Eagle Eye Networks Inc. :: Python screening sample - Duplication

pyscreen_sample_4.py

"""
::Eagle Eye Networks Inc.::: 
::Python screening::

The 'has_dups' function checks an array for
duplicate strings.  It's pretty inefficient.

Improve the 'has_dups' function and explain 
how you improved it.
"""
import string
import random
import cProfile

def make_id(N):
    """Makes a random N length string of capital letters and numbers"""
    return ''.join(random.choice(string.ascii_uppercase + string.digits) for _ in range(N))

def gen_ids(count):
    return [make_id(8) for _ in xrange(0, count)]


def has_dups(ids):
    """Check for duplicates"""
    for i, id in enumerate(ids):
        # check only the tail for the existence of id
        if id in ids[i+1:]:
            return True
    return False

if __name__ == "__main__":
    ids = gen_ids(10000)
    cProfile.run("print has_dups(ids)")

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