[Python-Dev] {}.getitem() (was Re: PEP-0218)

[Guido van Rossum]

> M.-A. Lemburg:
> > Shouldn't be hard to do... the C API for this is already in place:
> > PyDict_Next(). I'd prefer a method .getitem(), though, which then
> > returns a tuple (key, value).
> 
> IMO '.pickitem()' would be a better name, since many people would
> think, that 'getitem()' would take some kind of index as parameter.
> Nevertheless I think this is a nice idea, though.

Pronouncement:

It is only efficient to get the *first* item, so let's make that
explicit.  The method names will be:

 .firstkey()
 .firstvalue()
 .firstitem()

Moshe will check in a patch.

Thinking aloud:

Would it be useful to also implement popkey(), popvalue(), popitem(),
which would remove the first item and then return the relevant part of
it?

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)