indexed looping, functional replacement?

[Alex Martelli]

Bengt Richter wrote:
   ...
>>In Python 2.2, you can try various inferior alternatives, e.g.:
>>
>>for f, i in zip(fn, range(len(fn))):
>>    f(str(i))
>>
> 
> Is there something I'm missing, or did the cat distract you ;-)
> 
>  >>> for f, s in zip(fl, sl):
>  ...     f(s)
>  ...
>  f1: bbb
>  f2: sdf
>  f3: sdw
> 
> (fl and sl being alternate names for fn and str as used)

Did the OP use str to mean something different than Python's normal builtin 
str?  If so, then it took a very moderate amount of distraction (which my 
cat does freely supply most of the time) to make me believe that str meant 
what it most always means -- a constructor for plain strings.

Good occasion then to reiterate the usual advice to people who use the names 
of Python's types (or other builtins, I guess, but for some reason it 
always seems to be types) for different purposes: don't.  By naming your 
variables &c with such names as int, float, str, file, list, dict, tuple, 
..., you're just causing confusion -- and if you don't fall prey to that 
confusion yourselves, you may still trip up others who are trying to help 
(or otherwise to read your code).


Alex