basic question, sorry

[Just van Rossum]

Will Ware wrote:
> 
> Ruud de Rooij (*@spam.ruud.org) wrote:
> > dict.has_key(n)
> 
> Alternatively:
> 
> if n in dict.keys():
>         do stuff

No!! That's a linear search through the keys list. Additionally, this
key list must be created first. So this is *always* slower.

A valid alternative is:

try:
    x = dict[n]
except KeyError:
    ..key not available..
else:
    ..key is available..

If you expect the key to usually be available, the try/except approach
may be faster, but in general it's better to use has_key().

Just