[Python-Dev] Candidate Itertools

[Chermside, Michael]

[Michael Chermside]
> Is the behavior of count_elements() exactly the same as
> the given python equivalent when one (or more) of the
> elements in the iterable is not hashable?

[Raymond Hettinger]
> That was the original idea; however, we could easily keep a separate
> list of identity comparisons for unhashables

If you do indeed handle unhashables, then I think this interface
seems useful, although I'd order it (elem, cnt) so that when
everything IS hashable a dict can be built via
    dict(*count_elements(iterable))
If you do NOT handle unhashables, then I'd agree with Bob that
we should just return the dict itself -- that's the most natural
data structure for expressing a bunch of counts available in
Python. And I think the function is worth including.

-- Michael Chermside


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