Complexity of len() with regard to sets and lists

Question

The complexity of len() with regards to sets and lists is equally O(1). How come it takes more time to process sets?

~$ python -m timeit \"a=[1,2,3,         


        

Answer 1

The relevant lines are http://svn.python.org/view/python/trunk/Objects/setobject.c?view=markup#l640

640     static Py_ssize_t
641     set_len(PyObject *so)
642     {
643         return ((PySetObject *)so)->used;
644     }

and http://svn.python.org/view/python/trunk/Objects/listobject.c?view=markup#l431

431     static Py_ssize_t
432     list_length(PyListObject *a)
433     {
434         return Py_SIZE(a);
435     }

Both are only a static lookup.

So what is the difference you may ask. You measure the creation of the objects, too. And it is a little more time consuming to create a set than a list.