Aloysio Figueiredo schrieb: >> if sig not in d.keys(): >> >> >> > >Have you tried > > if sig not in d.iterkeys(): > >? > Yes. It's only slightly faster that if sig not in d.keys(), i. e. still much slower than if sig in d by a factor of 180 for a 20000-item list. Gregor >Aloysio > >