[Tutor] a quick Q: what does the "collapse" mean?

[lina]

On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 9:59 PM, Alan Gauld <alan.gauld at btinternet.com> wrote:
> On 08/09/11 14:02, lina wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I failed to understand the "collpase" meaning in a string.
>>
>> can someone give me a simple example?
>
> Can you give us some context?
> Its not a method of a string object so far as I can tell?
> Where did you read about it?

>From "dive into python",

http://diveintopython.org/

one example:

def info(object, spacing=10, collapse=1):
    """Print methods and docs strings.

    Take modules, class, list, dictionary, or strong."""
    methodList = [e for e in dir(object) if callable(getattr(object, e))]
    processFunc = collapse and (lambda s: " ".join(s.split())) or (lambda s: s)
    print "\n".join(["%s %s" %
                    (method.ljust(spacing),
                    processFunc(str(getattr(object, method).__doc__)))
                    for method in methodList])

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print info.__doc__

I felt so hard to understand the collapse,

Please don't discourage me telling me it's an old book,
To me I started reading till 42 pages. let me finish it.

I used to study python on and off,
sometimes give a whole week, but due to not using it,
so
it's frustrating that when I really needed it, I barely could complete one.

>
> --
> Alan G
> Author of the Learn to Program web site
> http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
>
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-- 
Best Regards,

lina