I recently wrote a module supporting value-shared slicing. I don't know if this functionality already existed somewhere, but I think it's useful enough that other Pythoners might want it, so here it is.
Also, my recent notes on Python warts with respect to negative indexes were based on problems I encoutered debugging this module, so I'm posting it partially as a concrete example of what I was talking about. -- --Bryan ---------------------------------------------------------------- """ vslice.py by Bryan G. Olson, 2005 This module is free software and may be modified and/or distributed under the same terms as Python itself. Virtual Slicing differs from normal Python slicing in that that the cells in the given sequence are not copied; they are shared between the underlying sequence and the VSlice. VSlices are themselves Python sequences. You can index VSlices, slice them, iterate over them, get their len(), test 'if val in', compare them, add them, and multiply them by integers. The 'vslice' function creates virtual slices of sequences: vslice(sequence, start, stop, step) returns an instance of VSlice that is much-the-same-as: sequence[start : stop : step] The default for start, stop and step is None, and passing None or omitting parameters works the same as in Python slicing. VSlices also have read-only properties 'sequence', 'start', 'stop' and 'step', in case you need to access the underlying sequence directly. Like Python's 'slice' object, the stop value will be negative if and only if step is negative and the slice includes the zero index. A VSlice of a VSlice will use the same underlying sequence. It will translate the start-stop-step values upon construction, so later access will go through only one layer of VSlicing. The sequence, start, stop, and step properties of the VSlice-of-a-VSlice will generally not be same as the parameters passed to the vslice factory function; they relate to the underlying sequence. >>> a = range(100) >>> from vslice import vslice >>> vs1 = vslice(a, 10, None, 2) >>> vs2 = vslice(vs1, 2, -2, 3) >>> >>> print vs2 == a[10 : None : 2][2 : -2 : 3] True >>> print vs2.sequence == vs1 False >>> print vs2.sequence == a True >>> print vs2.sequence is a True >>> print vs2.start, vs2.stop, vs2.step 14 96 6 >>> print vs2 == a[14 : 96 : 6] True If the underlying sequence is mutable, the VSlice is semi- mutable. You can assign to elements, but not insert nor delete elements; similarly, no append, push, pop and such. Slice assignments must have the same length slice on both sides. A slice of a VSlice is a regular Python slice; it is a copy made by slicing the underlying sequence with translated start-stop-step values. For sane sequence types, the slice of the VSlice will therefore have the same type as the underlying sequence. A VSlice's start-stop-step and len are set on construction. Adding or removing indices from the underlying sequence will not change them, and is usually a bad thing to do. VSlices support any positive or negative integer step value, but are most efficient in both time and space when the step value is one. Fortunately, the need for any other step value is rare. The vslice function will choose between two sub- classes of VSlice, depending on whether the step is one. The VxSlice can support any step size; the V1Slice is faster and smaller, but only supports a step of one. VxSlice instances store five slots; V1Slices, 3. """ def vslice(sequence, start=None, stop=None, step=None): """ Return a VSlice (virtual slice). See module's __doc__. """ start, stop, step = slice(start, stop, step).indices(len(sequence)) if isinstance(sequence, VSlice): start = sequence.start + start * sequence.step stop = sequence.start + stop * sequence.step step *= sequence.step sequence = sequence.sequence if step == 1: return V1Slice(sequence, start, stop) else: return VxSlice(sequence, start, stop, step) from itertools import islice _type_err_note = 'VSlice index must be integer or slice.' _module_doc = __doc__ class VSlice (object): __doc__ = _module_doc def __init__(self, *args): if self.