Guido van Rossum <guido <at> python.org> writes: > > You're obviously talking about a *random* element. This is a separate > use case (though I agree many people don't know the difference). > > Picking a random element can be done in O(1) only if the data > structure supports access by index, which Python's hash tables don't.
Well, at the implementation level, they can. You'd just have to pick a new random index until it points to a non-empty slot. Regards Antoine. _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
