Neal Becker wrote:
Instead, bool fails in _the worst possible way_: it silently gives a
_wrong result_.
I disagree with the word "fail" there; Python is working correctly. The
behavior of converting expressions to a boolean is well-defined:
http://docs.python.org/ref/Booleans.html
Perhaps the behavior is unexpected or unwelcome--but it is *correct*.
It's just one of those things about Python that one has to get used to;
this is a side-effect of another, much more important principle.
If you really want to turn the string "True" into True, use "eval".
eval("4") -> 4
eval("True") -> True
eval("{}") -> {}
Perhaps it would be safest to cast the output of eval to bool:
bool(eval("True")) -> True
bool(eval("")) -> False
Cheers,
/larry/
_______________________________________________
Python-Dev mailing list
Python-Dev@python.org
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev
Unsubscribe:
http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
