Lists implemented as integer-hashed Dictionaries?

[Chris Rebert]

On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 7:18 PM, er <erobererunc at gmail.com> wrote:
> Somebody much more intelligent than I said today that someone told him that
> Python lists are just dictionaries with lists hashed by integers.  Since he
> said that someone else told him this, I piped up and said that I thought
> that wasn't true.  I looked at the source code for lists in python, and I
> did not expressly remember seeing dictionaries.  Unfortunately I am not
> somewhere where I can easily look at the code right now (I'm logged into
> Windows!), and I might not realize exactly what I'm looking at anyways, but
> I'd like to extend an apology to the guy soon if I was wrong.  So, can
> anyone tell me if lists are really just dictionaries?  Thanks!

They most certainly are not. This is Python, not Lua or PHP (where for
reasons I cannot fathom, they've seen fit to conflate dictionaries and
lists; although it does make slightly more sense in Lua's case)

Cheers,
Chris

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