strings and sort()

[Sean 'Shaleh' Perry]

On 21-Feb-2002 Paul Rubin wrote:
> "Sean 'Shaleh' Perry" <shalehperry at attbi.com> writes:
>> > Why doesn't sort() return the sorted list.  I would like to chain it
>> > to other operations:
>> >         b=[x for x in a].sort()
>> > 
>> efficiency.  Why return the sequence when we usually just need to sort the
>> list.  Sort is also a meothod of an object, why should it return a new
>> object
>> instead of just affecting the one it belongs to?
> 
> I don't understand this reply.  The sort method would be no less efficient
> if it returned the sequence:
> 
>   def nsort(a):
>      a.sort()
>      return a
> 

of course it would.  returning has a cost.  Most uses of sort() just need to
in place update the list.  If there was actually a copy made as some people
expect that would be even more costly.

When programming in a language, you learn the idioms of that language.