On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 02:02:02 -0800, bonono wrote: >> >>>> "test".index("a") >> > Traceback (most recent call last): >> > File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in -toplevel- >> > "test".index("a") >> > ValueError: substring not found >> >>>> "test".find("a") >> > -1 >> >> >> Did you have a point? >> > It was about your side-effect talk, if you failed to see it, that is > fine. > > BTW, it seems that the term side-effect of function used is a bit > different from my understanding of how it is in general used in this > field.
What side effect? Returning magic values (e.g. -1 to indicate "not found") is not a side-effect in any terminology I've come across. A side-effect would be if s.index(substr) not only returned the index as promised, but also (say) appended substr to a list somewhere. Side-effects aren't always bad (import, for example, does all its work by side-effect). But they are generally frowned upon, and in functional languages they are verboten. -- Steven. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list