[Python-Dev] Retrieve an arbitrary element from asetwithoutremoving it

[Chris Bergstresser]

On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 5:02 PM, Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com> wrote:
> Forgot to post the code.  It is short, fast, and easy.  It is explicit about
> handing the case with an empty input.  And it is specific about which value
> it returns (always the first iterated value; not an arbitrary one).  There's
> no guessing about what it does.  It gets the job done.

    I'm trying to take this suggestion in the best possible light,
which is that you honestly think I didn't read past Chapter 3 of the
Python Tutorial, and I am therefore in fact unfamiliar with function
definitions.

-- Chris