Is there a better algorithm?

[Gabriel Genellina]

En Sat, 03 Jan 2009 02:55:12 -0200, Kottiyath <n.kottiyath at gmail.com>  
escribió:

>> tuples = [(1, 2), (3, 4, 5), (6, 7)]
>
> It is a code to post some data to HTML server.
> Even though usually the POST values are of type(name, value), if file
> transfer is involved, then POST values change to (name, filename,
> value).
> My view was that since filename is a rare occurance and doesnt make
> sense in a usual POST, I had not kept it as a full 3 tuple.
> Since so many programmers (that too much more capable than me) are
> suggesting that it is code smell, I am reviewing my decision.

What about using another data structure instead - like this:

class entry:
   filename = None

   def __init__(self, name, value, filename=None):
     self.name = name
     self.value = value
     if filename is not None:
       self.filename = filename

[entry('name', 'Gabriel'), entry('age', 18), entry('pic', picture_data,  
'path/to/file')]

-- 
Gabriel Genellina