On Sun, 22 Oct 2006 15:56:16 -0700, Simon Forman wrote:
> Dustan wrote:
>> Can I make enumerate(myObject) act differently?
>>
>> class A(object):
>> def __getitem__(self, item):
>> if item > 0:
>> return self.sequence[item-1]
>> elif item < 0:
>> return self.sequence[item]
>> elif item == 0:
>> raise IndexError, "Index 0 is not valid."
>> else:
>> raise IndexError, "Invalid Index."
>> def __iter__(self): return iter(self.sequence)
>
> That final else clause is a little funny... What kind of indices are
> you expecting that will be neither less than zero, greater than zero,
> or equal to zero?
Possible a NaN value? Maybe a class instance with strange comparison
methods?
Personally, I don't like the error message. "Invalid index" doesn't really
tell the caller what went wrong and why it is an invalid index. If I were
programming that defensively, I'd write:
if item > 0:
return self.sequence[item-1]
elif item < 0:
return self.sequence[item]
elif item == 0:
raise IndexError, "Index 0 is not valid."
else:
print repr(item)
raise ThisCanNeverHappenError("Congratulations! You've discovered "
"a bug that can't possibly occur. Contact the program author for "
"your reward.")
I know some programmers hate "Can't happen" tests and error messages, but
if you are going to test for events that can't possibly happen, at least
deal with the impossible explicitly!
--
Steven.
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
