Need help understanding list structure

[Ben Finney]

moa47401 at gmail.com writes:

> Am I correct in assuming that parsing a large text file would be
> quicker returning pointers instead of strings?

What do you mean by “return a pointer”? Python doesn't have pointers.

In the Python language, a container type (such as ‘set’, ‘list’, ‘dict’,
etc.) contains the objects directly. There are no “pointers” there; by
accessing the items of a container, you access the items directly.


What do you mean by “would be quicker”? I am concerned you are seeking
speed of the program at the expense of understandability and clarity of
the code.

Instead, you should be writing clear, maintainable code.

*Only if* the clear, maintainable code you write then actually ends up
being too slow, should you then worry about what parts are quick or slow
by *measuring* the specific parts of code to discover what is actually
occupying the time.

-- 
 \         “All television is educational television. The question is: |
  `\                           what is it teaching?” —Nicholas Johnson |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney