[Python-ideas] dir with a glob?

[Peter Otten]

Ben Finney wrote:

> Sturla Molden <sturla at molden.no> writes:
> 
>> dir(object, "foo*")
> 
> I ask again: what would you expect (give an example) the output of this
> to be?

If I were to guess:

>>> import __builtin__, fnmatch         
>>> def dir(obj, glob=None):            
...     names = __builtin__.dir(obj)
...     if glob is not None:
...             names = fnmatch.filter(names, glob)
...     return names                               
...                                                

Example usage: what was the name of the function to remove a directory and 
all empty parents again?

>>> import os
>>> dir(os)

[snip list with more than 200 names]

>>> dir(os, "r*d*")
['read', 'readlink', 'removedirs', 'rmdir']

Ah, I think I remember it now...

>> What I am asking is if the need to filter the output from dir is so
>> common that it could warrant a change to Python?

At the moment I'm writing list comprehensions in cases like the above, but 
I'd welcome the addition of a glob or regex argument to dir().
 
> Given that we already have ways to filter a sequence built into the
> language, I doubt the need for a special way to filter the output from
> some particular function.