[Python-Dev] Retrieve an arbitrary element from a set withoutremoving it

[Guido van Rossum]

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 11:50 AM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
> There are two ideas of set.get floating about:
> 1) get an arbitrary object
> 2) get the object in the set with the same 'value'(hash+eq) as an input arg
> (the intern case). In this case, there is a 'key', even if it is somewhat
> abstract rather that being an object.
>
> Both could be done with the same method, depending on whether an arg is
> passed or not.

My gut tells me it is bad API design to collapse these two use cases.
Probably because the implementations won't have much in common: (1)
should just pick the first valid element, while (2) should use the
normal hash lookup algorithm (shared with 'in', .add() etc.).

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)