[Python-ideas] getitem() (was Re: [Python-Dev] PEP 463: Exception-catching expressions)

[Chris Angelico]

On Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 4:14 PM, Eric Snow <ericsnowcurrently at gmail.com> wrote:
>   def getitem(seq, index, default=_NOT_SET):
>       try:
>           return seq[index]
>       except IndexError:
>           if default is _NOT_SET:
>               raise
>           return default
>
> Of course, one might expect getitem() to work for mappings too (or
> we'd have 2 distinct functions for mappings and sequences).  Having
> getitem() work for both would not be too hard.

Very easy. Just catch LookupError or (IndexError, KeyError) instead of
IndexError.

ChrisA