[Python-Dev] Clean way in python to test for None, empty, scalar, and list/ndarray? A prayer to the gods of Python
Tres Seaver
tseaver at palladion.com
Sat Jun 15 23:45:33 CEST 2013
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On 06/15/2013 04:11 PM, Terry Reedy wrote:
> On 6/15/2013 8:53 AM, Tres Seaver wrote:
>
>> In fifteen years of Python programming, I have literally *never*
>> wanted to iterate over 'str' (or now 'bytes').
>
> If so, it is because you have always been able to use pre-written
> methods and functions that internally do the iteration for you.
Given that strings are implemented in C, there is no real "iteration"
happing (in the Python sense) in their methods. What stdlib code can you
point to that does iterate over them in Python? I.e.:
for c in stringval:
...
Even if there were, aren't you proving my point? The fact that strings
are implicitly iterable injects all kinds of fur into methods which take
either a single value or an iterable as an argument, e.g.:
def api_function(value_or_values):
if isinstance(value_or_values, STRING_TYPES):
value_or_values = [value_or_values]
elif isinstance(value_or_values, collections.abc.Iterable):
value_or_values = list(value_or_values)
else:
value_or_values = [value_or_values]
The bugs that leaving the first test out yields pop up all over the place.
>> I've always considered the fact
>>> that Python made them iterable by default (rather than e.g.
>>> defining a method / property to get to an iterable "view" on the
>>> underlying string)
>
> .__iter__ is that method.
But it is *on be default*: I was describing something which has to be
requested in ways that don't get triggered by syntax, and doesn't make
strings look "non-scalar" for APIs like the one above.
Tres.
- --
===================================================================
Tres Seaver +1 540-429-0999 tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software "Excellence by Design" http://palladion.com
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