Op 2005-04-20, Torsten Bronger schreef <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hallöchen! > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Nick Efford) writes: > >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> Many people I know ask why Python does slicing the way it does..... >> >>> Can anyone /please/ give me a good defense/justification??? >> >>> I'm referring to why mystring[:4] gives me elements 0, 1, 2 and 3 >>> but *NOT* mystring[4] (5th element). >> >> mystring[:4] can be read as "the first four characters of >> mystring". If it included mystring[4], you'd have to read it as >> "the first five characters of mystring", which wouldn't match the >> appearance of '4' in the slice. >> >> [...] >> >> It all makes perfect sense when you look at it this way! > > Well, also in my experience every variant has its warts. You'll > never avoid the "i+1" or "i-1" expressions in your indices or loops > (or your mind ;). > > It's interesting to muse about a language that starts at "1" for all > arrays and strings, as some more or less obsolete languages do. I > think this is more intuitive, since most people (including > mathematicians) start counting at "1". The reason for starting at > "0" is easier memory address calculation, so nothing for really high > level languages.
Personnaly I would like to have the choice. Sometimes I prefer to start at 0, sometimes at 1 and other times at -13 or +7. -- Antoon Pardon -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
