[Python-ideas] Adding an optional function argument to all() and any() builtins

[Steven D'Aprano]

Raymond Hettinger wrote:
> On Nov 21, 2010, at 5:57 PM, Bruce Frederiksen wrote:
> 
>> There have been several times when I wished that any/all acted like or/and because I needed the offending value for further use...
> 
> This is such a trivial function.
> Why not just roll your own and dump it in your personal utils?

In fairness, the same could be said about any() and all() in the first 
place. The advantages are that the built-ins are significantly faster 
than the pure-Python version (a factor of 3 times faster on my machine 
using Python 3.1), and they're available everywhere you go, without 
re-writing the functions or importing them.

I'm (mildly) with Bruce on this one, but I think we missed the boat. 
Perhaps in Python4000 any() and all() should return the relevant object 
rather than True/False.


-- 
Steven