Using Python to write faster code

The first way to make Python code run faster is to know all features of the language. Python brings many syntax features and modules in the standard library that run much faster than anything you could write by hand. Moreover, although Python may be slow if you write in Python like you would write in C or Java, it is often fast enough when you write Pythonic code.

In this section, we show how badly-written Python code can be significantly improved when using all the features of the language.

Note

Leveraging NumPy for efficient array operations is of course another possibility that we explored in the Introducing the multidimensional array in NumPy for fast array computations recipe in Chapter 1, A Tour of Interactive Computing with Jupyter and IPython. This recipe focuses on cases where, for one reason or another, depending on and using NumPy is not a possible or desirable option. For example, operations on dictionaries, graphs, or text may be easier to write...