sum(strings)

[Raymond Hettinger]

"Steve McAllister" <nosp at m.needed> wrote in message
news:bcsjii$3vf$1 at alto.univ-mlv.fr...
> Why does sum reject strings?

Because there is just one right way to do it:

    "".join([str1, str2, str3, ...])

Summing involves use of the repeated adds which
is terribly inefficient for strings.  But, if you must:

    reduce(str.__add__, [str1, str2, str3, ...], '')

Besides, it's very nice to be able to specify the join
character or blank.

> Is it a matter of efficiency of the
> underlying implementation?

Nope, it's is just a bad idea.


Raymond Hettinger