[Python-ideas] "While" suggestion

[Chris Rebert]

The alternate idiom I've seen for "do-while"-like loops such as this
in Python is (using the original example):

while True:
    data = my_file.read(1024)
    if not data: break
    do_something(data)

which seems perfectly acceptable and in keeping with TOOWTDI by
minimizing the number of loop constructs in the language.
It obviously avoids the distasteful duplication of "data = my_file.read(1024)".

- Chris

On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 7:58 AM, Thomas Lee <tom at vector-seven.com> wrote:
> Stavros Korokithakis wrote:
>>
>> I don't think they do, if I'm not mistaken the only way is to call read()
>> and see if it returns the empty string. I agree that this would be better,
>> but the use case I mentioned is not the only one this would be useful in...
>> Unfortunately I can't think of any right now,
>
> :)
>>
>> but there have been a few times when I had to initialise things outside
>> the loop and it always strikes me as ugly.
>>
> Well that depends, on the situation really. The only use case I can think of
> is exactly the one you mentioned. And since you can't think of any other
> scenarios where such a thing might be handy, I've got no better suggestion
> to offer.
>
> If you can conjure up another scenario, post it back here and we'll see if
> we can generalize the pattern a little.
>
> In the meantime, I'd love a way to check if a file is at its end without
> having to read data out of it ...
>
> Cheers,
> T
>
> P.S. you might be interested in using something like the following to hide
> the ugliness in a function:
>
> def reader(stream, size):
>  data = stream.read(size)
>  while data:
>   yield data
>   data = stream.read(size)
>
> Then you could use it as follows:
>
> for block in reader(my_file, 1024):
>  do_something(block)
>>
>> Thomas Lee wrote:
>>>
>>> It's not currently possible to determine if a file/stream is at its end,
>>> is it?
>>>
>>> If that were the case you could easily do the read before your
>>> do_something call. Something like:
>>>
>>> while not my_file.eof:
>>>  data = my_file.read(1024)
>>>  do_something(data)
>>>
>>> Can anyone explain why file objects don't support some sort of eof check?
>>> Something gives me the impression that it was an intentional decision.
>>>
>>> IMO something like this would be better than more syntax.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> T
>>>
>>> Stavros Korokithakis wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hello all,
>>>> I have noticed that sometimes "while" loops produce "unpythonic"
>>>> patterns, such as the following:
>>>>
>>>> data = my_file.read(1024)
>>>> while data:
>>>>    do_something(data)
>>>>    data = my_file.read(1024)
>>>>
>>>> The assignment is repeated, which is less than optimal. Since we don't
>>>> have a while statement that does the check in the end, would it not be
>>>> better if the syntax of while could be amended to  include something like
>>>> this (in the spirit of the new "with" keyword)?:
>>>>
>>>> while my_file.read(1024) as data:
>>>>   do_something(data)
>>>>
>>>> This would terminate the loop when myfile.read() evaluated to False, and
>>>> it is more pythonic than repeating onesself.
>>>>
>>>> I contacted GvR about this, and he replied that this syntax would have
>>>> to be part of the expression than part of the while, which I agree would be
>>>> less than ideal. However, I don't see why it would have to be part of the
>>>> expression, since the "while" could easily assign the value of the
>>>> expression to the variable and break if it evaluates to False.
>>>>
>>>> I would appreciate any thoughts on this,
>>>> Stavros Korokithakis
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Python-ideas mailing list
>>>> Python-ideas at python.org
>>>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas
>>>>
>>>
>
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