"has" Operator

[Paul Sidorsky]

I was thinking that Python might benefit from a "has" operator that
would allow you to type something like this:

if myobject has someattribute:
    foo()
else:
    bar()

This would be roughly equivalent to:

try:
    uselessvar = myobject.someattribute
execpt AttributeError:
    bar()    # myobject does not have someattribute
else:
    foo()    # myobject has someattribute

...but (IMO) the operator version would be much nicer and more
readable.  (This idea came about when I actually tried to type in the
former!  Python's syntax is so clean that it seemed to be a natural
extension.)

The Inform interactive-fiction language provides "has" and "hasnt"
operators that do something similar so this is not without precendent. 
But for Python, it admittedly may be nothing more than syntactic sugar. 
What does everyone else think?

(Please forgive me if this has already been proposed/discussed before.)

-- 
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Paul Sidorsky                                          Calgary, Canada
paulsid at home.com                      http://members.home.net/paulsid/