"Steven Bethard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<snip>
>
> Yeah, given those constraints, you basically have two options -- check
> for list/tuple (as you have above) or check for str/unicode (as I do
> below). I personally prefer the latter because it seems much more
> likely that users will define alternate collection classes than that
> users will define alternate string classes. My code would look like:
>
> def abc(arg1, arg2, arg3):
> if not isinstance(arg2, basestring):
> for item in arg2:
> abc(arg1, item, arg3)
> else:
> # do whatever with arg2 (guaranteed to be a string)
>
> That way if you later call your code with, say:
>
> abc(1, set(["String 1", "String 2"]), 5)
>
> or
>
> abc(1, collections.deque(["String 1", "String 2"]), 5)
>
> it still works.
>
Of course. For now, it's okay because I haven't learn about set and other
types yet. I am still thinking in very elementary terms.
I need to look up and see what:
if not isinstance(arg2, basestring):
does.
>
> Steve
>
>
> P.S. My real preference here would be to change the order of your
> arguments and write the function as:
>
> def abc(arg1, arg3, *arg2s)
> for arg2 in arg2s:
> # do whatever with arg2 (should be a string)
>
> and then write your function calls as:
>
> abc(1, 5, "String 1")
> abc(1, 5, "String 1", "String 2")
>
> Then you don't ever have to remember []s. ;-) But if you really are
> stuck with arg2 as the second argument, I'd probably go for testing
> isinstance(x, basestring).
>
No, that was just an example. I actually have additional arguments that
are similar to arg2. It's not like I can do:
def abc(arg1, arg3, *arg2s, *arg3s, *arg4s)
:-)
> Steve
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