del and sets proposal

[Carl Banks]

On Oct 2, 8:02 pm, Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch <bj_... at gmx.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:39:55 -0700, Chris Rebert wrote:
> > On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 3:20 PM, Larry Bates <larry.ba... at vitalesafe.com>
> > wrote:
> >> a = set([1,2,3,4,5])
> >> del a[1]
>
> > Sets don't support subscripting, so if you can't go 'a_set[something]',
> > why would you expect to be able to be able to 'del' such an expression?
> > What would the subscription even mean without the 'del'? It doesn't make
> > sense and would just be inconsistent.
>
> Then add subscription access too.  By aliasing `__getitem__()` to
> `__contains__()`.  And `__setitem__()` could be implemented to add or
> remove objects by assigning truth values.  So hypothetically:
>
> >>> a = set([1, 2, 3])
> >>> a[1]
> True
> >>> a[4]
> False
> >>> a[2] = False
> >>> a
> set([1, 3])
> >>> a[4] = True
> >>> a
> set([1, 3, 4])
> >>> del a[1]
> >>> a
>
> set([3, 4])
>
> I wouldn't want that addition to `set`\s but at least it can be
> implemented without introducing inconsistencies.


If set behaved that way then "del a[1]" wouldn't behave like del
anymore.  Normally, "del whatever" means that you can no longer use
"whatever"; in this proposal you can.


Carl Banks