Fast Dictionary Access

[Thomas Lehmann]

Hi!

In C++, programming STL you will use the insert method which always
provides a position and a flag which indicates whether the position
results from a new insertion or an exisiting element. Idea is to have
one search only.

<code>
if  data.has_key(key):
   value = data[key]
</code>

But this does mean (does it?) that the dictionary is searched two
times! If so, can somebody show me how to do this in one step?