25.9.2 Examples

Here are two example sessions (one using the command line, one using the module interface) that compare the cost of using hasattr() vs. try/except to test for missing and present object attributes.

% timeit.py 'try:' ' str.__nonzero__' 'except AttributeError:' ' pass'
100000 loops, best of 3: 15.7 usec per loop
% timeit.py 'if hasattr(str, "__nonzero__"): pass'
100000 loops, best of 3: 4.26 usec per loop
% timeit.py 'try:' ' int.__nonzero__' 'except AttributeError:' ' pass'
1000000 loops, best of 3: 1.43 usec per loop
% timeit.py 'if hasattr(int, "__nonzero__"): pass'
100000 loops, best of 3: 2.23 usec per loop

>>> import timeit
>>> s = """\
... try:
... str.__nonzero__
... except AttributeError:
... pass
... """
>>> t = timeit.Timer(stmt=s)
>>> print "%.2f usec/pass" % (1000000 * t.timeit(number=100000)/100000)
17.09 usec/pass
>>> s = """\
... if hasattr(str, '__nonzero__'): pass
... """
>>> t = timeit.Timer(stmt=s)
>>> print "%.2f usec/pass" % (1000000 * t.timeit(number=100000)/100000)
4.85 usec/pass
>>> s = """\
... try:
... int.__nonzero__
... except AttributeError:
... pass
... """
>>> t = timeit.Timer(stmt=s)
>>> print "%.2f usec/pass" % (1000000 * t.timeit(number=100000)/100000)
1.97 usec/pass
>>> s = """\
... if hasattr(int, '__nonzero__'): pass
... """
>>> t = timeit.Timer(stmt=s)
>>> print "%.2f usec/pass" % (1000000 * t.timeit(number=100000)/100000)
3.15 usec/pass

To give the timeit module access to functions you define, you can pass a setup parameter which contains an import statement:

def test():
 "Stupid test function"
 L = []
 for i in range(100):
 L.append(i)
if __name__=='__main__':
 from timeit import Timer
 t = Timer("test()", "from __main__ import test")
 print t.timeit()

Python Library Reference

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Release 2.5, documentation updated on 19th September, 2006.

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