Time complexity of python set operations?
What is the the time complexity of each of python's set operations in Big O notation?
I am using Python's set type for an operation on a large number of items. I want to know how each operation's performance will be affected by the size of the set. For example, add, and the test for membership:
myset = set()
myset.add('foo')
'foo' in myset
Googling around hasn't turned up any resources, but it seems reasonable that the time complexity for Python's set implementation would have been carefully considered.
If it exists, a link to something like this would be great. If nothing like this is out there, then perhaps we can work it out?
Extra marks for finding the time complexity of all set operations.
Answer
According to Python wiki: Time complexity, set is implemented as a hash table. So you can expect to lookup/insert/delete in O(1) average. Unless your hash table's load factor is too high, then you face collisions and O(n).
P.S. for some reason they claim O(n) for delete operation which looks like a mistype.
P.P.S. This is true for CPython, pypy is a different story.