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Groups > comp.lang.python > #61632

Re: Optimizing list processing

Date 2013-12-12 00:59 +0000
From MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com>
Subject Re: Optimizing list processing
References <52a8fb2d$0$29992$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.python
Message-ID <mailman.3942.1386809980.18130.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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On 11/12/2013 23:54, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> I have some code which produces a list from an iterable using at least
> one temporary list, using a Decorate-Sort-Undecorate idiom. The algorithm
> looks something like this (simplified):
>
> table = sorted([(x, i) for i,x in enumerate(iterable)])
> table = [i for x,i in table]
>
> The problem here is that for large iterables, say 10 million items or so,
> this is *painfully* slow, as my system has to page memory like mad to fit
> two large lists into memory at once. So I came up with an in-place
> version that saves (approximately) two-thirds of the memory needed.
>
> table = [(x, i) for i,x in enumerate(iterable)]
> table.sort()

This looks wrong to me:

> for x, i in table:
>      table[i] = x

Couldn't it replace an item it'll need later on?

Let me see if I can find an example where it would fail.

Start with:

 >>> table = [('b', 0), ('a', 1)]

Sort it and you get:

 >>> table.sort()
 >>> table
[('a', 1), ('b', 0)]

Run that code:

 >>> for x, i in table:
	table[i] = x

	
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<pyshell#18>", line 1, in <module>
     for x, i in table:
ValueError: need more than 1 value to unpack

Why did it fail?

 >>> table
[('a', 1), 'a']

The 2 methods give different results anyway: the first returns a list
of indexes, and the second returns a list of items from the iterable.

[snip]

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Thread

Optimizing list processing Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-12-11 23:54 +0000
  Re: Optimizing list processing MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2013-12-12 00:59 +0000
    Re: Optimizing list processing Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-12-12 01:43 +0000
      Re: Optimizing list processing MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2013-12-12 02:09 +0000
  Re: Optimizing list processing duncan smith <buzzard@invalid.invalid> - 2013-12-12 01:02 +0000
  Re: Optimizing list processing Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2013-12-12 12:18 +1100
  Re: Optimizing list processing Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2013-12-11 21:26 -0500
    Re: Optimizing list processing Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-12-12 12:08 +0000
      Re: Optimizing list processing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-12-12 23:25 +1100
      Re: Optimizing list processing MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2013-12-12 13:32 +0000
      Re: Optimizing list processing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-12-13 01:06 +1100
      Re: Optimizing list processing Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2013-12-12 13:40 -0500
        Re: Optimizing list processing Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-12-13 00:14 +0000
          Re: Optimizing list processing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-12-13 12:01 +1100
  Re: Optimizing list processing Stefan Behnel <stefan_ml@behnel.de> - 2013-12-12 12:09 +0100
  Re: Optimizing list processing Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2013-12-12 16:08 +0100
    Re: Optimizing list processing Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-12-13 03:01 +0000
      Re: Optimizing list processing rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-12-12 21:35 -0800
  Re: Optimizing list processing Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2013-12-12 13:07 -0500

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