Change Request: Make myString.hasPrefix("") and myString.hasSuffix("") return true

Evolution Discussion
1

Don’t Panic !

At the risk of seeing things in a somewhat trivial perspective,
combined with an almost complete absence of abstraction:

Note that to relatively simple persons like me:

String instances are just rows of characters (when not empty, of course)

There are only two kinds of Strings:

1. empty Strings, which do not contain amy characters at all

  and

2. Strings containing 1 or more characters.

Ergo ad Infinitum :

Empty Strings do not occur in Strings that contain characters.

I’d say, please try to find possible empty strings
that might perhaps be embedded e.g. in the string below:

“Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42”

With all due respect:
This might void the discussion below :o)

I have nothing against Mathematics as long
as it is applicable.

Kind Regards
Ted

···

To the question of whether any given string has the empty string as prefix:
yes it does. This is a correct answer, and returning true is a correct
behaviour.

To the question of how many times the empty string occurs in a string: yes,
this can be infinite. "a" == "a" + "" == "a" + "" + "" == "a" + "" + "" +
"" == "a" + "" + "" + "" + "" == ... etc.. Concatenating an empty string,
like adding zero or multiplying by zero for a numerical value, can be done
infinitely many times without making a difference.

However, there's correctness and convenience. For example, every integer
can be expressed as a multiple of prime factors. 1 is technically a prime
number - it's divisible by 1 and itself - but for convenience we say it
isn't a prime number, because if it isn't, every integer can be expressed
uniquely as a multiple of prime factors, whereas if it is, there are an
infinite number of such expressions for each integer.

There may be many algorithms which rely on an empty prefix returning false.
If hasPrefix and hasSuffix are corrected, those algorithms should be
altered to recognise that correction. For example, if breaking up a string
using the empty string as a separator, it seems sensible that the sequence
of substrings would never contain consecutive empty strings.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 11:58 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution < > swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:

I'd run this by someone who actually knows math, but afaik there are
finitely many empty strings in any given string.

How many e's are in any given string? (Ignoring Unicode issues for now,)
for each index in the string's indices, form a substring one character in
length starting at that index and compare the value of that substring to e.

How many empty strings are in any given string? For each index in the
string's indices, form a substring zero characters in length starting at
that index and compare the value of that substring to an empty string.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 17:35 Guillaume Lessard < >> glessard@tffenterprises.com <mailto:glessard@tffenterprises.com>> wrote:

On 20 juil. 2016, at 14:21, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu@gmail.com <mailto:xiaodi.wu@gmail.com>> wrote:

Doesn't your second argument undermine your first? If it's a trivial

solution and one rarely ever considers empty strings when invoking
`hasPrefix`, then returning the technically correct result must be a
trivial departure in behavior.

I specifically used an example where the trivial solution (y=0 instead of
y=exp(x)) is a pitfall.

How many empty strings are contained in any given string?
If the answer is infinitely many, it sounds like a pitfall to me.

Cheers,
Guillaume Lessard

_______________________________________________

2

This discussion is getting out of control. Both of these functions have mathematical precedent as well as consistent behaviors in other languages. Observe:

Python: `"hello world".startswith("")` => `True`
Java: `"hello world".startsWith("")` => `true`
JavaScript: `"hello world".startsWith("")` => `true`
Ruby: `"hello world".start_with? ""` => `true`
Rust: `"hello world".starts_with("")` => `true`
Go: `strings.HasPrefix("hello world", "")` => `true`

It's pretty hard to argue against this. Even if you think these other languages are wrong, Swift must regard the empty String as a prefix to be consistent with itself.

`str.hasPrefix(String(str.characters.prefix(0)))` => `false` ?!

I would expect every prefix of `str` to return true as an argument to `str.hasPrefix`…

···

On Jul 20, 2016, at 6:49 PM, Ted F.A. van Gaalen via swift-evolution <swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

Don’t Panic !

