[Python-ideas] Make all builtin functions accept None for optional arguments

[Ram Rachum]

Here is something that always annoys me.

I was going to write my own rreplace function, like this: 

def rreplace(s, old, new, count=None):
    return new.join(s.rsplit(old, count))


But lo and behold, I have to write it like this: 

def rreplace(s, old, new, count=None):
    return new.join(s.rsplit(old, count) if count is not None
                    else s.rsplit(old))


Why? Because the `str.rsplit` can't handle a count of `None`. That is quite 
annoying.

There are many more builtin functions except `str.rsplit` that behave like 
this. 

What do you think about going over all such functions and making them able 
to accept `None`?


Thanks,
Ram.

     

    

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