Is it really that much longer to write `f"{s1} {s2}"` when you want that?
Maybe a couple characters more total, but once you are in an f-string, you
can also do a zillion other things at the same time.
On Sun, Mar 5, 2023 at 10:42 PM Rob Cliffe via Python-ideas <
python-ideas@python.org> wrote:
> Tl;dr: Join strings together with exactly one space between non-blank
> text where they join.
>
> I propose a meaning for
> s1 & s2
> where s1 and s2 are strings.
> Namely, that it should be equivalent to
> s1.rstrip() + (' ' if (s1.strip() and s2.strip()) else '') +
> s2.lstrip()
> Informally, this will join the two strings together with exactly one space
> between the last non-blank text in s1 and the first non-blank text in s2.
> Example: " bar " & " foo " == " bar
> foo "
>
> This operator is associative, so there is no ambiguity in expressions
> such as
> s1 & s2 & s3
> There *is* a possible ambiguity in expressions such as
> s1 & s2 + s3
> where the relative precedence of `&` and `+` matters when s2 consists
> solely of white space. E.g.
> " A " & " " + " C" would evaluate
> to " A C"
> not to " A C"
> because `+` has a higher precedence than '&'.
>
> Utility:
> In decades of experience with another language which had such an
> operator
> (spelt differently) I have frequently found it useful for constructing
> human-readable output (e.g. log output, debug/error messages,
> on-screen labels).
>
> Cognitive burden:
> This would of course be one more thing to learn.
> But I suggest that it is fairly intuitive that
> s1 + s2
> s1 & s2
> both suggest that two strings are being combined in some way.
>
> Bars to overcome:
> This change would require no fundamental change to Python;
> just adding an `__and__ function to the str class.
>
> Backward compatibility:
> Given that `str1 & str2` currently raises TypeError,
> this change would be close to 100% backward-compatible.
>
> Alternative meanings:
> As far as I know nobody has ever suggested an alternative meaning
> for `&` on strings.
>
> Bikeshedding:
> (1) I don't think it is important for the utility of this change
> whether `&` strips off all whitespace, or just spaces.
> I think it is better if it strips off all whitespace,
> so that it can be understood as working similarly to strip().
> (2) The definition could be simplified to
> s1.rstrip() + ' ' + s2.lstrip()
> (leave an initial/final space when one string is whitespace only).
> Again the operator would be associative.
> Again I don't think this is important.
>
> Rob Cliffe
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