On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 01:57:53 -0800, Ben Sizer wrote:
>> I don't think I even understand what the objection is. What is
>> needed is a code fragment that shows how the use of strings is
>> untenable.
>
> myObject.value = 'value1'
>
> #... 100 lines of code elided...
>
> if myObject.value = 'Value1':
> do_right_thing()
> else:
> do_wrong_thing()
>
>
> I don't actually think string use is 'untenable', but it is definitely
> more error-prone. With some sort of named object on the right hand side
> you will at least get a helpful NameError.
It is moments like this that I'm not too proud to admit I learnt some good
techniques from Pascal:
# define some pseudo-constants
RIGHT_THING = 'value1'
WRONG_THING = 'some other value'
INCHES_TO_FEET = 12
CM_TO_METRES = 100
# ...
myObject.value = RIGHT_THING
#... 100 lines of code elided...
if myObject.value = RIGHT_THING:
do_right_thing()
else:
do_wrong_thing()
It isn't always appropriate or necessary to define "constants" (and I
sometimes wish that Python would enforce assign-once names), but they can
help avoid some silly mistakes.
--
Steven.
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
