[Python-Dev] sum(...) limitation (original) (raw)
Devin Jeanpierre jeanpierreda at gmail.com
Sat Aug 9 23:07:58 CEST 2014
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On Sat, Aug 9, 2014 at 12:20 PM, Alexander Belopolsky <alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, Aug 9, 2014 at 1:08 AM, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
We wouldn't be having these interminable arguments about using sum() to concatenate strings (and lists, and tuples) if the & operator was used for concatenation and + was only used for numeric addition. But we would probably have a similar discussion about all(). :-) Use of + is consistent with the use of * for repetition. What would you use use for repetition if you use & instead?
If the only goal is to not be tempted to use sum() for string concatenation, how about using *? This is more consistent with mathematics terminology, where a * b is not necessarily the same as b
- a (unlike +, which is commutative). As an example, consider matrix multiplication. Then, to answer your question, repetition would have been s ** n.
(In fact, this is the notation for concatenation and repetition used in formal language theory.)
(If we really super wanted to add this to Python, obviously we'd use the @ and @@ operators. But it's a bit late for that.)
-- Devin
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