[Python-ideas] dir with a glob?

Thu Jun 30 15:09:46 CEST 2011

I would rather add a grep method to regular expression objects:
	def grep(self,sequence):
		for s in sequence:
			if self.search(s):
				yield s
And a global function to the re module:
	def grep(regex,sequence,flags=0):
		return re.compile(regex,flags).grep(sequence)
Then you could do:
	re.grep("^i", dir(sp.fft))
Yes, it would be more to type but it would be more general.
OT: I think it would be good if regular expressions would be callable with this method:
	def __call__(self,s):
		return self.search(s) is not None
Then one could use it in a filter expression:
	filter(re.compile("^i"), dir(sp.fft))
On 06/30/2011 01:38 PM, Sturla Molden wrote:
> Often when exploring an object with the 'dir' function, particularly in large packages like SciPy, I
> find that I need to filter the outout. Since a dir reminds me of a dos 'dir' or linux 'ls', a glob
> feels like the most natural to use.
>> For example, none of these would work:
>> >>> dir(sp.fft.i*) # syntax error
> >>> dir('sp.fft.i*') # returns the attributes a string
>> I believe a new dir functions is needed, or a change in the behviour of the current version.
>> Of course a 'glob aware dir function' can be implemented by monitoring the call stack (cf.
> sys._getframe().f_back), but I think the problem is general enough to warrant an official sultion.
>> Sturla