Python SortedContainers

.. image:: https://api.travis-ci.org/grantjenks/sorted_containers.svg :target: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/

SortedContainers_ is an Apache2 licensed sorted collections library_, written in pure-Python, and fast as C-extensions.

Python's standard library is great until you need a sorted collections type. Many will attest that you can get really far without one, but the moment you really need a sorted list, dict, or set, you're faced with a dozen different implementations, most using C-extensions without great documentation and benchmarking.

In Python, we can do better. And we can do it in pure-Python!

.. code-block:: python

>>> sl = sortedcontainers.SortedList(xrange(10000000))
>>> 1234567 in sl
True
>>> sl[7654321]
7654321
>>> sl.add(1234567)
>>> sl.count(1234567)
2
>>> sl *= 3
>>> len(sl)
30000003

Note: don't try this without at least a half gigabyte of memory. In Python an integer requires about 24 bytes. SortedList will add about 8 bytes per object stored in the container. That's pretty hard to beat as it's the cost of a pointer to each object. It's also 66% less overhead than a typical binary tree implementation (e.g. red-black tree, avl tree, aa tree, splay tree, treap, etc.) for which every node must also store two pointers to children nodes.

SortedContainers_ takes all of the work out of Python sorted collections - making your deployment and use of Python easy. There's no need to install a C compiler or pre-build and distribute custom extensions. Performance is a feature and testing has 100% coverage with unit tests and hours of stress.

.. _SortedContainers: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/ .. _sorted collections library: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/

Testimonials

Alex Martelli, Wikipedia_

Good stuff! ... I like the simple, effective implementation_ idea of splitting the sorted containers into smaller "fragments" to avoid the O(N) insertion costs.

.. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlexMartelli .. _simple, effective implementation: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/implementation.html

Jeff Knupp, Review of SortedContainers_

That last part, "fast as C-extensions," was difficult to believe. I would need some sort of Performance Comparison_ to be convinced this is true. The author includes this in the docs. It is.

.. _Review of SortedContainers: http://reviews.jeffknupp.com/reviews/sortedcontainers/3/

Kevin Samuel, Formations Python_

I'm quite amazed, not just by the code quality (it's incredibly readable and has more comment than code, wow), but the actual amount of work you put at stuff that is not code: documentation, benchmarking, implementation explanations. Even the git log is clean and the unit tests run out of the box on Python 2 and 3.

.. _Formations Python: http://formationspython.com/

Mark Summerfield, a short plea for Python Sorted Collections_

Python's "batteries included" standard library seems to have a battery missing. And the argument that "we never had it before" has worn thin. It is time that Python offered a full range of collection classes out of the box, including sorted ones.

.. _Python Sorted Collections: http://www.qtrac.eu/pysorted.html

Features

Pure-Python
Fully documented
Benchmark comparison (alternatives, runtimes, load-factors)
100% test coverage
Hours of stress testing
Performance matters (often faster than C implementations)
Compatible API (nearly identical to popular blist and rbtree modules)
Feature-rich (e.g. get the five largest keys in a sorted dict: d.iloc[-5:])
Pragmatic design (e.g. SortedSet is a Python set with a SortedList index)
Developed on Python 2.7
Tested on CPython 2.6, 2.7, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and PyPy 5.1+, PyPy3 2.4+

Quickstart

Installing SortedContainers_ is simple with pip <http://www.pip-installer.org/>_::

$ pip install sortedcontainers

You can access documentation in the interpreter with Python's built-in help function:

.. code-block:: python

>>> from sortedcontainers import SortedList, SortedSet, SortedDict
>>> help(SortedList)

Documentation

Complete documentation including performance comparisons is available at http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/ .

User Guide ..........

For those wanting more details, this part of the documentation describes introduction, implementation, performance, and development.

Introduction_
Performance Comparison_
Load Factor Performance Comparison_
Runtime Performance Comparison_
Simulated Workload Performance Comparison_
Implementation Details_
Performance at Scale_
Developing and Contributing_
Release History_

.. _Introduction: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/introduction.html .. _Performance Comparison: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/performance.html .. _Load Factor Performance Comparison: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/performance-load.html .. _Runtime Performance Comparison: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/performance-runtime.html .. _Simulated Workload Performance Comparison: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/performance-workload.html .. _Implementation Details: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/implementation.html .. _Performance at Scale: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/performance-scale.html .. _Developing and Contributing: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/development.html .. _Release History: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/history.html

API Documentation .................

If you are looking for information on a specific function, class or method, this part of the documentation is for you.

SortedList_
SortedListWithKey_
SortedDict_
SortedSet_

.. _SortedList: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/sortedlist.html .. _SortedListWithKey: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/sortedlistwithkey.html .. _SortedDict: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/sorteddict.html .. _SortedSet: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/sortedset.html

Talks

Python Sorted Collections | PyCon 2016 Talk_
SF Python Holiday Party 2015 Lightning Talk_
DjangoCon 2015 Lightning Talk_

.. _Python Sorted Collections | PyCon 2016 Talk: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/pycon-2016-talk.html .. _SF Python Holiday Party 2015 Lightning Talk: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/sf-python-2015-lightning-talk.html .. _DjangoCon 2015 Lightning Talk: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/djangocon-2015-lightning-talk.html

Contribute

Collaborators are welcome!

. Check for open issues or open a fresh issue to start a discussion around a

bug. There is a Contributor Friendly tag for issues that should be used by people who are not very familiar with the codebase yet.

. Fork the `SortedContainers repository

https://github.com/grantjenks/sorted_containers`_ on GitHub and start making your changes to a new branch.

. Write a test which shows that the bug was fixed.

. Send a pull request and bug the maintainer until it gets merged and

published.

Useful Links

SortedContainers Documentation_
SortedContainers at PyPI_
SortedContainers at Github_
SortedContainers Issue Tracker_

.. SortedContainers Documentation: http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/ .. _SortedContainers at PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/sortedcontainers .. _SortedContainers at Github: https://github.com/grantjenks/sortedcontainers .. SortedContainers Issue Tracker: https://github.com/grantjenks/sortedcontainers/issues

SortedContainers License

Copyright 2014-2016 Grant Jenks

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

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