first one is to define a variable in an `if` and only run the contents of the `if` if the variable is truey — for example, re.search returns a Match object or None:
if (m := re.search("regex is(n't)? fun")):
print("there was a match")
# do something with m
The other would be defining a variable in the `if` clause of a list comprehension and using it in the output (which is not necessary in languages where map/filter is a first-class citizen, because you could just map before you filter):
[y for x in xs if (y := f(x)) == 5]
I can’t think of a way to define a variable in either of those cases without using the walrus and without significantly extending the code (you can define the `m` object and then do `if m:` on two lines, or you can nest two list comprehensions).