The rap against "while True:" loops

[Hendrik van Rooyen]

On Sunday, 18 October 2009 11:31:19 Paul Rubin wrote:
> Hendrik van Rooyen <hendrik at microcorp.co.za> writes:
> > Standard Python idiom:
> >
> > if key in d:
> >   d[key] += value
> > else:
> >   d[key] = value
>
> The issue is that uses two lookups.  If that's ok, the more usual idiom is:
>
>   d[key] = value + d.get(key, 0)

I was actually just needling Aahz a bit.  The point I was trying to make 
subliminally, was that there is a relative cost of double lookup for all 
cases versus exceptions for some cases. - Depending on the frequency 
of "some", I would expect a breakeven point.

- Hendrik