Peter Otten wrote:
For the record, the one true way to implement the Fibonacci series in Python
is
>>> def fib():
... a = b = 1
... while True:
... yield a
... a, b = b, a+b # look ma, no temporary variable
[snip]
I created two scripts, stressed them a bit, and then timed:
I called the two scripts fib.py and fib2.py... here they are:
==================begin fib.py============================
#!/home/marcus/bin/python3
def fib():
a=b=1
while True:
yield a
a,b=b,a+b # look ma, no temporary variable
from itertools import islice
flist=list(islice(fib(), 100000))
==================end fib.py==============================
==================begin fib2.py===========================
#!/home/marcus/bin/python3
def fib(i=1):
a=b=1;l=[]
for j in range(0,i):
l.append(a)
a,b = b,a+b # look ma, I can do it too....
return l
list=fib(100000)
==================end fib2.py=============================
[ TIMES ] 1 core, 1.6 Ghz, 3196 bogomips
marcus@shire:~/Python3$ time ./fib.py
real 0m2.775s
user 0m1.908s
sys 0m0.820s
marcus@shire:~/Python3$ time ./fib2.py
real 0m2.796s
user 0m1.916s
sys 0m0.824s
You will notice first that the times are *almost* identical. So,
down under the heart of python, something is wrong. (never mind)
But the really interesting thing I found is that when I coded away
the temporary reference, 100ms of user time moved over to sys time. doh,
must be that 'somewhere' a 'temporary' reference had to be created...
and it doesn't look like it's optimized very well...
But, this should also go to show you... that there is *never* just
one obvious way to do anything... contrary to the ZEN of Python... ;-)
On the other hand, I am very much interested in "yield," because of
its obvious persistent state, On the other hand, I don't like you fib()
function because it does not encapsulate the fib generator. I suppose
you are considering whatever module is holding the fib() code as the
encapsulation, but I thought the idea from the OP was to create a
generator that could be called and return a list... this is a little goofy:
list(islice(fib(), X))
when what was wanted is:
list = fib(X)
kind regards,
m harris
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