Question

I’m new to Clojure. Apologies if it’s a stupid question!

Should I use a set instead of a vector or list each time I don’t care about the order of the items? What is the common criteria to decide between these three when order is not necessary?

Answer 1

It really depends on how you will be using the items.

• If you will be searching for items, use a set.
• If you will be processing it sequentially use a list.
• If you will be chopping it into even sized chunks (like while sorting) use a vector.
• If you need to count the length use a vector.
• If you will be typing these by hand use a vector (to save a little quoting)

In practice most of the processing I see involves turning the data into a seq and processing that so the distinctions between list and vector are often a matter personal taste.