On 2007-09-04, Campbell Barton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Jason wrote:
>> Returning -1 is not a good return value to indicate an error.
>> After all, -1 is a valid index in most Python lists.
>> (Negative numbers index from the tail of the list.)
>
> Agree in general tho its a bit inconsistent how...
>
> "string".find(val)
>
> ...can return -1 but .index() cant, though the inconsistency is
> probably with string since most other areas of the py api raise
> errors in cases like this.
The two functions have different ranges, but also different
domains.
sequence.index
domain: any item '==' to an item in sequence
range: All non-negative indexes of sequence
string.find
domain: any string
range: -1 for not found, and all non-negative indexes of string.
If you want to search for subsequences in a sequence, a la
string.find, you can use something like (what I naively assume
will be a maximally efficent):
def find(seq, subseq):
""" Find a subsequence of seq in seq, and return its index. Return -1 if
subseq is not found.
>>> seq = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> find(seq, [0, 1, 2])
0
>>> find(seq, [])
0
>>> find(seq, [3, 4])
3
>>> find(seq, [3, 2])
-1
>>> find(seq, [5, 6])
-1
>>> find(seq, [3])
3
>>> find(seq, [0, 2])
-1
"""
i = 0
j = 0
while i < len(seq) and j < len(subseq):
if seq[i] == subseq[j]:
j += 1
else:
j = 0
i += 1
if j == len(subseq): return i - j
else: return -1
It's probable that a simpler implementation using slice
operations will be faster for shortish lengths of subseq. It was
certainly easier to get it working correctly. ;)
def find(seq, subseq):
for i, j in itertools.izip(xrange(len(seq)-len(subseq)),
xrange(len(subseq), len(seq))):
if subseq == seq[i:j]:
return i
return -1
--
Neil Cerutti
I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law and
headed over the embankment. --Insurance Claim Blooper
--
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