C.L. wrote: > I was looking for a function or method that would return the index to the > first > matching element in a list. Coming from a C++ STL background, I thought it > might > be called "find". My first stop was the Sequence Types page of the Library > Reference (http://docs.python.org/lib/typesseq.html); it wasn't there. A > search > of the Library Reference's index seemed to confirm that the function did not > exist. A little later I realized it might be called "index" instead. Voila. > > My point is that the docs list and describe it as a method that only exists > for > MUTABLE sequences. Why only for mutables? The class of objects I would expect > it > to cover would be all ordered sequences, or, to phrase it a little more > pointedly, anything that supports ordered INDEXing. My understanding is that > dict's don't fall into that class of objects since their ordering is not > documented or to be depended on. However, tuple's do support ordered indexing, > so why don't tuple's have an index method? > > P.S.: I know I haven't yet gotten an answer to my "why" question yet, but, > assuming it's just an oversight or an example of design without the big > picture > in mind, an added benefit to fixing that oversight would be that the "index" > method's documentation could be moved from the currently odd seeming location > on > the "Mutable Sequence Types" page to a place someone would look for it > logically. > > P.P.S.: As much as the elementary nature of my question would make it seem, > this > isn't my first day using Python. I've used it on and off for several years > and I > LOVE Python. It is only because of my love for the language that I question > its > ways, so please don't be overly defensive when I guess that the cause for this > possible oversight is a lack of design. > > Corey Lubin > >
The amount of typing wasted to defend design decisions such as this can boggle one's mind. Just use lists unless you have on overwhelming reason to do otherwise. James -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
