Reverse a String?

Robert Kern robert.kern at gmail.com
Sat Sep 23 18:06:26 EDT 2006


Gregory Piñero wrote:
> On 9/23/06, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Not in that form, no, since this already exists:
>>
>>    text[::-1]
> 
> Wow, that's really cool!  Here are my questions:
> 
> 1. How long has this thing been going on? I didn't know slice even
> took an extra argument like that.

Slicing took that "step" argument since 1.4. However, only Numeric  arrays used 
it up until 2.3 where it was added to the builtin types.

> 2. Where can I get the lowdown on everything there is to know about
> slice?  Since I've obviously been living in ignorance all these years!

   http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.5/whatsnew/section-slices.html

Generally the "What's New" documents are very good for catching up. I've found 
that they're also a very good, high-density method of refreshing one's memory 
about useful little tidbits. Sadly, they're not all collected in one place for 
that purpose. But you can fake it a bit by replacing <version> in the following 
URL with each of 2.2.3, 2.3.5, 2.4.3, 2.5:

   http://www.python.org/doc/<version>/whatsnew/

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco




More information about the Python-list mailing list