tuples are useless???

[James Stroud]

Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Sun, 08 Apr 2007 22:20:45 -0700, James Stroud wrote:
> 
> 
>>Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, 09 Apr 2007 02:26:37 +0000, James Stroud wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Bart Willems wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>James Stroud wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>... It boils down to the fact that tuples are useless as a result 
>>>>>>unless you know you really need them--and you never really NEED them.
>>>>>
>>>>>Could you clarify that for me? I use tuples *a lot* and I really *NEED* 
>>>>>them - I'm building a lot of multi-tier reports where detail-level data 
>>>>>is pulled out of a dictionary based on a composed key. It is impossible 
>>>>>to build those dictionaries *without* using tuples.
>>>>
>>>>"Impossible" is a strong word, as is "need" (especially when in all caps).
>>>>
>>>>py> import md5
>>>>py> class HashedList(list):
>>>>...   def __hash__(self):
>>>>...     h = md5.new()
>>>>...     for item in self:
>>>>...       h.update(str(hash(item)))
>>>>...     return int(h.hexdigest(), 16)
>>>>...
>>>>py> hl = HashedList('bob', 'carol', 'ted')
>>>>py> {hl:3}
>>>>{['bob', 'carol', 'ted']: 3}
>>>>
>>>>Impossible? I wouldn't even say that this was all that difficult.
>>>
>>>Possible, if by possible you mean "broken".
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>>D = {hl: 3}
>>>>>>D
>>>
>>>{['bob', 'carol', 'ted']: 3}
>>>
>>>>>>hl[0] = 'Bob'
>>>>>>D
>>>
>>>{['Bob', 'carol', 'ted']: 3}
>>>
>>>>>>D.keys()[0] is hl
>>>
>>>True
>>>
>>>>>>D[hl]
>>>
>>>Traceback (most recent call last):
>>>  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
>>>KeyError: ['Bob', 'carol', 'ted']
>>>
>>>
>>
>>   def __setitem__(self, *args):
>>     raise TypeError, '%s doesn't support item assignment.' % 
>>self.__class__.__name__
>>
>>
>>Problem fixed. Next?
> 
> 
> hl.reverse()
> hl.sort() # if the list isn't already sorted
> del hl[0]
> hl.append()
> etc.
> 
> 
> Yes, you can block those as well...

To prevent abuse.

but by the time you've finished making
> your HashedList immutable, it is just a slower tuple with a different
> name.

But has an index() method.

> In other words... you can avoid using tuples by using a tuple with a
> different name. You might as well just do this:
> 
> HashedList = tuple

You can avoid using tuples any number of ways. For example, you can 
catenate strings.

You seem to be under the misapprehension that I authored the Subjet 
line. Please read the original quote:

 > It boils down to the fact that tuples are useless as a result unless
 > you know you really need them--and you never really NEED them.

Bear in mind that this was also a response to someone admittedly less 
familiar to the language--to encourage him to use lists in favor of 
tuples to avoid inconveniences later.

The HashedList is to show that you can always get around the requirement 
for a tuple and thus an absolute need for a tuple doesn't exist, as 
implied by the quote. I make no assertions as to the HashedLists 
efficiency. I use tuples all of the time, but I could just as well 
catenate strings etc. They are a language convenience that are 
ultimately dispensible.

James