I have a variable that store a string (i.e. a variable name msg).I want to
say something like that: if msg is empty ...then do something.So how can i
figure that msg is empty string (no character, msg = '').Maybe a silly
question but i have no programming experiense.Thanks, Leonidas

Rotary wrote:
[color=blue]
> I want to say something like that: if msg is empty ...then do
> something. So how can i figure that msg is empty string (no
> character, msg = '').[/color]

#v+

if not msg:
print 'msg is empty'

#v-

--
Klaus Alexander Seistrup
Magnetic Ink, Copenhagen, Denmark
http://magnetic-ink.dk/

well, somebody's already pointed out that bool(msg)==False iff msg==''.
i'm curious to know what's wrong with simply writing

if msg=='':
## do_something

Sean McIlroy wrote:[color=blue]
> well, somebody's already pointed out that bool(msg)==False iff msg==''.[/color]

I may not have received the message yet, but if "iff" still means "if
and only if", then that statement is wrong. There are, of course, about
a dozen things for which bool(msg) is False when msg != '', not
including the possibility of objects that define their bool state
however they want.
[color=blue]
> i'm curious to know what's wrong with simply writing
>
> if msg=='':
> ## do_something[/color]

I'm not sure anything is wrong with it in this case, though the idiom in
Python is generally to do just "if not msg" unless you're concerned
about the possibility that msg is not actually a string.

-Peter

Sean McIlroy wrote:[color=blue]
> well, somebody's already pointed out that bool(msg)==False iff msg==''.
> i'm curious to know what's wrong with simply writing
>
> if msg=='':
> ## do_something
>[/color]
You would write this if there was a possibility that msg could be
something other than a string, whose value might also be interpreted as
False by the "if" (e.g. the None object, or an empty list) even though
your application wanted to handle it differently from an empty string.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden +1 703 861 4237 +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming http://pydish.holdenweb.com/