indexproxy.py

class IndexProxy(object):
    """
    Proxies access to a multidimensional sequence.
    
    When the constructor is provided with a sequence of dimension N,
    item access with iterables of length <= N will retrieve the subsequence
    or item at the depth corresponding to the distance. For example:
    
    ip = IndexProxy(multiseq)
    ip[1,4] == multiseq[1][4]
    ip[1,5,23] == multiseq[1][5][23]
    

    """
    def __init__(self, multisequence):
        self.store = multisequence

    def __getitem__(self, indicies):
        item = self.store
        for i in indicies:
            item = item[i]
        return item


multilist = [
    [['000', '001'],
     ['010', '011']],
    [['100', '101'],
     ['110', '111']],
]
ip = IndexProxy(multilist)
assert ip[0,1,0] == '010'
assert ip[1,1,1] == '111'


# similar thing as a function. This is probably better
def sequential_access(multiseq, *indicies):
    item = multiseq
    for i in indicies:
        item = item[i]
    return item

assert sequential_access(multilist, 0, 1, 0) == '010'