Why don't Python's any/all return the found objects?
any, api, monads, python
Solution
I guess you're looking for
first = lambda s: next((x for x in s if x), None)
e.g.
first([None, None,1, 2,None]) # 1
The "why" question is answered over here.
Problem
The Python `and` and `or` operators, return values, rather than `True` or `False`, which is useful for things such as: ``` x = d.get(1) or d.get(2) or d.get(3) ``` Which will make `x` the value of `d[1]`, `d[2]` or `d[3]` which ever is present. This is a bit like having an additive Maybe monad in functional languages. I've always wanted that the python `any()` function would be more like a repeated `or`. I think it would make sense return the object it finds, like: ``` any([None, None, 1, 2, None]) == 1 any(notnull_iterator) = try: return next(notnull_iterator); except: return None ``` And likewise for `all()`. It seems to me the change would be entirely backwards compatible, and increase consistency across the API. Does anyone know of a previous discussion of this topic?