Re: Simple exercise

From	Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Subject	Re: Simple exercise
Date	2016-03-14 09:16 -0600
Message-ID	<mailman.102.1457968662.12893.python-list@python.org> (permalink)
References	(2 earlier) <mailman.163.1457659326.15725.python-list@python.org> <nbt7qr$4fa$1@dont-email.me> <mailman.167.1457661831.15725.python-list@python.org> <88c5b5fa-66a0-461a-8ae4-b3264b32f679@googlegroups.com> <CAHVvXxTAy=Ey7-+eLWwyjZXwwOn0_ay-i5-=trTRBQpKE19zZw@mail.gmail.com>

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On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 9:06 AM, Oscar Benjamin
<oscar.j.benjamin@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 14 March 2016 at 14:35, Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I would strongly warn anyone against using the zip function
>> unless
> ...
>> I meant to say: absolutely, one hundred percent *SURE*, that
>> both sequences are of the same length, or, absolutely one
>> hundred percent *SURE*, that dropping values is not going to
>> matter. For that reason, i avoid the zip function like the
>> plague. I would much rather get an index error, than let an
>> error pass silently.
>
> I also think it's unfortunate that zip silently discards items. Almost
> always when I use zip I would prefer to see an error when the two
> iterables are not of the same length.

It's sometimes very useful, though. For example on multiple occasions
I've taken advantage of the fact that enumerate(x) is equivalent to
zip(itertools.count(), x). If zip raised an error then that would only
be possible using islice, and then only if the length is known in
advance.

Also, in order for zip to know that the lengths are not equal, it
would have to try to read one additional item from the longer
iterable. That's rather unfortunate if it's an iterator and you're
hoping to catch the exception and then use the rest of the iterator
for something else.

Thread

Simple exercise Rodrick Brown <rodrick.brown@gmail.com> - 2016-03-10 04:02 -0500
  Re: Simple exercise Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2016-03-10 11:30 +0100
    Re: Simple exercise Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2016-03-10 12:07 +0100
    Re: Simple exercise Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2016-03-10 17:05 +0100
      Re: Simple exercise Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2016-03-10 17:08 +0100
  Re: Simple exercise Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2016-03-11 12:24 +1300
    Re: Simple exercise Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2016-03-11 10:38 +1100
  Re: Simple exercise BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2016-03-11 00:05 +0000
    Re: Simple exercise Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2016-03-11 01:21 +0000
      Re: Simple exercise BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2016-03-11 01:45 +0000
        Re: Simple exercise Larry Martell <larry.martell@gmail.com> - 2016-03-10 20:53 -0500
        Re: Simple exercise "Martin A. Brown" <martin@linux-ip.net> - 2016-03-10 17:56 -0800
        Re: Simple exercise Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2016-03-11 02:03 +0000
          Re: Simple exercise BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2016-03-11 02:18 +0000
          Re: Simple exercise Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2016-03-14 07:35 -0700
            Re: Simple exercise Oscar Benjamin <oscar.j.benjamin@gmail.com> - 2016-03-14 15:06 +0000
              Re: Simple exercise Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2016-03-14 09:00 -0700
              Re: Simple exercise Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2016-03-15 10:59 +1100
                Re: Simple exercise Jussi Piitulainen <jussi.piitulainen@helsinki.fi> - 2016-03-15 07:26 +0200
                Re: Simple exercise Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2016-03-15 19:39 +1100
                Re: Simple exercise Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2016-03-15 19:53 +1100
                Re: Simple exercise Jussi Piitulainen <jussi.piitulainen@helsinki.fi> - 2016-03-15 11:04 +0200
                Re: Simple exercise Oscar Benjamin <oscar.j.benjamin@gmail.com> - 2016-03-15 11:09 +0000
            Re: Simple exercise Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2016-03-14 09:16 -0600
              Re: Simple exercise Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2016-03-14 09:11 -0700
            Re: Simple exercise Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2016-03-14 15:23 +0000
            Re: Simple exercise Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2016-03-14 17:00 +0100
        Re: Simple exercise Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2016-03-11 02:05 +0000
      Re: Simple exercise Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2016-03-14 07:07 -0700
        Re: Simple exercise Larry Martell <larry.martell@gmail.com> - 2016-03-14 10:13 -0400
        Re: Simple exercise alister <alister.ware@ntlworld.com> - 2016-03-14 14:18 +0000
          Re: Simple exercise Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2016-03-14 08:22 -0700
            Re: Simple exercise MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2016-03-14 15:57 +0000
    Re: Simple exercise Chris Kaynor <ckaynor@zindagigames.com> - 2016-03-10 18:14 -0800
  Re: Simple exercise boffi <boffi@casa.sua> - 2016-03-17 22:28 +0100

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