Best way to handle large lists?

[Chaz Ginger]

Jeremy Sanders wrote:
> Jeremy Sanders wrote:
> 
>> Chaz Ginger wrote:
>>
>>> What would sets do for me over lists?
>> It's faster to tell whether something is in a set or dict than in a list
>> (for some minimum size).
> 
> As a footnote, this program
> 
> import random
> num = 100000
> 
> a = set( range(num) )
> for i in range(100000):
>     x = random.randint(0, num-1) in a
>     
> completes in less than a second, whereas
> 
> import random
> num = 100000
> 
> a = range(num)
> for i in range(100000):
>     x = random.randint(0, num-1) in a
>     
> takes a long time on my computer.
> 
> Jeremy
> 
Thanks Jeremy. I am in the process of converting my stuff to use sets! I
wouldn't have thought it would have made that big a deal! I guess it is
live and learn.

Peace,
Chaz