Complexity of standard Python data structures (Re: Speed of string += string)

[Tim Peters]

[Marcus Alanen]
> ...
> As an example of "unfinished" interfaces: there is no list.clear()
> function, even though dict.clear()

If you want to clear a list,

   del list[:]

is the usual way to spell it;

   list[:] = []

is also sometimes used.  So there isn't a need for a list.clear() method.
dict.clear() can't be spelled efficiently in any other way.


> ...
> If somebody would say "python's list is a really a vector/array",
> that's more or less the only documentation one will ever need,
> help(list) tells the rest. The key characteristics are obvious from
> that one single sentence, right?

I believe they would be to you, but I also believe you're in a minority
there.

Note that it's not true that Python's list is really a vector/array -- the
language doesn't define its implementation, and doesn't want to.  It is true
that Python's lists have been implemented as contiguous vectors in the C
implementations of Python so far.  I don't know how Jython implements Python
lists, or how Vyper did (a Python derivative implemented in the functional
Ocaml language).