How to find an item/items in a list?

[Alex Martelli]

<posted & mailed>

Bjorn Pettersen wrote:
   ...

>  def after(lst, item):
>    try:
>      # throws ValueError when not found,
>      # TypeError if lst is a string and item is not
>      index = lst.index(item)
>      # throws IndexError when out-of-range

*blink* -- can you please give an example...???

>      return lst[index+1:]

I thought slicing was notably soft in this regards.  E.g.:

>>> lst = list('ciao')
>>> lst[lst.index('o')+1:]
[]
>>>

What IndexError?  What am I missing?

>    except ValueError, IndexError:
>      # let TypeErrors through (too surprising).
>      return []

I _think_ you only need worry about ValueError (accepting
your reasonable decision to propagate TypeError).


Alex