[Python-Dev] string.find() again (was Re: timsort for jython)

[Tim Peters]

[Gordon McMillan]
> Turns out that's not true. When I want set membership,
> I first write "char in ('a', 'b', 'c')", then
> sometimes change it because "char in 'abc'" is more
> efficient.

"char in dict_acting_as_a_set" is faster still, if you're really keen to
speed it.

> So whether '' in 'abc' will work or not is a red
> herring.

For your particular use, possibly.  If "char" is computed and may become
empty by mistake, then it's not a red herring (it's the difference between
getting True and getting an exception).

> The real issue is that membership gets conflated with subsetting.

For strings, yes, if you change it to "the membership meaning goes away
entirely in general, and a substring meaning replaces it".  If "char" is
computed and may become longer than one character by mistake, then in your
use something that used to raise an exception would instead return True or
False, depending on the data values.