Could we add the ability of str.index and str.find to accept a tuple as the first argument and return the index of the first item found in it. This is similar to how str.startswith and str.endswith already works. | startswith(...) | S.startswith(prefix[, start[, end]]) -> bool | | Return True if S starts with the specified prefix, False otherwise. | With optional start, test S beginning at that position. | With optional end, stop comparing S at that position. | prefix can also be a tuple of strings to try. This would speed up cases of filtering and searching when more than one item is being searched for. It would also simplify building iterators that filter and yield multiple items in order. A general google code search seems to show it's a generally useful thing to do. http://www.google.com/codesearch?hl=en&lr=&q=%22findfirst%22+string&btnG=Search (searching for python specific code doesn't show much because python doesn't have a findfirst function of any type.) Cheers, Ron