Manuel Graune wrote:
in (most) python documentation the syntax "list()"
and "[]" is treated as being more or less the same
thing.
Untrue. List() and [] happen to both evaluate to the same thing, an
empty list. But there is no reason to expect list(<sometext>) and
[<sometext>] to always evaluate to the same thing. The docs for list()
calls and [] displays and comprehensions are quite different.
In particular, they clearly say that [x] interprets x as an item and
creates a list with one item, x, while list(x) interprets x as an
iterable, and creates a list with multiple items, the items of x. So. in
particular, list([]) != [[]].
For example "help([])" and "help(list())" point
to the same documentation.
This has nothing to do with list(text) and [text]. [] evaluates to an
instance that has no doc string, so help backs up to its class. Compare
>>> help(1)
Help on int object:
...
The alternative to to print nothing, which would not be very helpful.
Try
>>> help()
...
help> topics
and you will see that there is a topic LISTLITERALS, though not one for
comprehensions or sets or even generators. The list of topics seems not
to have been kept up to date.
Terry Jan Reedy
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