Weak Type Ability for Python

[avi.e.gross at gmail.com]

Yes, Dave, there are many data structures that can be used to maintain a
list of output types the class claims to support. Dictionaries have the
interesting property that you can presumably have a value that holds a
member function to access the way the key specifies.

Ideally, the order is not important for what I am looking for. Generally, I
would think that any class like the ones I have been discussing, would want
to broadcast a fairly short list of output types it would support.

Of course, if you look at my date example, the list could be quite big but
if you simply use something like strftime() for many of the formats, perhaps
you may not need to list all possible ones. Any valid format could be
accepted as an argument and passed to such a utility function. Your
dictionary might simply store some commonly used formats known to work.

But I repeat. This is not a serious request. I know how to build limited
functionality like this if I ever want it, but wonder if anyone has ever
created a proposal for some protocols and perhaps helpers like say an
embedded object that handles aspects of it once you have initialized your
dictionary and also handles requests to show part of what is stored for any
shoppers wondering if you are compatible with their needs.

-----Original Message-----
From: Python-list <python-list-bounces+avi.e.gross=gmail.com at python.org> On
Behalf Of 2QdxY4RzWzUUiLuE at potatochowder.com
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2023 10:27 PM
To: python-list at python.org
Subject: Re: RE: Weak Type Ability for Python

On 2023-04-13 at 22:14:25 -0400,
avi.e.gross at gmail.com wrote:

> I am looking at a data structure that is an object of some class and
> stores the data in any way that it feels like. But it may be a bit of
> a chameleon that shows one face or another as needed. I can write code
> now that simply adds various access methods to the class used and also
> provides a way to query if it supports some interfaces.

Python dicts act mostly like hash tables.  All by themselves, hash
tables are unordered (and in return for giving up that order, you get
O(1) access to an item if you know its key).

But when you ask a Python dict for the keys, you always get them in the
same order, skipping those that have been deleted since the last time
you asked, and appending the new keys to the end of the list in the
order in which you added them.

There's your chameleon.
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