On 4/23/2012 3:55 PM, Raymond Hettinger wrote:

On Apr 23, 2012, at 9:52 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:

However, the discoverability of this solution is essentially zero 

That exact code has been in the documentation for years:

def powerset(iterable):
    "powerset([1,2,3]) --> () (1,) (2,) (3,) (1,2) (1,3) (2,3) (1,2,3)"
    s = list(iterable)
    return chain.from_iterable(combinations(s, r) for r in range(len(s)+1))

The whole purpose of the itertools recipes are to teach how
the itertools can be readily combined to build new tools.

http://docs.python.org/library/itertools.html#module-itertools


Raymond's "that code has been in the docs for years," and Steven's "the discoverability of this solution is essentially zero" are not contradictions.  It sounds like we need a better way to find the information in the itertools docs.  For example, there is no index entry for "powerset", and I don't know what term Steven tried looking it up with.  Sounds like you two could work together to make people more aware of the tools we've already got.

--Ned.

Raymond


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