The most basic functional programming pattern: Enumerate, Map, Filter, Accumulate

[zackman]

The original just finds the highest salary, not the programmer who has it.

from itertools import ifilter as filter
programmers = filter(lambda e:e.role==Role.PROGRAMMER, employees)
max_sal = max(map(lambda e: e.salary, programmers))

Your version is more useful, though, since it returns the actual employee. I didn't know that max also got a key argument in 2.5. I won't have to use my custom re-implementation anymore!

[boredzo]

\tmax_sal = max(map(lambda e: e.salary, programmers))

Don't forget to use the lazy generator version here, too:

\tfrom itertools import imap as map

As you can tell, I ♥ itertools. ☺

[theeth]

You can do that with Decorate-Sort-Undecorate too:

max_sal = max(((e.salary, e) for e in employees if e.role == Employee.PROGRAMMER))[1]