Alan Cameron wrote:
> "Alan Cameron" <alan.came...@iname.com> wrote in message
> news:hrfml.50224$tb.4...@newsfe07.ams2...
>>I am not sure of this is the right place to ask a question about the
>>tutorial
>>
>> http://docs.python.org/3.0/tutorial/datastructures.html#sets
>>
>> why is the printed result of
>>
>>>>> basket = {'apple', 'orange', 'apple', 'pear', 'orange', 'banana'}
>>>>> print(basket)
>> {'orange', 'banana', 'pear', 'apple'}
>>
>> in the sequence given?
>>
>>
>
> Thanks to all who replied.
> I assume therefore that the order in which the items of the set are
> printed could vary each time it is printed?
If you don't add or remove items the printed order will not change in the
current implementation. But as shown in my other post it is possible to
create sets with equal contents that are printed differently. The actual
order depends on the set's history of insertions/deletions, so it is not
truly random.
But these are implementation details that may change across versions of
python and your code should never rely on them. If you want a defined order
convert the set to a sorted list before printing:
>>> basket = {'apple', 'orange', 'apple', 'pear', 'orange', 'banana'}
>>> sorted(basket)
['apple', 'banana', 'orange', 'pear']
Peter
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
