Yes, it's similar to Unix's `uniq` (which is mentioned in the doc). Some SQL stuff also requires prior sorting to work right (although usually you can't acciden

Yes, it's similar to Unix's `uniq` (which is mentioned in the doc). Some SQL stuff also requires prior sorting to work right (although usually you can't accidentally miss it). Nowadays the GNU `uniq` can sort and the `sort` can unique because there are performance benefits. Assume the same is true in Python so if worried about performance `groupby(sorted(...))` might not be the best. The other thing that is a bit odd is it returns iterators. It's up to you to build concrete groups if that's what you need.