Advanced Python Development: Using Powerful Language Features in Real-World Applications

© Matthew Wilkes 2020

M. WilkesAdvanced Python Developmenthttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5793-7_10

10. Speeding things up

Matthew Wilkes¹ 

(1)

Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK

 

There are two main approaches to improving the speed of code: optimizing the code we’ve written and optimizing the control flow of the program to run less code. People often focus on optimizing the code rather than the control flow because it’s easier to make self-contained changes, but the most significant benefits are usually in changing the flow.

Optimizing a function

The first step to optimizing a function is having a good understanding of it’s performance before making any changes. The Python standard library has a profile module to assist with this. Profile introspects code ...