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python-3.xlistfind-occurrences

What is the best possible way to find the first AND the last occurrences of an element in a list in Python?


The basic way I usually use is by using the list.index(element) and reversed_list.index(element), but this fails when I need to search for many elements and the length of the list is too large say 10^5 or say 10^6 or even larger than that. What is the best possible way (which uses very little time) for the same?


Solution

  • Well, someone needs to do the work in finding the element, and in a large list this can take time! Without more information or a code example, it'll be difficult to help you, but usually the go-to answer is to use another data structure- for example, if you can keep your elements in a dictionary instead of a list with the key being the element and the value being an array of indices, you'll be much quicker.