[Python-Dev] Stupid Python Tricks, Volume 38 Number 1

[Guido van Rossum]

> I had a huge string and wanted to put a double-quote on each end.  The
> boring:
> 
>     '"' + huge + '"'
> 
> does the job, but is inefficent <snort>.  Then this transparent variation
> sprang unbidden from my hoary brow:
> 
>     huge.join('""')

Points off for obscurity though!  My favorite for this is:

    '"%s"' % huge

Worth a microbenchmark?

> *That* should put to rest the argument over whether .join() is more properly
> a method of the separator or the sequence -- '""'.join(huge) instead would
> look plain silly <wink>.
> 
> not-entirely-sure-i'm-channeling-on-this-one-ly y'rs  - tim

Give up the channeling for a while -- there's too much interference in
the air from the Microsoft threaded stdio debate still. :-)

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)