dict is really slow for big truck

[MRAB]

Scott David Daniels wrote:
> Bruno Desthuilliers wrote:
>> d = {}
>> for line in open(thefile):
>>    arr = line.strip().split()
>>    d[arr[0]] = arr
> 
> Sorry, not picking on Bruno in particular, but I keep seeing
> this formulation around various places.
> When does line.strip().split() ever differ from line.split()?
> 
http://www.python.org/doc/current/library/stdtypes.html?highlight=split#str.split

If sep is not specified or is None, a different splitting algorithm is 
applied: runs of consecutive whitespace are regarded as a single 
separator, and the result will contain no empty strings at the start or 
end if the string has leading or trailing whitespace. Consequently, 
splitting an empty string or a string consisting of just whitespace with 
a None separator returns [].