At the risk of seeing things in a somewhat trivial perspective,
combined with an almost complete absence of abstraction:

Note that to relatively simple persons like me:

String instances are just rows of characters (when not empty, of course)

There are only two kinds of Strings:

1. empty Strings, which do not contain amy characters at all

  and

2. Strings containing 1 or more characters.

Ergo ad Infinitum :

Empty Strings do not occur in Strings that contain characters.

I’d say, please try to find possible empty strings
that might perhaps be embedded e.g. in the string below:

“Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42”

With all due respect:
This might void the discussion below :o)

I have nothing against Mathematics as long
as it is applicable.

Kind Regards
Ted

To the question of whether any given string has the empty string as prefix:
yes it does. This is a correct answer, and returning true is a correct
behaviour.

To the question of how many times the empty string occurs in a string: yes,
this can be infinite. "a" == "a" + "" == "a" + "" + "" == "a" + "" + "" +
"" == "a" + "" + "" + "" + "" == ... etc.. Concatenating an empty string,
like adding zero or multiplying by zero for a numerical value, can be done
infinitely many times without making a difference.

However, there's correctness and convenience. For example, every integer
can be expressed as a multiple of prime factors. 1 is technically a prime
number - it's divisible by 1 and itself - but for convenience we say it
isn't a prime number, because if it isn't, every integer can be expressed
uniquely as a multiple of prime factors, whereas if it is, there are an
infinite number of such expressions for each integer.

There may be many algorithms which rely on an empty prefix returning false.
If hasPrefix and hasSuffix are corrected, those algorithms should be
altered to recognise that correction. For example, if breaking up a string
using the empty string as a separator, it seems sensible that the sequence
of substrings would never contain consecutive empty strings.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 11:58 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution < >> swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:

I'd run this by someone who actually knows math, but afaik there are
finitely many empty strings in any given string.

How many e's are in any given string? (Ignoring Unicode issues for now,)
for each index in the string's indices, form a substring one character in
length starting at that index and compare the value of that substring to e.

How many empty strings are in any given string? For each index in the
string's indices, form a substring zero characters in length starting at
that index and compare the value of that substring to an empty string.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 17:35 Guillaume Lessard < >>> glessard@tffenterprises.com <mailto:glessard@tffenterprises.com>> wrote:

On 20 juil. 2016, at 14:21, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu@gmail.com <mailto:xiaodi.wu@gmail.com>> wrote:

Doesn't your second argument undermine your first? If it's a trivial

solution and one rarely ever considers empty strings when invoking
`hasPrefix`, then returning the technically correct result must be a
trivial departure in behavior.

I specifically used an example where the trivial solution (y=0 instead of
y=exp(x)) is a pitfall.

How many empty strings are contained in any given string?
If the answer is infinitely many, it sounds like a pitfall to me.

Cheers,
Guillaume Lessard

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

3

I’d say, please try to find possible empty strings
that might perhaps be embedded e.g. in the string below:

“Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42”

There are many empty strings in that string. In fact, there are infinite empty strings between each character, before the string, and after the string. Observe:

"" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
etc, and I didn't even get past the first character!

···

On Jul 20, 2016, at 6:49 PM, Ted F.A. van Gaalen via swift-evolution <swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

Don’t Panic !

At the risk of seeing things in a somewhat trivial perspective,
combined with an almost complete absence of abstraction:

Note that to relatively simple persons like me:

String instances are just rows of characters (when not empty, of course)

There are only two kinds of Strings:

1. empty Strings, which do not contain amy characters at all

  and

2. Strings containing 1 or more characters.

Ergo ad Infinitum :

Empty Strings do not occur in Strings that contain characters.

I’d say, please try to find possible empty strings
that might perhaps be embedded e.g. in the string below:

“Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42”

With all due respect:
This might void the discussion below :o)

I have nothing against Mathematics as long
as it is applicable.

Kind Regards
Ted

To the question of whether any given string has the empty string as prefix:
yes it does. This is a correct answer, and returning true is a correct
behaviour.