__class__ == VSlice: raise RuntimeError("Attempt to instantiate abstract base " + "class VSlice. To create a VSlice, call vslice.vslice().") def get_sequence(self): return self._seq sequence = property(get_sequence, None, None, 'The underlying sequence, never itself a VSlice.') def get_start(self): return self._start start = property(get_start, None, None, 'Inclusive bound in the underlying sequence.') def get_stop(self): return self._stop stop = property(get_stop, None, None, 'Exclusive bound in the underlying sequence.') def get_step(self): return self._step step = property(lambda self: self.get_step(), None, None, 'Size of steps relative to the underlying sequence.') def __getitem__(self, key): if isinstance(key, (int, long)): return self._seq[self._translate(key)] elif isinstance(key, slice): (start, stop, step) = self._translate_slice(key) return self._seq[start : stop : step] else: raise TypeError(_type_err_note) def __setitem__(self, key, value): if isinstance(key, (int, long)): self._seq[self._translate(key)] = value elif isinstance(key, slice): (start, stop, step) = self._translate_slice(key) self._seq[start : stop : step] = value else: raise TypeError(_type_err_note) def __cmp__(self, other): # Compare progressively larger chunks. start, stop = 0, 4 while 1: me = self[start : stop] them = other[start : stop] if me != them: return cmp(me, them) if len(me) < stop - start: return 0 start, stop = stop, stop + stop def __repr__(self): return 'vslice(%s)' % repr(self[:]) def __add__(self, term): return self[:] + term def __mul__(self, term): return self[:] * term def __hash__(self): return hash(self[:]) # Various bad ideas for def __getattr__(self, name): # return getattr(self[:], name) # return getattr(self[0:0], name) # return getattr(self._seq, name) class V1Slice (VSlice): 'VSlice subclass for step == 1' __slots__ = '_seq', '_start', '_stop' def __init__(self, sequence, start, stop): self._seq, self._start, self._stop = sequence, start, stop def get_step(self): return 1 def __len__(self): return self._stop - self._start def __iter__(self): return islice(self._seq, self._start, self._stop) def _translate(self, i): length = self._stop - self._start if not -length <= i < length: raise IndexError return slice(i, i + 1).indices(length)[0] def _translate_slice(self, key): start, stop, step = key.indices(len(self)) stop = self._start + stop if stop < 0: stop = None return (self._start + start, stop, step) class VxSlice(VSlice): 'VSlice subclass for step of any integer' __slots__ = '_seq', '_start', '_stop', '_step', '_length' def __init__(self, sequence, start=None, stop=None, step=1): self._seq, self._start, self._stop, self._step = ( sequence, start, stop, step) self._length = max(0, (self._stop - self._start + self._step - (self._step / abs(self._step))) // self._step) def __len__(self): return self._length def __iter__(self): if self._step >= 0: return islice(self._seq, self._start, self._stop, self._step) else: def gen(): seq, i, stop, step = (self._seq, self._start, self._stop, self._step) while i > stop: yield seq[i] i += step return gen() def _translate(self, index): if index < 0: index = self._length + index if index < 0 or index > self._length: raise IndexError('VxSlice index %d out of range' % index) return self._start + (index * self._step) def _translate_slice(self, key): start, stop, step = key.indices(self._length) start, stop, step = ( self._start + (start * self._step), self._start + (stop * self._step), step * self._step) if stop < 0: stop = None return (start, stop, step) def test(): print __doc__ def assert_equal(vslice, target): assert len(vslice) == len(target) assert vslice == target assert vslice[:] == target assert vslice[: 7L] + vslice[7 :] == target assert vslice[::-1][::-1] == target assert [x for x in vslice] == [x for x in target] blist, clist, dlist = [], [], [] for i in range(len(vslice)): blist.append(vslice[i]) j = 0 - i - 1 clist.append(vslice[j]) dlist.append(vslice[long(i)]) assert blist == [x for x in target] clist.reverse() assert clist == [x for x in target] assert dlist == [x for x in target] assert vslice[2 : -3] == target[2 : -3] base = [1 + 2 * n for n in range(100)] a = base[:] # Test various copies va = vslice(a) assert_equal(va, a) assert_equal(vslice(a, None, None, -1), a[:: -1]) assert_equal(vslice(va, None, None, -3), a[:: -3]) assert_equal(vslice(a, 4L, 67, 5), a[4: 67 : 5]) assert_equal(vslice(va, -84, 67, 4), a[-84: 67 : 4]) assert_equal(vslice(va, 22, -12, 8), a[22: -12 : 8]) assert_equal(vslice(va, -91, -17, 7), a[-91: -17 : 7]) assert_equal(vslice(a, -97, -10, -6), a[-97: -10 : -6]) assert_equal(vslice(va, -83, -11, -3), a[-83: -11 : -3]) # Test some updates va[6 : 82 : 7] = [6 + x * 17 for x in range(4, 80, 7)] assert_equal(va, a) a[22] = 9427 assert_equal(va, a) b = base[:] vb = base[:] assert_equal(vb, b) b[37] = 61107 assert tuple(b) != tuple(vb) vb[37] = 61107 assert tuple(b) == tuple(vb) newjunk = [12 + x * 3 for x in range(4, 80, 7)] b[5 : 80 : 7] = newjunk assert tuple(b) != tuple(vb) vb[5 : 80 : 7] = newjunk assert tuple(b) == tuple(vb) print "Good." if __name__ == '__main__': test() -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list