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From: Dan Goodman <dg.gmane@thesamovar.net>
Subject: Re: Comparing strings from the back?
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2012 19:32:48 +0200
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:28837

On 10/09/2012 18:33, Oscar Benjamin wrote:
> Computing the hash always requires iterating over all characters in the string
> so is best case O(N) where string comparison is best case (and often average
> case) O(1).

Yep, but you already have O(N) costs just creating the strings in the 
first place, so it's absorbed into that. It's only worth doing if you do 
many comparisons.

> Also, so far as I know the hash value once computed is stored on the string
> object itself [1] and used for subsequent string comparisons so there's no
> need for you to do that in your code.

Cool, Python is very clever as always! :)

Dan