The way I see grouping is as an aggregation operation. As such, in my head, grouping is similar to min/max. However, if builtins are a no-go, then I feel I need to think a little outside the box:

Is there a possibility that there will be desired many more aggregate functions in the near future? Is there a case for collecting aggregate functions into another top level module? Also, I would consider statistics to have similarities - median, mean etc are aggregate functions. Histograms are also doing something similar to grouping.

Apologies I have not offered any concrete suggestions, but just thought I should offer my thoughts.

On Thu, 5 Jul 2018, 22:24 Chris Barker via Python-ideas, <python-ideas@python.org> wrote:
On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 3:26 AM, David Mertz <mertz@gnosis.cx> wrote:
Yes, he said a definite no to a built-in. But he expressed a less specific lack of enthusiasm for collections classes (including Counter, which exists and which I personally use often).

And a Grouping class would do more than Counter, which I find trivial enough that I generally don't bother to use it.

-CHB
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Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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