better for-loop syntax for detecting empty sequences?
- by Dmitry Beransky
Hi,
Is there a better way to write the following:
row_counter = 0
for item in iterable_sequence:
# do stuff with the item
counter += 1
if not row_counter:
# handle the empty-sequence-case
Please keep in mind that I can't use len(iterable_sequence) because 1) not all sequences have known lengths; 2) in some cases calling len() may trigger loading of the sequence's items into memory (as the case would be with sql query results).
The reason I ask is that I'm simply curious if there is a way to make above more concise and idiomatic. What I'm looking for is along the lines of:
for item in sequence:
#process item
*else*:
#handle the empty sequence case
(assuming "else" here worked only on empty sequences, which I know it doesn't)
