Help on Dict

[Hendrik van Rooyen]

 "James Stroud" <jstroud at mbi.ucla.edu> wrote:


> Clement wrote:
> > Can any body tell how Dict is implemented in python... plz tell what
> > datastructure that uses................
> > 
> 
> I think it uses a dict.

"Groan!" - this answer is like Microsoft documentation - 
while technically correct, it is useless...  : - )

The key of a dict entry is subjected to a bit of magic called 
a "Hashing algorithm" that yields a "bin" in which the data
is kept.

So to get hold of a dict entry always takes a similar time.

And its the quickest form of random access based on
a non integer key that you can get.

hth - Hendrik