[Python-Dev] non-integer slice indices?

[Skip Montanaro]

    Greg> Currently, a person can do the following:

    Greg>     foo[slice('a','abc')] = some_sequence

Well, I'll be damned!  To wit:

    import types, string, UserDict

    class SliceableDict(UserDict.UserDict):
	def __setitem__(self, index, val):
	    if type(index) == types.SliceType:
		# val must be a sequence. if it's too short, the last
		# value is replicated.  if it's too long, the extra values
		# are ignored.
		# keys between index.start and index.stop are assigned elements
		# of val - index.step is ignored
		start = index.start
		stop = index.stop
		keys = self.data.keys()
		keys.sort()
		j = 0
		vl = len(val)
		for k in keys:
		    if index.start <= k < index.stop:
			self.data[k] = val[j]
			j = min(j+1, vl-1)
	    else:
		self.data[index] = val

	def init_range(self, keys, val=None):
	    for k in keys:
		self.data[k] = val

    d = SliceableDict()
    d.init_range(string.lowercase[0:13], 7)
    d[slice('a', 'g')] = [12]
    print d.data

Now, about that motivation...

Skip Montanaro | http://www.mojam.com/
skip@mojam.com | http://www.musi-cal.com/
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