Charles Yeomans wrote:
On Jan 31, 2012, at 9:51 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:57:31 -0500, Charles Yeomans wrote:
I don't think of a tuple as a container, and I don't think it a
misunderstanding on my part to think this.
>>
Well, it is a misunderstanding, because tuples ARE containers. You
>> might as well say "I don't think of boxes as containers". What
>> exactly are they if not containers?
Tuple is a heterogenous datatype that allows one to define objects
> ad hoc.
And any object can be seen as a container for its component pieces --
some are just more general than others.
Compare:
location = (13, 4, 9) # line, word, char
time = (10, 15, 41) # hour, minute, second
result = ('this', 'that', 'huh') # result a, result b, result c
with:
record1 = Record('Ethan', 41, Male)
record2 = Record('Charles', 37, Male)
record3 = Record('Steven', 43, Male)
record4 = Record('Jennifer', 39, Female)
In this example, Records have a set layout and so it is more common to
think of a Record as a thing; location, time, and result, however, are
all random tuples created on the fly with no absolute restrictions on
what goes in which position.
lists, dicts, sets, and tuples are general purpose containers; strs (and
most user defined classes) are special purpose containers.
That is to say, a tuple represents a single thing distinct from its
> components.
You could say that about a list as well. Doesn't change the fact that a
list is a container.
One can certainly view a tuple as a list, just as one can view a string
> as a list of characters, and sometimes that's useful; the Python dictum
> "there should only be one way to do it" doesn't imply that there is only
> one way to think of it.
The 'dictum' is "there should only be one *obvious* way to do it"
(emphasis added).
~Ethan~
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