On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 3:46 PM, Prasad, Ramit <ramit.pra...@jpmorgan.com> wrote: > > Do you happen to know offhand if there is a difference between > `in <list>` vs. `in <tuple>` vs. `in <set>`?
The "in" comparison (__contains__ method) is equivalent for list and tuple. It has to search through the sequence item by item, which makes it an O(n) operation. On the other hand, a set/dict uses the hash() of an object to map it to a known location in a table (performance degrades if there are many collisions). On average, you can check if a set/dict contains an item in constant time, i.e. O(1). The amortized worst case is O(n). _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
