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

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, 4 Nov 2009 10:10:30 am Guido van Rossum wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 2:46 PM, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> 
wrote:
> > Since I was the person who decided that "arbitrary" meant "give a
> > different result each time", I should answer that.

> You're obviously talking about a *random* element. This is a separate
> use case (though I agree many people don't know the difference).

I'm aware of the difference between random and arbitrary, and in an 
earlier post I said that the One Obvious Way of getting a random 
element from a list would be to convert to a list and call 
random.choice(). Sorry for muddying the waters by linking to a page 
discussing such random selections.


-- 
Steven D'Aprano