python列表支持in运算符吗,在python中使用in运算符搜索列表时使用什么算法？

When using the 'in' operator to search for an item in a list e.g.

if item in list:

print item

What algorithm is used to search for this item. Is it a straight search of the list from beginning to end or does it use something like binary search?

解决方案

lists can't be assumed to be in sorted order (or any order at all), so binary search won't work. Nor can the keys be assumed to be hashable, so unlike a dict or set a hash-table lookup can't be used to accelerate the search

At a guess it's a straight-through check of every element from first to last.

I'll try and dig up the relevant Python source code.

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Edit: The Python list.__contains__() function, which implements the in operator, is defined in listobject.c:

393 static int

394 list_contains(PyListObject *a, PyObject *el)

395 {

396 Py_ssize_t i;

397 int cmp;

398

399 for (i = 0, cmp = 0 ; cmp == 0 && i < Py_SIZE(a); ++i)

400 cmp = PyObject_RichCompareBool(el, PyList_GET_ITEM(a, i),

401 Py_EQ);

402 return cmp;

403 }

It iterates over every element in the list, from the first element to the last element (or until it finds a match.) No shortcuts here.

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Edit 2: The plot thickens. If Python detects that you're testing for membership of an element in a constant list or set, like:

if letter in ['a','e','i','o','u']: # list version

if letter in {'a','e','i','o','u'}: # set version

Edit 3 [@JohnMachin]:

The constant list is optimised to a constant tuple in 2.5-2.7 and 3.1-3.3.

The constant set is optimised to a (constant) frozenset in 3.3.

See also @CoryCarson's answer.