To the question of how many times the empty string occurs in a string: yes,
this can be infinite. "a" == "a" + "" == "a" + "" + "" == "a" + "" + "" +
"" == "a" + "" + "" + "" + "" == ... etc.. Concatenating an empty string,
like adding zero or multiplying by zero for a numerical value, can be done
infinitely many times without making a difference.

However, there's correctness and convenience. For example, every integer
can be expressed as a multiple of prime factors. 1 is technically a prime
number - it's divisible by 1 and itself - but for convenience we say it
isn't a prime number, because if it isn't, every integer can be expressed
uniquely as a multiple of prime factors, whereas if it is, there are an
infinite number of such expressions for each integer.

There may be many algorithms which rely on an empty prefix returning false.
If hasPrefix and hasSuffix are corrected, those algorithms should be
altered to recognise that correction. For example, if breaking up a string
using the empty string as a separator, it seems sensible that the sequence
of substrings would never contain consecutive empty strings.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 11:58 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution < >> swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:

I'd run this by someone who actually knows math, but afaik there are
finitely many empty strings in any given string.

How many e's are in any given string? (Ignoring Unicode issues for now,)
for each index in the string's indices, form a substring one character in
length starting at that index and compare the value of that substring to e.

How many empty strings are in any given string? For each index in the
string's indices, form a substring zero characters in length starting at
that index and compare the value of that substring to an empty string.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 17:35 Guillaume Lessard < >>> glessard@tffenterprises.com <mailto:glessard@tffenterprises.com>> wrote:

On 20 juil. 2016, at 14:21, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu@gmail.com <mailto:xiaodi.wu@gmail.com>> wrote:

Doesn't your second argument undermine your first? If it's a trivial

solution and one rarely ever considers empty strings when invoking
`hasPrefix`, then returning the technically correct result must be a
trivial departure in behavior.

I specifically used an example where the trivial solution (y=0 instead of
y=exp(x)) is a pitfall.

How many empty strings are contained in any given string?
If the answer is infinitely many, it sounds like a pitfall to me.

Cheers,
Guillaume Lessard

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

4

This is the best argument: lets not make the behaviour surprising to people coming from other languages out there.

···

On 21 Jul 2016, at 04:57, Jaden Geller via swift-evolution <swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

This discussion is getting out of control. Both of these functions have mathematical precedent as well as consistent behaviors in other languages. Observe:

Python: `"hello world".startswith("")` => `True`
Java: `"hello world".startsWith("")` => `true`
JavaScript: `"hello world".startsWith("")` => `true`
Ruby: `"hello world".start_with? ""` => `true`
Rust: `"hello world".starts_with("")` => `true`
Go: `strings.HasPrefix("hello world", "")` => `true`

It's pretty hard to argue against this. Even if you think these other languages are wrong, Swift must regard the empty String as a prefix to be consistent with itself.

`str.hasPrefix(String(str.characters.prefix(0)))` => `false` ?!

I would expect every prefix of `str` to return true as an argument to `str.hasPrefix`…

On Jul 20, 2016, at 6:49 PM, Ted F.A. van Gaalen via swift-evolution <swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:

Don’t Panic !

At the risk of seeing things in a somewhat trivial perspective,
combined with an almost complete absence of abstraction:

Note that to relatively simple persons like me:

String instances are just rows of characters (when not empty, of course)

There are only two kinds of Strings:

1. empty Strings, which do not contain amy characters at all

  and

2. Strings containing 1 or more characters.

Ergo ad Infinitum :

Empty Strings do not occur in Strings that contain characters.

I’d say, please try to find possible empty strings
that might perhaps be embedded e.g. in the string below:

“Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42”

With all due respect:
This might void the discussion below :o)

I have nothing against Mathematics as long
as it is applicable.

Kind Regards
Ted

To the question of whether any given string has the empty string as prefix:
yes it does. This is a correct answer, and returning true is a correct
behaviour.

