return in loop for ?

[Steve Holden]

Mike Meyer wrote:
> yomgui <not at valid.org> writes:
> 
>>Mike Meyer wrote:
>>
>>>yomgui <not at valid.org> writes:
>>>
>>>>is it legal to return inside a for loop
>>>>or am I obliged to break out of the loop before returning ?
>>>
>>>Try it and see:
>>
>>it is not because it does work on an implementation of python
>>that it will work on any other platform or in the futur.
> 
> 
> That's true no matter how you arrive at your answer.
> 
But, to answer the specific question, there's nothing in the language 
definition that suggests the programmer should refrain from using a 
return inside a loop, so for any implementation to impose such a 
restriction would be a violation of the language definition.

Yomgui: I am not a language lawyer, but I think you can feel safe 
returning from inside a loop. Just as a matter of interest, how else 
would you propose to implement the functionality Mike showed:

> >>>def f():
> 
> ...  for i in range(20):
> ...   if i > 10: return i
> ... 
> 

Python is supposed to cleanly express the programmer's intent. I can;t 
think of a cleaner way that Mike's - can you?

regards
  Steve
-- 
Steve Holden       +44 150 684 7255  +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC                     www.holdenweb.com
PyCon TX 2006                  www.python.org/pycon/