Access the sole element of a set

Question

I have a set in Python from which I am removing elements one by one based on a condition. When the set is left with just 1 element, I need to return that elemen

Answer 1

I would use:

e = next(iter(S))

This is non-destructive and works even when there is more than one element in the set. Even better, it has an option to supply a default value e = next(iter(S), default).

You could also use unpacking:

[e] = S

The unpacking technique is likely to be the fastest way and it includes error checking to make sure the set has only one member. The downside is that it looks weird.