[Python-Dev] Retrieve an arbitrary element from a set withoutremoving it (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Tue Oct 27 20:13:13 CET 2009

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 11:50 AM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:

There are two ideas of set.get floating about: 1) get an arbitrary object 2) get the object in the set with the same 'value'(hash+eq) as an input arg (the intern case). In this case, there is a 'key', even if it is somewhat abstract rather that being an object.

Both could be done with the same method, depending on whether an arg is passed or not.

My gut tells me it is bad API design to collapse these two use cases. Probably because the implementations won't have much in common: (1) should just pick the first valid element, while (2) should use the normal hash lookup algorithm (shared with 'in', .add() etc.).

-- --Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)

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