Summary

Python has quite a few very useful collections built in. Since more and more collections are added regularly, the best thing to do is simply keep track of the collections manual. And do you ever wonder how or why any of the structures works? Just look at the source here:

https://hg.python.org/cpython/file/default/Lib/collections/__init__.py

After finishing this chapter, you should be aware of both the core collections and the most important collections from the collections module, but more importantly the performance characteristics of these collections in several scenarios. Selecting the correct data structure within your applications is by far the most important performance factor that your code will ever experience, making this essential knowledge for any programmer.

Next, we will continue with functional programming which covers lambda functions, list comprehensions, dict comprehensions, set comprehensions and an array of related topics. This includes some background information on the mathematics involved which could be interesting but can safely be skipped.