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[Python-ideas] [Python-Dev] Inclusive Range

Michael Foord fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk
Tue Oct 5 16:51:20 CEST 2010 
  On 05/10/2010 15:33, Alexander Belopolsky wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 9:16 AM, Michael Foord<fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk>  wrote:
>> ... Perhaps I should have been clearer; it is only the
>> behaviour of range(x, y) that I've found people-new-to-python confused by.
> Teach them about range(x, y, z) and once you cover negative z they
> will stop complaining about range(x, y). :-)

Well, it probably doesn't help (for those coming to Python from 
languages other than C) that some languages do-the-right-thing with 
ranges. <0.5 wink>

$ irb
 >> (1..3).to_a
=> [1, 2, 3]

All the best,

Michael Foord




> At least you don't have to deal with range vs. xrange in 3.x anymore.
> IMO, range([start,] stop[, step]) is one of the worst interfaces in
> python.  Is there any other function with an optional *first*
> argument?  Why range(date(2010, 1, 1), date(2010, 2, 1), timedelta(1))
> cannot be used to produce days in January?  Why range(2**300)
> succeeds, but len(range(2**300)) raises OverflowError?
>
> No, I don't think much can be done about it.  Py3k has already done
> everything that was practical about improving range(..).


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