arbitrary_element

arbitrary_element(iterable)

Returns an arbitrary element of iterable without removing it.

This is most useful for “peeking” at an arbitrary element of a set, but can be used for any list, dictionary, etc., as well.

Parameters:

iterableabc.collections.Iterable instance

Any object that implements __iter__, e.g. set, dict, list, tuple, etc.

Returns:

The object that results from next(iter(iterable))

Raises:

ValueError

If iterable is an iterator (because the current implementation of this function would consume an element from the iterator).

Notes

This function does not return a random element. If iterable is ordered, sequential calls will return the same value:

>>> l = [1, 2, 3]
>>> nx.utils.arbitrary_element(l)
1
>>> nx.utils.arbitrary_element(l)
1

Examples

Arbitrary elements from common Iterable objects:

>>> nx.utils.arbitrary_element([1, 2, 3])  # list
1
>>> nx.utils.arbitrary_element((1, 2, 3))  # tuple
1
>>> nx.utils.arbitrary_element({1, 2, 3})  # set
1
>>> d = {k: v for k, v in zip([1, 2, 3], [3, 2, 1])}
>>> nx.utils.arbitrary_element(d)  # dict_keys
1
>>> nx.utils.arbitrary_element(d.values())   # dict values
3

str is also an Iterable:

>>> nx.utils.arbitrary_element("hello")
'h'

ValueError is raised if iterable is an iterator:

>>> iterator = iter([1, 2, 3])  # Iterator, *not* Iterable
>>> nx.utils.arbitrary_element(iterator)
Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
ValueError: cannot return an arbitrary item from an iterator