data structuresalgorithmsand code simplification function description returns < returns > returns (bitwise andreturns (bitwise orxor(abreturns (bitwise xornot_(areturns not lt(abreturns le(abreturns < eq(abreturns = ne(abreturns ! gt(abreturns ge(abreturns > truth(areturns true if is truefalse otherwise concat(abreturns for sequences repeat(abreturns for sequence and integer contains(abreturns the result of in countof(abreturns the number of occurrences of in indexof(abreturns the index of the first occurrence of in getitem(abreturns [bsetitem(abca [bc delitem(abdel [bgetslice(abcreturns [ :csetslice(abcvsets [ :cv delslice(abcdel [ :cis_(aba is is_not(aba is not lshift(abrshift(aband_(abor_(abat first glanceit might not be obvious why anyone would want to use these functions because the operations they perform can easily be accomplished by simply typing the normal syntax where these functions are useful is when working with code uses callback functions and where you might otherwise be defining an anonymous function with lambda for exampleconsider the following timing benchmark that uses the functools reduce(functionfrom timeit import timeit timeit("reduce(operator add, )","import operatora range( )" timeit("reduce(lambda ,yx+ , )","import operatora range( )" in the examplenotice how using operator add as the callback runs more than twice as fast as the version that uses lambda ,yx+ lib fl ff