Add PyDict_ContainsString()

[andrewhong04]

Feature or enhancement

I noticed that some functions like PyDict_GetItem(), PyDict_SetItem(), PyDict_DelItem(), etc has their variants that takes in a character array instead, but PyDict_Contains() does not.

[sobolevn]

Adding things to CAPI would require to maintain this for many years: including tests / docs / etc. So, it needs a strong reasoning.

What's your usecase for this? Can you go around your problem by using PyUnicode_FromString(your_string_key)?

[andrewhong04]

I believe it should be added to add consistency and using PyUnicode_FromString(your_string_key) does work, but using PyDict_Contains(PyUnicode_FromString(your_string_key)) is a mouthful in my opinion.

[kumaraditya303]

Just consistency is not a strong reason to add this. Note that PyDict_Contains is more efficient as you can cache the unicode object; PyDict_ContainsString would need to allocate a unicode object and throw it away after it is done.

[encukou]

Thank you for the suggestion. As said above, consistency alone isn't enough to add and maintain a new function. While C API has some shortcuts, this use case should be fine with PyUnicode_FromString+PyDict_Contains.
I agree that it's a mouthful, but if you use it a lot, you can write your own helper function for it.