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From: Chris Torek <nospam@torek.net>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Subject: Re: Converting a set into list
Date: 15 May 2011 02:11:11 GMT
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References: <iqlgj4$iet$1@speranza.aioe.org> <87iptdid68.fsf@benfinney.id.au> <iqm4tk$3sl$1@speranza.aioe.org> <871v00j2bh.fsf@benfinney.id.au>
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Originator: torek@elf.torek.net (Chris Torek)
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In article <871v00j2bh.fsf@benfinney.id.au>
Ben Finney  <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> wrote:
>As pointed out: you already know how to create a set from an object;
>creating a list from an object is very similar:
>
>    list(set(aa))
>
>But why are you doing that? What are you trying to achieve?

I have no idea why someone *else* is doing that, but I have used
this very expression to unique-ize a list:

    >>> x = [3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6]
    >>> x
    [3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6]
    >>> list(set(x))
    [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9]
    >>>

Of course, this trick only works if all the list elements are
hashable.

This might not be the best example since the result is sorted
"by accident", while other list(set(...)) results are not.  Add
sorted() or .sort() if needed:

    >>> x = ['three', 'one', 'four', 'one', 'five']
    >>> x
    ['three', 'one', 'four', 'one', 'five']
    >>> list(set(x))
    ['four', 'five', 'three', 'one']
    >>> sorted(list(set(x)))
    ['five', 'four', 'one', 'three']
    >>> 
-- 
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