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Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable?

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Cameron Simpson wrote:

> About the only time I do this is my personal "the()" convenience
> function:
> 
>   def the(list, context=None):
>     ''' Returns the first element of an iterable, but requires there to be
>         exactly one.
>     '''
>     icontext="expected exactly one value"
>     if context is not None:
>       icontext=icontext+" for "+context
> 
>     first=True
>     for elem in list:
>       if first:
>         it=elem
>         first=False
>       else:
>         raise IndexError, "%s: got more than one element (%s, %s, ...)" \
>                           % (icontext, it, elem)
> 
>     if first:
>       raise IndexError, "%s: got no elements" % icontext
>       
>     return it
> 
> Which I use as a definite article in places where an iterable should
> yield exactly one result (eg SQL SELECTs that ought to get exactly
> one hit). I can see I wrote that a long time ago - it could do with some
> style fixes. And a code scan shows it sees little use:-)

A lightweight alternative to that is unpacking:

>>> [x] = ""
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: need more than 0 values to unpack
>>> [x] = "a"
>>> [x] = "ab"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: too many values to unpack

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Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Laurent <laurent.payot@gmail.com> - 2011-09-07 14:35 -0700
  Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Cameron Simpson <cs@zip.com.au> - 2011-09-08 08:48 +1000
    Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Laurent <laurent.payot@gmail.com> - 2011-09-07 16:22 -0700
    Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Laurent <laurent.payot@gmail.com> - 2011-09-07 16:22 -0700
      Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Cameron Simpson <cs@zip.com.au> - 2011-09-08 10:23 +1000
        Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Laurent <laurent.payot@gmail.com> - 2011-09-07 17:53 -0700
        Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Laurent <laurent.payot@gmail.com> - 2011-09-07 17:53 -0700
        Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Chris Torek <nospam@torek.net> - 2011-09-08 14:21 +0000
          Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Cameron Simpson <cs@zip.com.au> - 2011-09-09 08:39 +1000
      Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2011-09-07 19:01 -0500
        Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Laurent <laurent.payot@gmail.com> - 2011-09-07 18:08 -0700
        Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Laurent <laurent.payot@gmail.com> - 2011-09-07 18:08 -0700
      Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-09-07 21:06 -0400
    Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2011-09-09 13:04 +0200
      Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-09-09 21:30 +1000
  Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-09-08 10:24 +1000
    Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-09-07 21:08 -0400
    Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Laurent <laurent.payot@gmail.com> - 2011-09-07 18:05 -0700
  Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Miki Tebeka <miki.tebeka@gmail.com> - 2011-09-07 17:24 -0700
    Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Laurent <laurent.payot@gmail.com> - 2011-09-07 18:06 -0700
    Re: Best way to check that you are at the beginning (the end) of an iterable? Chris Rebert <clp2@rebertia.com> - 2011-09-07 19:27 -0700

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