On Tue, 7 Feb 2006, Ben Sizer wrote: > Raymond Hettinger wrote: >> [Steven D'Aprano] >>>> The Zen isn't "only one way to do it". If it were, we >>>> wouldn't need iterators, list comps or for loops, >>>> because they can all be handled with a while loop (at >>>> various costs of efficiency, clarity or obviousness). >>>> >>>> del L[:] works, but unless you are Dutch, it fails the >>>> obviousness test. >> >> [Fredrik Lundh] >>> unless you read some documentation, that is. del on sequences >>> and mappings is a pretty fundamental part of Python. so are slicings. >>> >>> both are things that you're likely to need and learn long before you >>> end up in situation where you need to be able to clear an aliased >>> sequence.
I don't agree with that at all. I'd been programming python for a while (a year?) before i knew about del l[:]. >> Likewise, the del keyword is fundamental -- if you can't get, set, and >> del, then you need to go back to collections school. > > I have hardly used the del keyword in several years of coding in Python. Ditto. > Why should it magically spring to mind in this occasion? Similarly I > hardly ever find myself using slices, never mind in a mutable context. > > del L[:] is not obvious, especially given the existence of clear() in > dictionaries. Agreed. tom -- GOLDIE LOOKIN' CHAIN [...] will ultimately make all other forms of music both redundant and unnecessary -- ntk -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
