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Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered?

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In article <mailman.14101.1411042251.18130.python-list@python.org>,
 Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 9:55 PM, cool-RR <ram.rachum@gmail.com> wrote:
> > My function gets an iterable of an unknown type. I want to check whether 
> > it's ordered. I could check whether it's a `set` or `frozenset`, which 
> > would cover many cases, but I wonder if I can do better. Is there a nicer 
> > way to check whether an iterable is ordered or not?
> >
> 
> An iterable is always ordered. You call next() and you get the next
> value.

I suspect what he meant was "How can I tell if I'm iterating over an 
ordered collection?", i.e. iterating over a list vs. iterating over a 
set.

Is there anything which requires an iterator to be deterministic?  For 
example, let's say I have an iterable, i, and I do:

list1 = [item for item in i]
list2 = [item for item in i]

am I guaranteed that list1 == list2?  It will be for all the collections 
I can think of in the standard library, but if I wrote my own class with 
an __iter__() which yielded the items in a non-deterministic order, 
would I be violating something other than the principle of least 
astonishment?

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Thread

Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? cool-RR <ram.rachum@gmail.com> - 2014-09-18 04:55 -0700
  Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-09-18 22:10 +1000
    Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2014-09-18 08:58 -0400
      Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-09-18 23:33 +1000
        Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2014-09-18 19:52 -0400
          Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-09-19 12:45 +1000
          Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2014-09-19 18:02 -0400
          Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-09-20 15:01 +1000
      Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2014-09-18 09:46 -0400
      Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2014-09-18 09:32 -0500
      Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-09-19 15:15 +1000
        Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-09-19 15:40 +1000
          Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-09-19 20:59 +1000
            Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-09-19 21:19 +1000
              Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-09-19 21:58 +1000
                Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-09-19 22:06 +1000
            Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-09-19 21:25 +1000
              Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-09-19 21:46 +1000
                Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-09-19 21:56 +1000
                Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? alister <alister.nospam.ware@ntlworld.com> - 2014-09-19 12:26 +0000
                Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-09-19 22:36 +1000
  Re: Is there a canonical way to check whether an iterable is ordered? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-09-19 15:04 +1000

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