[Python-ideas] [Python-Dev] Inclusive Range (original) (raw)

Alexander Belopolsky alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com
Tue Oct 5 16:33:14 CEST 2010

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 9:16 AM, Michael Foord <fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk> wrote:

... Perhaps I should have been clearer; it is only the behaviour of range(x, y) that I've found people-new-to-python confused by.

Teach them about range(x, y, z) and once you cover negative z they will stop complaining about range(x, y). :-)

At least you don't have to deal with range vs. xrange in 3.x anymore. IMO, range([start,] stop[, step]) is one of the worst interfaces in python. Is there any other function with an optional first argument? Why range(date(2010, 1, 1), date(2010, 2, 1), timedelta(1)) cannot be used to produce days in January? Why range(2300) succeeds, but len(range(2300)) raises OverflowError?

No, I don't think much can be done about it. Py3k has already done everything that was practical about improving range(..).

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