Alexnb wrote:

"hello"[0]
'h'
"hello"[0] == "<"
False
"hello"[0] == "h"
True
"hello".startswith("h")
True

really? That's just like C. I thought that it would fail because of the way
lists work. Thanks!

what way?

the first three will fail if the string is empty.

    >>> ""[0]
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
    IndexError: string index out of range

if you may end up doing this on an empty string, use slicing instead:

    >>> "hello"[:1] == "<"
    False
    >>> ""[:1] == "<"
    False

(startswith is perhaps more convenient, but method calls are rather expensive in Python, so if you're in a hurry, it's often better to use operators. when in doubt, benchmark the alternatives.)

</F>

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