sparse sets of integers?

[Raymond Hettinger]

[Dan Stromberg]
> Does anyone have a python implementation (or python C/C+ extension) that
> would allow me to perform set operations (union, intersection, difference,
> number of elements, &c) over very large collections of integers?
>
> Some of the sets may have over 10**11 (probably less than 10**13
> though) integers in them, but there will tend to be runs of integers being
> included or not included, so there might be 10**5 consecutive integers
> included, then 10**4 that are not included, and then another 10**6 that
> are.

This may help:

    http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/230113


Raymond Hettinger