Bugs item #1517509, was opened at 2006-07-05 08:09
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by rhettinger
You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=105470&aid=1517509&group_id=5470

Please note that this message will contain a full copy of the comment thread,
including the initial issue submission, for this request,
not just the latest update.
Category: Python Interpreter Core
Group: Python 2.5
>Status: Closed
>Resolution: Wont Fix
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Collin Winter (collinwinter)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: filter() implementation does not match docs

Initial Comment:
The docs for the built-in function filter() claim that
"filter(function, list) is equivalent to [item for item
in list if function(item)] if function is not None and
[item for item in list if item] if function is None".

>>> class infinite_str(str):
...     def __getitem__(self, index):
...         return "a"
...
>>> filter(None, infinite_str("1234"))
'aaaa'


Now, if we translate this to a listcomp according to
the docs:

>>> [x for x in infinite_str("1234") if x]

The listcomp version proceeds to chew up memory until
it exhausts the system resources or is killed by the user.

If the docs are to be believed, the filter() version
should do the same thing. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

>Comment By: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger)
Date: 2006-07-05 09:58

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=80475

Please take a larger view when reviewing the docs. 
The listcomp analogy is very helpful in explaining what 
filter() does and readers would not benefit by its removal.

Throughtout the docs, the phrase "is equivalent to" does 
not mean "is identical to" or "exactly the same as".   In 
this case, you have isolated a non-guaranteed 
implementation detail that is almost always irrelevant.  
When an object such as infinite_str lies about its length, 
the consequent behavior is undefined.  It is not hard to 
produce weird results when objects violate basic 
invariants such as len(istr)!=len(list(istr)) or the 
expected relation between __eq__ and __hash__.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=105470&aid=1517509&group_id=5470
_______________________________________________
Python-bugs-list mailing list 
Unsubscribe: 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com

Reply via email to