[Python-ideas] get method for sets?

[Ethan Furman]

Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> 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))


Don't forget the doc string!

     "returns an arbitrary element from set s"

~Ethan~