[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > do it this way am I going to get the memory savings I am after? Will > the hash function always generate unique keys? Also, would the same > technique work for a set?
A hash function that always generates unique hashes is called a perfect hash. They tend to be slow, and of course, to generate one, you need to know all the keys in advance. If you use a long cryptographic hash like md5 or sha, the chances of collision is very small. That's probably your best bet. In general, if your hash is N bits long, you will probably get collisions once you have around 2**(N/2) keys. sha is a 160 bit hash so getting collisions by accident is extremely unlikely. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
