[Python-Dev] sum(...) limitation (original) (raw)

Raymond Hettinger raymond.hettinger at gmail.com
Sat Aug 9 02:34:34 CEST 2014

On Aug 8, 2014, at 11:09 AM, Ethan Furman <ethan at stoneleaf.us> wrote:

So why not apply a similar optimization to sum() for strings? That I cannot answer -- I find the current situation with sum highly irritating.

It is only irritating if you are misusing sum().

The str.add optimization was put in because it was common for people to accidentally incur the performance penalty.

With sum(), we don't seem to have that problem (I don't see people using it to add lists except just to show that could be done).

Raymond