Elixir MapSet vs Enum.member?

Question

I need to keep only unique values and I am confused which data structure should I use. Later on I will only read the whole data structure.

• One way is to use MapSet which will contain only unique elements.
• The second approach is to check each time with Enum.member? whether an item is already there - but I can easily guarantee that through MapSet.

I am not sure which approach is better to use in such scenario. Which is more efficient, and which is better practice?

Answer 1

If you keep your data in a MapSet, then Enum.member? will in fact call MapSet.member? underneath, so you will have all advantages of MapSet. You can see the relevant protocol implementation here.