Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements

From	Ranting Rick <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Subject	Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements
Date	2012-07-15 21:53 -0700
Organization	http://groups.google.com
Message-ID	<f527e30b-99f1-47e4-9b12-40e3c49f9b8b@o7g2000yqe.googlegroups.com> (permalink)
References	(6 earlier) <mailman.2154.1342389192.4697.python-list@python.org> <86872ad2-fda0-403b-9f18-d1cb18e41860@t32g2000yqd.googlegroups.com> <CAPTjJmov--b_s5e=OYsWWV8w6byj5a+28NNu-vRWGV8mr8w5cg@mail.gmail.com> <mailman.2159.1342404957.4697.python-list@python.org> <50039290$0$29978$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com>

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On Jul 15, 11:03 pm, Steven D'Aprano <steve
+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 22:15:13 -0400, Devin Jeanpierre wrote:

> It boggles my mind that people who are perfectly happy to program to an
> interface or protocol when it comes to (say) iterables, numbers or even
> big complex classes with dozens of methods, suddenly freak out at the
> thought that you can say "if obj" and obj is duck-typed.

"if obj" is in essence doing "if bool(obj)" behind the scenes. My
question is: Why hide such valuable information from the reader? It's
obvious that "if bool(obj)" will return a boolean; whereas "if obj" is
ambiguous.

> There's a distinct lack of concrete, actual problems from duck-typing
> bools, and a heavy over-abundance of strongly-held opinion that such a
> thing is self-evidently wrong.

If the multitudes of misunderstandings from "if obj" on this list have
not convinced you yet, then i lack the energy to educate you!

> > As far as I know, the only use of having a polymorphic boolean
> > conversion is reducing the amount of typing we do.
>
> The same could be said about *every* polymorphic function.

For which "bool" IS!

Wikipedia to the rescue:
"""In computer science, polymorphism is a programming language feature
that allows values of different data types to be handled using a
uniform interface. The concept of parametric polymorphism applies to
both data types and functions. A function that can evaluate to or be
applied to values of different types is known as a polymorphic
function."""

bool("a") -> True
bool(0) -> False
bool([1,2,3]) -> True
bool(True) -> True

> The benefit is not just because you don't wear out your keyboard as fast.
> The benefit is the same for all other polymorphic code: it lets you write
> better code faster with fewer bugs and less need for unnecessary type
> restrictions.

There are NO type restrictions for bool.

> If there are a few corner cases where you actually *need* to restrict the
> type of your flags to a actual bool, well, Python gives you the tools to
> do so.

Yes, the bool()

Thread

Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8825@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 03:34 -0500
  Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-15 10:56 +0000
    Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 10:19 -0600
      Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 09:50 -0700
        Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 12:01 -0600
          Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 11:56 -0700
            Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 07:53 +1000
              Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ranting Rick <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 18:21 -0700
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 11:51 +1000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ranting Rick <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 19:31 -0700
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2012-07-16 17:57 +0000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2012-07-17 00:44 -0400
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Devin Jeanpierre <jeanpierreda@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 22:15 -0400
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ranting Rick <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 19:58 -0700
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-16 04:03 +0000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ranting Rick <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 21:53 -0700
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 15:57 +1000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements alex23 <wuwei23@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 00:21 -0700
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Devin Jeanpierre <jeanpierreda@gmail.com> - 2012-07-17 00:18 -0400
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-17 06:25 +0000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Devin Jeanpierre <jeanpierreda@gmail.com> - 2012-07-17 05:38 -0400
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-16 02:58 +0000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 13:05 +1000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ranting Rick <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 20:21 -0700
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-16 04:20 +0000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ranting Rick <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 22:03 -0700
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 16:00 +1000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements alex23 <wuwei23@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 00:27 -0700
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-16 07:52 +0000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Laszlo Nagy <gandalf@shopzeus.com> - 2012-07-16 23:26 +0200
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Laszlo Nagy <gandalf@shopzeus.com> - 2012-07-16 23:17 +0200
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-07-16 07:30 +0100
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2012-07-16 18:03 +0000
          Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 11:56 -0700
        Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Serhiy Storchaka <storchaka@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 16:01 +0300
        Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 18:45 -0700
      Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 09:50 -0700
      Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-16 02:13 +0000
        Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ranting Rick <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 19:41 -0700
          Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 12:58 +1000
          Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-16 08:05 +0000
        Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2012-07-16 11:13 -0700
          Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-17 06:14 +0000
    Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8825@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 12:02 -0500
      Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-16 02:38 +0000
        Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2012-07-16 13:28 -0400
          Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-17 01:12 +0000
            Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-17 01:13 +0000
        Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8825@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 15:33 -0500
        Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2012-07-16 13:54 -0700
          Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-17 00:43 +0000
            Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8825@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 20:57 -0500
              Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-17 04:39 +0000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8825@gmail.com> - 2012-07-17 00:19 -0500
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-17 07:08 +0000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8825@gmail.com> - 2012-07-17 03:23 -0500
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements alex23 <wuwei23@gmail.com> - 2012-07-17 18:35 -0700
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-17 18:32 +1000
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Laszlo Nagy <gandalf@shopzeus.com> - 2012-07-17 14:43 +0200
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Laszlo Nagy <gandalf@shopzeus.com> - 2012-07-17 14:59 +0200
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2012-07-17 13:57 -0400
                Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2012-07-17 05:35 -0700
            Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-17 12:13 +1000
    Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8825@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 12:16 -0500
    Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 11:45 -0600
    Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2012-07-15 16:09 -0400
    Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2012-07-15 16:28 -0400
    Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8825@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 20:22 -0500
      Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-17 04:11 +0000
        Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Ranting Rick <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 21:18 -0700
          Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-17 14:24 +1000
        Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8825@gmail.com> - 2012-07-16 23:44 -0500
    Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-17 04:47 +0000
  Re: Implicit conversion to boolean in if and while statements John Nagle <nagle@animats.com> - 2012-07-17 00:26 -0700

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