On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 12:32 AM, MRAB <python at mrabarnett.plus.com> wrote: >> table[:] = [i for x,i in table] # Does slice assignment get optimized? >> > [snip] > > If you're trying that, you could also try: > > table[:] = (i for x,i in table) Right, a tweak which could be applied also to the split version. Thanks MRAB. ChrisA