this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025

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Python Performance: Why 'if not list' is 2x Faster Than Using len() (blog.codingconfessions.com)

submitted 1 week ago by jnovinger to c/python

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

I don't know about others ... but I'm not using Python for execution speed.

Typically the biggest problem in a program is not 100 million calls of len(x) == 0. If it was, the interpreter could just translate that expression during parsing.

[–] Reptorian 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This. I rarely boot up Python for the tasks I need to do, and if they are, they are one of the following:

Assistant code for other coding language
Throwaway script
Prototype before using a faster language

[–] logging_strict 2 points 1 week ago

Assuming an equivalent package is produced, what's the maintenance cost (factoring in coder availability) difference between the Python vs faster language implementations?

^^ therein lies the rub

Reminds of the expression, premature optimization is the root of all evil

if not swimming in funding, might be a darwinic move to choose the faster language and have to code everything yourself from scratch

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