[Python-ideas] Idea for new multi-line triple quote literal

[Daniel Robinson]

Textwrap.indent already exists, but was added in Python 3.3. Maybe you're
using an earlier interpreter but looking at the Python 3.3 docs?

On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 1:56 AM, Ron Adam <ron3200 at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On 06/30/2013 08:57 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 6:47 PM, Nick Coghlan<ncoghlan at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>>> >On 1 July 2013 11:09, Steven D'Aprano<steve at pearwood.info>  wrote:
>>>
>>>> >>but in either case, I think the choice of --- as delimiter is ugly and
>>>> >>arbitrary, and very likely is ambiguous (currently, x = ---1 is legal
>>>> code).
>>>> >>Similar suggestions to this have been made many times before, you
>>>> should
>>>> >>search the archives:
>>>> >>
>>>> >>http://mail.python.org/**mailman/listinfo/python-ideas<http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas>
>>>>
>>> >
>>> >I'm still partial to the idea of offering textwrap.indent() and
>>> >textwrap.dedent() as string methods.
>>> >
>>> >1. You could add a ".dedent()" at the end of a triple quoted string
>>> >for this kind of problem. For a lot of code, the runtime cost isn't an
>>> >issue.
>>> >2. A JIT would definitely be able to avoid recalculating the result
>>> every time
>>> >3. Even CPython may eventually gain constant folding for that kind of
>>> >method applied directly to a string literal
>>> >4. I dedent and indent long strings more often than I capitalize,
>>> >center, tab expand, or perform various other operations which already
>>> >grace the str type as methods.
>>>
>> That's a compelling argument. Let's do it. (Assuming the definition of
>> exactly how to indent or dedent is not up for discussion -- if there
>> are good reasons to disagree with textwrap now's the time to bring it
>> up.)
>>
>
> It would be an improvement to have them as methods, but I'd actually like
> to have Str.indent(n) method that takes a value for the leading white space.
>
> The value to this method would always be a positive number, and any common
> leading white space would be replaced by the new indent amount.
>
> S.indent(0) would be the same as S.dedent().
>
> s = """\
> A multi-line string
> with 4 leading spaces.
> """.indent(4)
>
>
>      s = """\
>          A multi-line string
>          with 4 leading spaces.
>          """.indent(4)
>
>
>      if cond:
>          s = """\
>              Another multi-line string
>              with 4 leading spaces.
>              """.indent(4)
>
>
>
> The reason I prefer this is ...
>
> It's more relevant to what I'm going to use the string for and is not just
> compensating for the block indention level, which has nothing to do with
> how I'm going to use the string.
>
> It explicitly specifies the amount of leading white space I want in the
> resulting string object.  If I want a different indent level, I can just
> change the value.  Or call the indent method again with the new value.
>
> I don't need to know what the current leading white space is on the
> string, just what I want for my output.
>
>
>
> Strangely, the online docs for textwrap include an indent function that
> works a bit different, but it is no longer present in textwrap. Looks like
> an over site to me.
>
> Cheers,
>     Ron
>
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