Provide a comparison to the builtin set types.

This commit is contained in:
Raymond Hettinger 2005-07-01 23:00:13 +00:00
parent c418cc81ae
commit 16ffbc3d10
1 changed files with 32 additions and 2 deletions

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@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ The following table lists operations available in \class{Set}
but not found in \class{ImmutableSet}:
\begin{tableiii}{c|c|l}{code}{Operation}{Equivalent}{Result}
\lineiii{\var{s}.union_update(\var{t})}
\lineiii{\var{s}.update(\var{t})}
{\var{s} \textbar= \var{t}}
{return set \var{s} with elements added from \var{t}}
\lineiii{\var{s}.intersection_update(\var{t})}
@ -161,12 +161,17 @@ but not found in \class{ImmutableSet}:
{remove all elements from set \var{s}}
\end{tableiii}
Note, the non-operator versions of \method{union_update()},
Note, the non-operator versions of \method{update()},
\method{intersection_update()}, \method{difference_update()}, and
\method{symmetric_difference_update()} will accept any iterable as
an argument.
\versionchanged[Formerly all arguments were required to be sets]{2.3.1}
Also note, the module also includes a \method{union_update()} method
which is an alias for \method{update()}. The method is included for
backwards compatability. Programmers should prefer the
\method{update()} method because it the one supported by the builtin
\class{set()} and \class{frozenset()} types.
\subsection{Example \label{set-example}}
@ -231,3 +236,28 @@ user; however, a conflict can arise in a multi-threaded environment
where one thread is updating a set while another has temporarily wrapped it
in \class{_TemporarilyImmutableSet}. In other words, sets of mutable sets
are not thread-safe.
\subsection{Comparison to the built-in \class{set} types
\label{comparison-to-builtin-set}}
The built-in \class{set} and \class{frozenset} types were designed based
on lessons learned from the \module{sets} module. The key differences are:
\begin{itemize}
\item \class{Set} and \class{ImmutableSet} were renamed to \class{set} and
\class{frozenset}.
\item There is no equivalent to \class{BaseSet}. Instead, use
\code{isinstance(x, (set, frozenset))}.
\item The hash algorithm for the built-ins performs significantly better
(fewer collisions) for most datasets.
\item The built-in versions have more space efficient pickles.
\item The built-in versions do not have a \method{union_update()} method.
Instead, use the \method{update()} method which is equivalent.
\item The built-in versions do not have a \method{_repr(sort=True)} method.
Instead, use the built-in \function{repr()} and \function{sorted()}
functions: \code{repr(sorted(s))}.
\item The built-in version does not have a protocol for automatic conversion
to immutable. Many found this feature to be confusing and no one
in the community reported having found real uses for it.
\end{itemize}