[Python-Dev] string.find() again (was Re: timsort for jython)

[Aahz]

On Mon, Aug 05, 2002, Guido van Rossum wrote:
>Aahz:
>>Guido:
>>>
>>> Um, you meant "is >= 0".  The find() method doesn't return a bool, it
>>> returns the first index where the string is found, and -1 if it is not
>>> found.
>> 
>> Which only goes to prove that the people who've been whining about that
>> characteristic of find() were right all along.  ;-)
> 
> So what would you like it to return?  True/False, with no possibility
> of finding where the substring starts?  That defeats a common use
> case.

Well, of course it can't be changed, but if Tim of all people made that
mistake, I think it's a good indicator that something's wrong.  I believe
the suggestion has been made to add an exists() method or something
similar; it's probably better to have that in the core under some
standard name instead of each person who needs it implementing the
one-liner under different names.
-- 
Aahz (aahz@pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

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