sorting a dictionary

[Harvey Thomas]

> Alex Martelli wrote:
> 
> > dsavitsk wrote:
> > 
> > [about getting the largest key -- the "sorting" in the subject
> > is a bit of involuntary misdirection by the OP...:-)]
> > 
> >> def get_highest(d): # don't use the name 'dict'
> >>     l = d.keys()
> >>     l.sort()
> >>     return l[-1]
> > 
> > This is good, but it's O(N logN) -- if the dictionary is
> > huge, you'll be hurting.  max(d) is faster, and follows
> > the good rule of not reimplementing something that Python
> > already has as a built-in.
> 
> Heh -- sorry, I see the OP wanted the *key of the highest
> value*, NOT the highest key, which is what dsavitsk's
> solution, and max(d), would give.  For the OP's problem,
> you can't get any faster than O(N logN).
> 
> 
> Alex
> 

isn't

 max([(v,k) for k,v in d.items()])[1]

which I think does the required job O(N)?

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