[Python-Dev] Re: PEP 292 - Simpler String Substitutions

[Raymond Hettinger]

> This code-snippet is littered everwhere in my applications:
> 
>     string.join([str(x) for x in iterable])
> 
> Its tedious and makes code hard to read.  Do we need a PEP to fix
this?

A PEP would be overkill.

Still, it would be helpful to do PEP-like things such as reference
implementation, soliticing comments, keep an issue list, etc.

A minor issue is that the implementation automatically shifts to Unicode
upon encountering a Unicode string.  So you would need to test for this
before coercing to a string.

Also, join works in multiple passes.  The proposal should be specific
about where stringizing occurs.  IIRC, you need the object length on the
first pass, but the error handling and switchover to Unicode occur on
the second.



Raymond