Diez B. Roggisch wrote:
>> The implementation is certainly a design decision. setdefault() could be
>> implemented in terms of __set/getitem__() as
>>
>> def setdefault(self, key, value=None):
>> try:
>> return self[key]
>> except KeyError:
>> self[key] = value
>> return self[key]
>>
>> I guess it's not done for performance reasons.
>
> Nope. What if you changed your default value? Then you'd have to update
> the whole dictionary - but without keeping track of the keys you placed
> the default value under that isn't possible. Which strikes me as
> more-than-marginal overhead - without any advantage (as using
> __setitem__ for the default value isn't something I consider being a
> missing feature...)
Are we talking about the same setdefault()?
setdefault(...)
D.setdefault(k[,d]) -> D.get(k,d), also set D[k]=d if k not in D
There is no per-instance default value just on per call:
>>> d = {}
>>> d.setdefault("a", 1)
1
>>> d.setdefault("a", 42)
1
I'm sure there is a misunderstanding in our conversation, I'm just not able
to nail it...
Peter
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