[Python-ideas] get method for sets?

[Steven D'Aprano]

Mike Meyer wrote:

> But my question was actually whether or not there was a reason for it
> not existing. Has there been a previous discussion of this?


Aye yai yai, have there ever.

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-bugs-list/2005-August/030069.html

If you have an hour or two spare, read this thread:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2009-October/093227.html

By the way, I suggest that a better name than "get" is pick(), which once was 
(but no longer is) suggested by Wikipedia as a fundamental set operation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Set_%28abstract_data_type%29&oldid=461872038#Static_sets


It seems to me that it has been removed because:

- the actual semantics of what it means to get/pick a value from
   a set are unclear; and
- few, if any, set implementations actually provide this method.

I still think your best bet is a helper function:

def pick(s):
     return next(iter(s))



-- 
Steven