To the question of how many times the empty string occurs in a string: yes,
this can be infinite. "a" == "a" + "" == "a" + "" + "" == "a" + "" + "" +
"" == "a" + "" + "" + "" + "" == ... etc.. Concatenating an empty string,
like adding zero or multiplying by zero for a numerical value, can be done
infinitely many times without making a difference.

However, there's correctness and convenience. For example, every integer
can be expressed as a multiple of prime factors. 1 is technically a prime
number - it's divisible by 1 and itself - but for convenience we say it
isn't a prime number, because if it isn't, every integer can be expressed
uniquely as a multiple of prime factors, whereas if it is, there are an
infinite number of such expressions for each integer.

There may be many algorithms which rely on an empty prefix returning false.
If hasPrefix and hasSuffix are corrected, those algorithms should be
altered to recognise that correction. For example, if breaking up a string
using the empty string as a separator, it seems sensible that the sequence
of substrings would never contain consecutive empty strings.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 11:58 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution < >>> swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:

I'd run this by someone who actually knows math, but afaik there are
finitely many empty strings in any given string.

How many e's are in any given string? (Ignoring Unicode issues for now,)
for each index in the string's indices, form a substring one character in
length starting at that index and compare the value of that substring to e.

How many empty strings are in any given string? For each index in the
string's indices, form a substring zero characters in length starting at
that index and compare the value of that substring to an empty string.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 17:35 Guillaume Lessard < >>>> glessard@tffenterprises.com <mailto:glessard@tffenterprises.com>> wrote:

On 20 juil. 2016, at 14:21, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu@gmail.com <mailto:xiaodi.wu@gmail.com>> wrote:

Doesn't your second argument undermine your first? If it's a trivial

solution and one rarely ever considers empty strings when invoking
`hasPrefix`, then returning the technically correct result must be a
trivial departure in behavior.

I specifically used an example where the trivial solution (y=0 instead of
y=exp(x)) is a pitfall.

How many empty strings are contained in any given string?
If the answer is infinitely many, it sounds like a pitfall to me.

Cheers,
Guillaume Lessard

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

5

There are many empty strings in that string. In fact, there are infinite empty strings between each character, before the string, and after the string. Observe:

"" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
etc, and I didn't even get past the first character!

Wel, maybe I am not intelligent enough to comprehend that,
or maybe it’s just a matter of definition/convention..

Again, to me a string is ***just a row of characters***.

therefore, concatenating empty strings (that do not contain any characters) with other strings have no effect: .
for example:

       let res = "" + "" + "" + "" + “The Art Of Learning To Fly”

after that:
  
     res == “The Art Of Learning To Fly”

and:

     res.count == “The Art Of Learning To Fly”.count

Regardless what in many other programming languages is done;
I prefer the Objective jC NSString hasPrefix(“") way of handling this,
which always returns False,e because a row of characters
is contiguous, without empty “” in between, leading or trailing.

However, we don’t seem to share the same opinion, about this sorry.
nothing more to say about that, I guess.

TedvG

···

On Jul 20, 2016, at 6:49 PM, Ted F.A. van Gaalen via swift-evolution <swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:

Don’t Panic !

At the risk of seeing things in a somewhat trivial perspective,
combined with an almost complete absence of abstraction:

Note that to relatively simple persons like me:

String instances are just rows of characters (when not empty, of course)

There are only two kinds of Strings:

1. empty Strings, which do not contain amy characters at all

  and

2. Strings containing 1 or more characters.

Ergo ad Infinitum :

Empty Strings do not occur in Strings that contain characters.

I’d say, please try to find possible empty strings
that might perhaps be embedded e.g. in the string below:

“Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42”

With all due respect:
This might void the discussion below :o)

I have nothing against Mathematics as long
as it is applicable.

Kind Regards
Ted

To the question of whether any given string has the empty string as prefix:
yes it does. This is a correct answer, and returning true is a correct
behaviour.

