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Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"?

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On 12/15/11 12:19, Ethan Furman wrote:
> Tim Chase wrote:
>> On 12/15/11 10:48, Roy Smith wrote:
>>> I've got a list, ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'].  I want to generate the string,
>>> "a, b, c, and d" (I'll settle for no comma after 'c').  Is there some
>>> standard way to do this, handling all the special cases?
>>
>> If you have a list, it's pretty easy as MRAB suggests.  For arbitrary
>> iterators, it's a bit more complex.  Especially with the odd edge-case
>> of 2 items where there's no comma before the conjunction (where>2 has
>> the comma before the conjunction).  If you were willing to forgo the
>> Oxford comma, it would tidy up the code a bit.
>
> Why go through all that instead of just converting the iterator into a
> list at the beginning of MRAB's solution and then running with it?

For the fun/challenge?  Because you have a REALLY big data source 
that you don't want to keep in memory (in addition the resulting 
string)?

Yeah, for most non-pathological cases, it would make more sense 
to just make it a list and then deal with the 4 cases (no 
elements, one element, 2 elements, and >2 elements) individually.

-tkc

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Thread

How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2011-12-15 08:48 -0800
  Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2011-12-15 17:27 +0000
  Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2011-12-15 12:01 -0600
  Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2011-12-15 10:19 -0800
  Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2011-12-15 12:51 -0600
    Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2011-12-15 11:01 -0800
    Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2011-12-15 11:01 -0800
  Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2011-12-15 19:27 +0000
  Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-12-15 14:22 -0700
  Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-12-15 19:57 -0500
  Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-12-16 13:42 +1100
  Re: How to generate "a, b, c, and d"? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-12-16 00:26 -0500

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