The need for efficient coding I

Writing Efficient Code with pandas

Leonidas Souliotis

PhD Researcher

How do we measure time?

time.time(): returns current time in seconds since 12:00am, January 1, 1970

import time

# record time before execution
start_time = time.time()

# execute operation
result = 5 + 2

# record time after execution
end_time = time.time()

print("Result calculated in {} sec".format(end_time - start_time))

Result calculated in 9.48905944824e-05 sec

For loop vs List comprehension

List comprehension:

list_comp_start_time = time.time()
result = [i*i for i in range(0,1000000)]
list_comp_end_time = time.time()
print("Time using the list_comprehension: {} sec".format(list_comp_end_time - 
list_comp_start_time))

For loop:

for_loop_start_time= time.time()
result=[]
for i in range(0,1000000):
  result.append(i*i)
for_loop_end_time= time.time()
print("Time using the for loop: {} sec".format(for_loop_end_time - for_loop_start_time))

For loop vs List comprehension II

Time using the list comprehension: 0.11042404174804688 sec

Time using the for loop: 0.2071230411529541 sec

list_comp_time = list_comp_end_time - list_comp_start_time
for_loop_time = for_loop_end_time - for_loop_start_time
print("Difference in time: {} %".format((for_loop_time - list_comp_time)/
list_comp_time*100))

Difference in time: 87.55527367398622 %

Where time matters I

Calculate $1+2+...+1000000$.

Adding numbers one by one:

def sum_brute_force(N):
    res = 0
    for i in range(1,N+1):
        res+=i
    return res

Using $\footnotesize 1 + 2 +... + N = \dfrac{N\cdot(N+1)}{2}$

def sum_formula(N):
    return N*(N+1)/2

Where time matters II

Using the formula:

# Using the formula
formula_start_time = time.time()
formula_result = formula(1000000)
formula_end_time = time.time()

print("Time using the formula: {} 
sec".format(formula_end_time - formula_start_time))

Using the formula: 0.000108957290649 sec

Using brute force:

# Using brute force
bf_start_time = time.time()
bf_result = sum_brute_force(1000000)
bf_end_time = time.time()

print("Time using brute force: {} 
sec".format(bf_end_time - start_time))

Time using brute force: 0.174870967865 sec

Difference in speed: 160,394.967179%

Let's do it!

Writing Efficient Code with pandas