To the question of how many times the empty string occurs in a string: yes,
this can be infinite. "a" == "a" + "" == "a" + "" + "" == "a" + "" + "" +
"" == "a" + "" + "" + "" + "" == ... etc.. Concatenating an empty string,
like adding zero or multiplying by zero for a numerical value, can be done
infinitely many times without making a difference.

However, there's correctness and convenience. For example, every integer
can be expressed as a multiple of prime factors. 1 is technically a prime
number - it's divisible by 1 and itself - but for convenience we say it
isn't a prime number, because if it isn't, every integer can be expressed
uniquely as a multiple of prime factors, whereas if it is, there are an
infinite number of such expressions for each integer.

There may be many algorithms which rely on an empty prefix returning false.
If hasPrefix and hasSuffix are corrected, those algorithms should be
altered to recognise that correction. For example, if breaking up a string
using the empty string as a separator, it seems sensible that the sequence
of substrings would never contain consecutive empty strings.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 11:58 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution < >>> swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:

I'd run this by someone who actually knows math, but afaik there are
finitely many empty strings in any given string.

How many e's are in any given string? (Ignoring Unicode issues for now,)
for each index in the string's indices, form a substring one character in
length starting at that index and compare the value of that substring to e.

How many empty strings are in any given string? For each index in the
string's indices, form a substring zero characters in length starting at
that index and compare the value of that substring to an empty string.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 17:35 Guillaume Lessard < >>>> glessard@tffenterprises.com <mailto:glessard@tffenterprises.com>> wrote:

On 20 juil. 2016, at 14:21, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu@gmail.com <mailto:xiaodi.wu@gmail.com>> wrote:

Doesn't your second argument undermine your first? If it's a trivial

solution and one rarely ever considers empty strings when invoking
`hasPrefix`, then returning the technically correct result must be a
trivial departure in behavior.

I specifically used an example where the trivial solution (y=0 instead of
y=exp(x)) is a pitfall.

How many empty strings are contained in any given string?
If the answer is infinitely many, it sounds like a pitfall to me.

Cheers,
Guillaume Lessard

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

6

Ted: here's the counter-challenge.

func emptyStringPrefixChallenge(inputString: String) -> Bool
{
  let prefixedString = "" + inputString
  return (prefixedString == inputString)
}

The challenge: find a value for inputString such that this function returns
false. Because otherwise, if it returns true for every possible value of
inputString, then every String must be acknowledged as having the empty
string as a prefix.

···

On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 7:24 AM, David Hart via swift-evolution < swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

This is the best argument: lets not make the behaviour surprising to
people coming from other languages out there.

On 21 Jul 2016, at 04:57, Jaden Geller via swift-evolution < > swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

This discussion is getting out of control. Both of these functions have
mathematical precedent as well as consistent behaviors in other languages.
Observe:

Python: `"hello world".startswith("")` => `True`
Java: `"hello world".startsWith("")` => `true`
JavaScript: `"hello world".startsWith("")` => `true`
Ruby: `"hello world".start_with? ""` => `true`
Rust: `"hello world".starts_with("")` => `true`
Go: `strings.HasPrefix("hello world", "")` => `true`

It's pretty hard to argue against this. Even if you think these other
languages are wrong, Swift must regard the empty String as a prefix to be
consistent with itself.

`str.hasPrefix(String(str.characters.prefix(0)))` => `false` ?!

I would expect every prefix of `str` to return true as an argument to
`str.hasPrefix`…

On Jul 20, 2016, at 6:49 PM, Ted F.A. van Gaalen via swift-evolution < > swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

Don’t Panic !

At the risk of seeing things in a somewhat trivial perspective,
combined with an almost complete absence of abstraction:

Note that to relatively simple persons like me:

String instances are just rows of characters (when not empty, of course)

There are only two kinds of Strings:

1. empty Strings, which do not contain amy characters at all

  and

2. Strings containing 1 or more characters.

Ergo ad Infinitum :

Empty Strings do not occur in Strings that contain characters.

