Why is “1000000000000000 in range(1000000000000001)” so fast in Python 3?

Question

It is my understanding that the range() function, which is actually an object type in Python 3, generates its contents on the fly, similar to a generator.

Answer 1

TL;DR

The object returned by range() is actually a range object. This object implements the iterator interface so you can iterate over its values sequentially, just like a generator, list, or tuple.

But it also implements the __contains__ interface which is actually what gets called when an object appears on the right hand side of the in operator. The __contains__() method returns a bool of whether or not the item on the left-hand-side of the in is in the object. Since range objects know their bounds and stride, this is very easy to implement in O(1).