Python: str(None) should return ” not ‘None’

By slacy|General|Be the first to comment!

Think about the following code:

x = some_function_that_might_return_none()
if str(x):
  do_one_thing()
else:
  do_another_thing()

do you think do_another_thing() will ever execute?

Did you know that str(None) is ‘None’ and thus:

if str(None):
  this_willl_always_execute()

I can see how you might want str(None) to be ‘None’ for debugging display, etc., but to preserve the semantics of “if” I think it should be ” or some other value that fails a simple if statement.