I’d say, please try to find possible empty strings
that might perhaps be embedded e.g. in the string below:

“Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42”

With all due respect:
This might void the discussion below :o)

I have nothing against Mathematics as long
as it is applicable.

Kind Regards
Ted

To the question of whether any given string has the empty string as prefix:
yes it does. This is a correct answer, and returning true is a correct
behaviour.

To the question of how many times the empty string occurs in a string: yes,
this can be infinite. "a" == "a" + "" == "a" + "" + "" == "a" + "" + "" +
"" == "a" + "" + "" + "" + "" == ... etc.. Concatenating an empty string,
like adding zero or multiplying by zero for a numerical value, can be done
infinitely many times without making a difference.

However, there's correctness and convenience. For example, every integer
can be expressed as a multiple of prime factors. 1 is technically a prime
number - it's divisible by 1 and itself - but for convenience we say it
isn't a prime number, because if it isn't, every integer can be expressed
uniquely as a multiple of prime factors, whereas if it is, there are an
infinite number of such expressions for each integer.

There may be many algorithms which rely on an empty prefix returning false.
If hasPrefix and hasSuffix are corrected, those algorithms should be
altered to recognise that correction. For example, if breaking up a string
using the empty string as a separator, it seems sensible that the sequence
of substrings would never contain consecutive empty strings.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 11:58 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution < > swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

I'd run this by someone who actually knows math, but afaik there are
finitely many empty strings in any given string.

How many e's are in any given string? (Ignoring Unicode issues for now,)
for each index in the string's indices, form a substring one character in
length starting at that index and compare the value of that substring to e.

How many empty strings are in any given string? For each index in the
string's indices, form a substring zero characters in length starting at
that index and compare the value of that substring to an empty string.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 17:35 Guillaume Lessard < > glessard@tffenterprises.com> wrote:

On 20 juil. 2016, at 14:21, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu@gmail.com> wrote:

Doesn't your second argument undermine your first? If it's a trivial

solution and one rarely ever considers empty strings when invoking
`hasPrefix`, then returning the technically correct result must be a
trivial departure in behavior.

I specifically used an example where the trivial solution (y=0 instead of
y=exp(x)) is a pitfall.

How many empty strings are contained in any given string?
If the answer is infinitely many, it sounds like a pitfall to me.

Cheers,
Guillaume Lessard

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

7

A deeper problem is that String is already internally inconsistent because
of the special case in hasPrefix/Suffix:

    String("abc").characters.prefix(0) == ""

which should imply that "abc".hasPrefix("") == true.

The existing implementation of hasPrefix/Suffix inherited from NSString is
a bug, not a feature, and I can cite it as a source of actual bugs in
production code that I have personal experience with. The correct
implementation being proposed here is backed by formal set/sequence theory.

Unfortunately, just fixing hasPrefix/Suffix isn't enough—since the String
type in Swift gets many of its primitive operations via Foundation.NSString
bridging, it will still inherit a lot of wrong behavior from there:

    "abc".rangeOfSubstring("") currently returns nil, when it should return
Range(startIndex: 0, endIndex: 0), because that is the location of the
earliest range where "" is found.
    "abc".containsString("") currently returns false when it should return
true.

Since Dave Abrahams mentioned earlier that Swift 4 would re-work strings,
I'm hopeful that a lot of this inherited behavior from Foundation will be
replaced by Swift-native code that does the right thing.

···

On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 8:46 AM Ted F.A. van Gaalen via swift-evolution < swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

There are many empty strings in that string. In fact, there are infinite
empty strings between each character, before the string, and after the
string. Observe:

"" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
42"
"" + "" + "" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy 42"
etc, and I didn't even get past the first character!

Wel, maybe I am not intelligent enough to comprehend that,
or maybe it’s just a matter of definition/convention..

