[Python-Dev] bool(container) [was bool(iter([])) changedbetween 2.3 and 2.4]

[Fredrik Lundh]

Guido van Rossum wrote:

> "Containerish" behavior isn't enough to warrant empty <--> false; in
> some sense every object is a container (at least every object with a
> __dict__ attribute) and you sure don't want to map __len__ to
> self.__dict__.__len__...

the ElementTree experience shows that doing

    def __getitem__(self, index):
        return self.items[index]
    def __len__(self):
        return len(self.items)
    def __nonzero__(self):
        return True

is sometimes a good idea, even for objects that are mostly sequences.

(ET 1.2.X lacks the __nonzero__ method, and accidentally treating
elements with no subelements as if the element itself doesn't exist is by
far the most common gotcha in ET code).

</F>