Esmail wrote:
Esmail wrote:
What is the best way to compare the *contents* of two different
lists regardless of their respective order? The lists will have
the same number of items, and be of the same type.
E.g. a trivial example (my lists will be larger),
a=[1, 2, 3]
b=[2, 3, 1]
should yield true if a==b
I suppose I could sort them and then compare them. I.e.,
sorted(a)==sorted(b)
I am wondering if there is a more efficient/preferred way to do so.
oh, I forgot to mention that each list may contain duplicates. So I
suppose this means I would have to sort the two lists and compare them
afterall, unless there's another way?
You could use Raymond Hettinger's Counter class:
http://code.activestate.com/recipes/576611/
on both lists and compare them for equality.
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