execution time with global variables

[Peter Otten]

sarmin kho wrote:

> Hi Pythoners,
>  
> i have been using a lot of global variables in the python script i am
> working on. the global variables are shared and used by all various
> 'definitions' :
>  
> def name ():
>       global all globs...
>       .....
>  
> my question is: 'is it safe using global variables in term of its
> execution time?

Here is may attempt to measure it:

<time_global.py>
def f():
    x = 1
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x


def g():
    global x
    x = 1
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
    x
</time_global.py>

$ timeit.py -s"from time_global import f" "f()"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.972 usec per loop
$ timeit.py -s"from time_global import g" "g()"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 1.13 usec per loop

If the methodology isn't flawed, the effect is hardly noticable, as a real
function will have other operations that take much longer than a variable
lookup.

> i cant think of any other ways not to use the globs because some variables
> simply have to be shared among those definitions..

For a one-off script I see no problem, but otherwise I'd suggest you think
again and stay away from global variables as much as possible; the cost in
maintenance time may by far eclipse the extra execution time.
As a dumb "better than nothing" recipe I suggest you bundle the globals in a
Bunch-like class and pass that explicitly to your functions, or convert the
functions into methods and keep the "global" state as instance attributes.

Peter