Why doesn't join() call str() on its arguments?

[Fredrik Lundh]

"news.sydney.pipenetworks.com" wrote:

>> Nick "Explicit is better than Implicit"
>
> Really ? Then why are you using python. Python or most dynamic languages are are so great because 
> of their common sense towards the "implicit". You must have heard of "never say never" but "never 
> say always" (as in "always better") is more appropriate here. There are many cases of python's 
> implicitness.

a certain "princess bride" quote would fit here, I think.

> What about
>
> a = "string"
> b = 2
> c = "%s%s" % (a, b)
>
> There is an implicit str(b) here.

nope.   it's explicit: %s means "convert using str()".

from the documentation:

          %s     String (converts any python object using str()).


> ''.join(["string", 2]) to me is no different then the example above.

so where's the "%s" in your second example?

</F>