[Python-Dev] string.find() again (was Re: timsort for jython)

[Gordon McMillan]

On 5 Aug 2002 at 15:27, Tim Peters wrote:

> >> and I expect *everyone* here has been saved more
> >> than once by that
> >>
> >>     '' in 'xyz'
> >> currently raises an exception.

Not that I can recall.

The exception, however, is a TypeError saying the left
operand isn't a character. It's not a
TrueButYourProbablyMakingAMistakeException <wink>.
 
> I'd like to see a plausible use case for
> 
>     '' in str
> 
> returning True, then.  

Any code that currently does 
 str.find(x) >= 0

I tend to use:

 pos = str.find(x)
 if pos > -1:

because I'm normally interested in where.
If it's a pure membership test, I tend not
to use a string but a tuple:

 if c in ('a', 'b', 'c'):

This is, at least partially, because "character"
is not an official Python type so I always expect
 str1 in str2 
to work when it only sometimes does.

-- Gordon
http://www.mcmillan-inc.com/