, 1 min read
Speed up Python without effort using generator expressions
Here are two ways to count the numbers from 1 to 1000000 in Python. First, the classical way:
sum([i for i in xrange(1000000)])
Runs 0.8s on an old Linux box. It uses quite a bit of memory.
Second, the better way:
sum((i for i in xrange(1000000)))
Runs 0.2s on the same box. It uses a tiny amount of memory.
That is right. The second option is 4 times faster! According to my tests, the second option remains better even if you only sum the numbers between 1 and 1000, though the benefits are then tiny.
Note: Yes, I am aware that I could simply do 1000000*(1000000-1)/2.
Source: Parand.