[Python-Dev] Dafanging the find() gotcha

[Tim Peters]

[Andrew Koenig]
> On the other hand, I have a practical fear: There are lots of
> different ways of asking whether a string s contains a substring s1.
> If those ways behave in diverse manners when s1 is empty, I am going
> to have to remember which way to obtain which behavior.  I would
> really like to avoid having to do that.

I don't count that as "a practical fear" unless you actually search for
empty strings, and I don't believe that you do (or at least not on
purpose -- you can change my mind in a hurry by posting your Python code
that does do so, though!).  If searching for empty strings isn't something
you do, then all methods of asking about substrings yield the same outcome.

This isn't, e,g., SNOBOL4, where matching againt a pattern variable that
somtimes contains a null pattern can be useful for its control-flow side
effects.  These are "just strings" in Python, and searching is just
searching.