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Re: Bytes indexing returns an int

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On 1/7/2014 6:13 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> Does anyone know what the rationale behind making byte-string indexing
> return an int rather than a byte-string of length one?
>
> That is, given b = b'xyz', b[1] returns 121 rather than b'y'.

This former is the normal behavior of sequences, the latter is peculiar 
to strings, because there is no separate character class. A byte is a 
count n, 0 <= n < 256 and bytes and bytearrays are sequences of bytes. 
It was ultimately Guido's decision after some discussion and debate on, 
I believe, the py3k list. I do not remember enough to be any more specific.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy

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Bytes indexing returns an int Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-01-07 22:13 +1100
  Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Ervin Hegedüs <airween@gmail.com> - 2014-01-07 12:53 +0100
    Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-01-07 23:04 +1100
  Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2014-01-07 09:29 -0500
  Re: Bytes indexing returns an int David Robinow <drobinow@gmail.com> - 2014-01-07 10:19 -0500
    Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-01-08 03:12 +1100
      Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Serhiy Storchaka <storchaka@gmail.com> - 2014-01-07 21:48 +0200
      Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Robin Becker <robin@reportlab.com> - 2014-01-08 11:05 +0000
        Re: Bytes indexing returns an int wxjmfauth@gmail.com - 2014-01-08 08:08 -0800
          Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> - 2014-01-08 12:19 -0500
            Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Piet van Oostrum <piet@vanoostrum.org> - 2014-01-09 18:05 +0100
              Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2014-01-09 09:28 -0800
              Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Serhiy Storchaka <storchaka@gmail.com> - 2014-01-09 21:36 +0200
          Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Michael Torrie <torriem@gmail.com> - 2014-01-08 10:25 -0700
  Re: Bytes indexing returns an int David Robinow <drobinow@gmail.com> - 2014-01-07 10:23 -0500
  Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2014-01-07 09:02 -0800
    Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-01-08 11:15 +1100
      Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-01-08 11:30 +1100
        Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2014-01-08 02:34 +0000
          Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-01-08 14:46 +1100
      Re: Bytes indexing returns an int Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2014-01-07 16:37 -0800

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