From: Eli Bendersky Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2015 03:20:36 +0000 (-0700) Subject: Issue #23549: Clarify confusion in heapq doc - accessing the mininmal element X-Git-Tag: v2.7.10rc1~126 X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=9872ad46d5c8b91caba942e87d9fe6d00843a518;p=thirdparty%2FPython%2Fcpython.git Issue #23549: Clarify confusion in heapq doc - accessing the mininmal element The current documentation only mentions heap[0] as the smallest element in the beginning, and not in any of the methods' docs. There's no method to access the minimal element without popping it, and the documentation of nsmallest is confusing because it may suggest that min() is the way to go for n==1. default --- diff --git a/Doc/library/heapq.rst b/Doc/library/heapq.rst index cfc6296148a8..a7d1f450944e 100644 --- a/Doc/library/heapq.rst +++ b/Doc/library/heapq.rst @@ -49,7 +49,8 @@ The following functions are provided: .. function:: heappop(heap) Pop and return the smallest item from the *heap*, maintaining the heap - invariant. If the heap is empty, :exc:`IndexError` is raised. + invariant. If the heap is empty, :exc:`IndexError` is raised. To access the + smallest item without popping it, use ``heap[0]``. .. function:: heappushpop(heap, item) @@ -125,7 +126,8 @@ The module also offers three general purpose functions based on heaps. The latter two functions perform best for smaller values of *n*. For larger values, it is more efficient to use the :func:`sorted` function. Also, when ``n==1``, it is more efficient to use the built-in :func:`min` and :func:`max` -functions. +functions. If repeated usage of these functions is required, consider turning +the iterable into an actual heap. Basic Examples