[Python-ideas] for/else statements considered harmful

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Yuval Greenfield writes:
 > On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 1:50 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen at xemacs.org>wrote:
 > 
 > >    def search_in_iterable(key, iter):
 > >        for item in iter:
 > >            if item == key:
 > >                return some_function_of(item)
 > >        else:
 > >            return not_found_default
 > >
 > >
 > You don't need the "else" there. An equivalent:

*You* don't need it.  *I* like it, because it expresses the fact that
returning a default is a necessary complement to the for loop.

While this is something of a TOOWTDI violation, there are cases where
else is needed to express the semantics, as well (eg, if the first
return statement is replaced by "process(item); break").