Alex,
Wow, that method turns out to be the fastest so far in a simple benchmark on Python2.3 (on my machine, of course, YMMV); it takes 14% less time than the one that I deemed most straightforward. :)
Thanks, Alan
Alex Martelli wrote:
Hmmmm, what role does the enumeration play here? I don't see how you're using it, at all. Why not just:
def collapse(iterable): it = iter(iterable) lastitem = it.next() yield lastitem for item in it: if item != lastitem: yield item lastitem = item
that's basically just the same as your code but without the strangeness of making an enumerate for the purpose of ignoring what the enumerate adds to an ordinary iterator.
Alex
-- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