Again, to me a string is ***just a row of characters***.

therefore, concatenating empty strings (that do not contain any
characters) with other strings have no effect: .
for example:

       let res = "" + "" + "" + "" + “The Art Of Learning To Fly”

after that:

     res == “The Art Of Learning To Fly”

and:

     res.count == “The Art Of Learning To Fly”.count

Regardless what in many other programming languages is done;
I prefer the Objective jC NSString hasPrefix(“") way of handling this,
which always returns False,e because a row of characters
is contiguous, without empty “” in between, leading or trailing.

However, we don’t seem to share the same opinion, about this sorry.
nothing more to say about that, I guess.

TedvG

On Jul 20, 2016, at 6:49 PM, Ted F.A. van Gaalen via swift-evolution < > swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

Don’t Panic !

At the risk of seeing things in a somewhat trivial perspective,
combined with an almost complete absence of abstraction:

Note that to relatively simple persons like me:

String instances are just rows of characters (when not empty, of course)

There are only two kinds of Strings:

1. empty Strings, which do not contain amy characters at all

  and

2. Strings containing 1 or more characters.

Ergo ad Infinitum :

Empty Strings do not occur in Strings that contain characters.

I’d say, please try to find possible empty strings
that might perhaps be embedded e.g. in the string below:

“Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42”

With all due respect:
This might void the discussion below :o)

I have nothing against Mathematics as long
as it is applicable.

Kind Regards
Ted

To the question of whether any given string has the empty string as prefix:
yes it does. This is a correct answer, and returning true is a correct
behaviour.

To the question of how many times the empty string occurs in a string: yes,
this can be infinite. "a" == "a" + "" == "a" + "" + "" == "a" + "" + "" +
"" == "a" + "" + "" + "" + "" == ... etc.. Concatenating an empty string,
like adding zero or multiplying by zero for a numerical value, can be done
infinitely many times without making a difference.

However, there's correctness and convenience. For example, every integer
can be expressed as a multiple of prime factors. 1 is technically a prime
number - it's divisible by 1 and itself - but for convenience we say it
isn't a prime number, because if it isn't, every integer can be expressed
uniquely as a multiple of prime factors, whereas if it is, there are an
infinite number of such expressions for each integer.

There may be many algorithms which rely on an empty prefix returning false.
If hasPrefix and hasSuffix are corrected, those algorithms should be
altered to recognise that correction. For example, if breaking up a string
using the empty string as a separator, it seems sensible that the sequence
of substrings would never contain consecutive empty strings.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 11:58 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution < > swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

I'd run this by someone who actually knows math, but afaik there are
finitely many empty strings in any given string.

How many e's are in any given string? (Ignoring Unicode issues for now,)
for each index in the string's indices, form a substring one character in
length starting at that index and compare the value of that substring to e.

How many empty strings are in any given string? For each index in the
string's indices, form a substring zero characters in length starting at
that index and compare the value of that substring to an empty string.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 17:35 Guillaume Lessard < > glessard@tffenterprises.com> wrote:

On 20 juil. 2016, at 14:21, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu@gmail.com> wrote:

Doesn't your second argument undermine your first? If it's a trivial

solution and one rarely ever considers empty strings when invoking
`hasPrefix`, then returning the technically correct result must be a
trivial departure in behavior.

I specifically used an example where the trivial solution (y=0 instead of
y=exp(x)) is a pitfall.

How many empty strings are contained in any given string?
If the answer is infinitely many, it sounds like a pitfall to me.

Cheers,
Guillaume Lessard

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https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

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https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

8

There are many empty strings in that string. In fact, there are infinite empty strings between each character, before the string, and after the string. Observe:

"" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
"" + "" + "" + "" + "Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42"
etc, and I didn't even get past the first character!

Wel, maybe I am not intelligent enough to comprehend that,
or maybe it’s just a matter of definition/convention..

Again, to me a string is ***just a row of characters***.

