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2023-04-20 Python

10 Python Performance Tips

DRAFT#

Readability counts

Use discretion. Oftentimes code being obvious to the reader is a greater gain than nanoseconds of performance. Not always.

IO bound performance bottlenecks are usually several orders of magnitude greater than CPU bound bottlenecks.

  1. Use tuples over lists where the data does not change after creation. Tuples store less data in memory than lists and use resource caching - so can be instantiated quicker. Where the number of elements is 1 to 20 - the garbage collector does not give the data back to the system. So the addresses can be reused without a system call.
  2. Allocate lists with a list comprehension over use of append. Using append overallocates memory.
  3. Use sets when unique data is needed