Ben Finney wrote:
Sturla Molden <sturla@molden.no> writes:
dir(object, "foo*")
I ask again: what would you expect (give an example) the output of this to be?
That specific example should return an empty list, since object has no attributes that match the glob foo*
What I am asking is if the need to filter the output from dir is so common that it could warrant a change to Python?
Given that we already have ways to filter a sequence built into the language, I doubt the need for a special way to filter the output from some particular function.
There is precedence though. Many string methods have special way to limit their output to some subset of results, rather than relying on a generic, built-in way to do the same thing: mystr.find("spam", 23, 42) vs mystr[23:42].find("spam") dir itself already duplicates functionality available elsewhere:
dir() == sorted(globals()) True
dir with an argument is a little trickier, but it's not far off a one-liner: dir(d) == sorted( set(sum((o.__dict__.keys() for o in ((d,)+type(d).__mro__)), [])) ) (at least for new-style objects with no __slots__). dir is a convenience function, designed for interactive use. The docs make it explicit: [quote] Because dir() is supplied primarily as a convenience for use at an interactive prompt, it tries to supply an interesting set of names more than it tries to supply a rigorously or consistently defined set of names... http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html#dir Given that, I see no downside to making dir more convenient for interactive use. That's what it's for. -- Steven