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

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> 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.

I read Raymond's suggestion rather as a question: why bother with a
tedious, multi-year process, when a three-line function will achieve
exactly the same?

Regards,
Martin