why not "'in' in 'in'"?

[Grant Griffin]

In article <mailman.1023978378.11084.python-list at python.org>, "Mark says...
>
>I haven't followed this thread.  Someone else has probably already suggested
>this, but in case they haven't, it's fairly easy to define your own function
>that does what you want:
>
>def is_in(search, search_for):
>  """Return bool indicating whether search_for is in search."""
>  return search.find(search_for) >= 0
>
>subject = "i like spam, i do."
>x = "spam"
>y = "ham"
>
>print is_in(subject, x)
>print is_in(subject, y)
>

That's not a bad suggestion, Mark, but if I did that I guess I would be forever
wondering if I was testing whether the first one was in the second or the second
one was in the first.  Again, it doesn't read nearly as well as:

   if x in subject:
       ...

which leaves no doubt.

Ironically, that's already perfectly legal--so long as x has no more than one
character:

>>> subject = "i like spam, i do."
>>> x = "s"
>>> y = "h"
>>> if x in subject:
...    print "x is in subject and x has no more than one character"
...
x is in subject and x has no more than one character
>>> if y in subject:
...    print "same goes for y"
... else:
...    print "can't say the same for y"
...
can't say the same for y
>>>

reluctant-to-discard-my-hard-won-near-mastery-of-"find"-ly y'rs,

=g2

_________________________________________________________________________

Grant R. Griffin                                           g2 at dspguru.com
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