[Python-ideas] proposed methods: list.replace / list.indices

[Steven D'Aprano]

On 31/12/12 03:58, MRAB wrote:
> On 2012-12-30 16:00, Ned Batchelder wrote:

>> I don't understand the conflict? .replace() from sequence does
>> precisely the same thing as .replace() from bytes if you limit the
>> arguments to single-byte values. It seems perfectly natural to me. I
>> must be missing something.
>>
> [snip]
> The difference is that for bytes and str it returns the result (they
> are immutable after all), but the suggested addition would mutate the
> list in-place. In order to be consistent it would have to return the
> result instead.

Are you seriously suggesting that because str has a replace method with
a specific API, no other type can have a replace method unless it has
the same API?

Why must list.replace and str.replace do exactly the same thing? Lists
and strings are not the same, and you cannot in general expect to
substitute lists with strings, or vice versa.

collections.abc.MutableSequence would seem to me to be the right place
for a mutator replace method.


-- 
Steven