Thanks Danny! That was an awesome explanation.
On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 7:05 PM, Danny Yoo <d...@hashcollision.org> wrote: > >> if line.strip() >> >> Is that stripping the line of white space at the same time that it is >> testing it? >> >> > > Two features about Python: > > 1. Strings are immutable, so the above is computing what a > whitespace-stripped line would look like. So that means that > 'line.strip()' is doing just a computation: it's not mutating the original > line, but computing a new string that has its leading and trailing > whitespace stripped away. > > > 2. Empty strings are treated as false values. I'm not happy with how > loose Python treats truth, and would rather prefer: > > if line.strip() != "": ... > > so that the thing being tested is explicitly either True or False. I like > my truth to be black and white, but I suppose I'll have to grimace and bear > the fuzziness. :P > > > Together, we see those two features allow us to look at the test in the > Python code: > > if line.strip(): ... > > and rephrase it in English as: > > "If the line consists of at least one non-whitespace character: ..." > -- http://jarednielsen.com http://thehelloworldprogram.com http://dototot.com
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