In which case it should be even more confusing to you:

let str = "Hello"
str.characters.starts(with: "".characters) // true
str.hasPrefix("") // false

···

On Jul 21, 2016, at 5:46 PM, Ted F.A. van Gaalen via swift-evolution <swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:

therefore, concatenating empty strings (that do not contain any characters) with other strings have no effect: .
for example:

       let res = "" + "" + "" + "" + “The Art Of Learning To Fly”

after that:
  
     res == “The Art Of Learning To Fly”

and:

     res.count == “The Art Of Learning To Fly”.count

Regardless what in many other programming languages is done;
I prefer the Objective jC NSString hasPrefix(“") way of handling this,
which always returns False,e because a row of characters
is contiguous, without empty “” in between, leading or trailing.

However, we don’t seem to share the same opinion, about this sorry.
nothing more to say about that, I guess.

TedvG

On Jul 20, 2016, at 6:49 PM, Ted F.A. van Gaalen via swift-evolution <swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:

Don’t Panic !

At the risk of seeing things in a somewhat trivial perspective,
combined with an almost complete absence of abstraction:

Note that to relatively simple persons like me:

String instances are just rows of characters (when not empty, of course)

There are only two kinds of Strings:

1. empty Strings, which do not contain amy characters at all

  and

2. Strings containing 1 or more characters.

Ergo ad Infinitum :

Empty Strings do not occur in Strings that contain characters.

I’d say, please try to find possible empty strings
that might perhaps be embedded e.g. in the string below:

“Don’t Panic: Please read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 42”

With all due respect:
This might void the discussion below :o)

I have nothing against Mathematics as long
as it is applicable.

Kind Regards
Ted

To the question of whether any given string has the empty string as prefix:
yes it does. This is a correct answer, and returning true is a correct
behaviour.

To the question of how many times the empty string occurs in a string: yes,
this can be infinite. "a" == "a" + "" == "a" + "" + "" == "a" + "" + "" +
"" == "a" + "" + "" + "" + "" == ... etc.. Concatenating an empty string,
like adding zero or multiplying by zero for a numerical value, can be done
infinitely many times without making a difference.

However, there's correctness and convenience. For example, every integer
can be expressed as a multiple of prime factors. 1 is technically a prime
number - it's divisible by 1 and itself - but for convenience we say it
isn't a prime number, because if it isn't, every integer can be expressed
uniquely as a multiple of prime factors, whereas if it is, there are an
infinite number of such expressions for each integer.

There may be many algorithms which rely on an empty prefix returning false.
If hasPrefix and hasSuffix are corrected, those algorithms should be
altered to recognise that correction. For example, if breaking up a string
using the empty string as a separator, it seems sensible that the sequence
of substrings would never contain consecutive empty strings.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 11:58 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution < >>>> swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:

I'd run this by someone who actually knows math, but afaik there are
finitely many empty strings in any given string.

How many e's are in any given string? (Ignoring Unicode issues for now,)
for each index in the string's indices, form a substring one character in
length starting at that index and compare the value of that substring to e.

How many empty strings are in any given string? For each index in the
string's indices, form a substring zero characters in length starting at
that index and compare the value of that substring to an empty string.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 17:35 Guillaume Lessard < >>>>> glessard@tffenterprises.com <mailto:glessard@tffenterprises.com>> wrote:

On 20 juil. 2016, at 14:21, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu@gmail.com <mailto:xiaodi.wu@gmail.com>> wrote:

Doesn't your second argument undermine your first? If it's a trivial

solution and one rarely ever considers empty strings when invoking
`hasPrefix`, then returning the technically correct result must be a
trivial departure in behavior.

I specifically used an example where the trivial solution (y=0 instead of
y=exp(x)) is a pitfall.

How many empty strings are contained in any given string?
If the answer is infinitely many, it sounds like a pitfall to me.

Cheers,
Guillaume Lessard

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution