On 2009-07-24 21:50, Dr. Phillip M. Feldman wrote:
Here's a simple-minded example:
def dumbfunc(xs):
for x in xs:
print x
This function works fine if xs is a list of floats, but not if it is single
float. It can be made to work as follows:
def dumbfunc(xs):
if isinstance(xs,(int,float,complex)): xs= [xs]
for x in xs:
print x
Having to put such extra logic into practically every function is one of the
annoying things about Python.
I have spent the last ten years writing scientific code in Python (i.e. that
which otherwise might be written in Matlab), and I can guarantee you that you do
not need to put such extra logic in practically every function. Even when
naively translating code from Matlab, it's not often necessary.
By the way, are you familiar with numpy? If you are converting code from Matlab,
you will almost certainly need it. We have a number of functions that make these
kinds of operations easy when they are in fact necessary. For example, we have
isscalar() and atleast_1d().
def dumbfunc(xs):
xs = numpy.atleast_1d(xs)
for x in xs:
print x
http://numpy.scipy.org/
--
Robert Kern
"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco
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