Execution speed question

[Terry Reedy]

Suresh Pillai wrote:
> I am performing simulations on networks (graphs).  I have a question on 
> speed of execution (assuming very ample memory for now).  I simplify the 
> details of my simulation below, as the question I ask applies more 
> generally than my specific case.  I would greatly appreciate general 
> feedback in terms of computing and of course considerations specific to 
> implementation in Python.
> 
> The nodes in my network may be ON or OFF.  The network starts off with 
> all nodes in the OFF state.  I loop through the nodes.  For each node 
> that is OFF, I consider some probability of it turning ON based on the 
> states of its neighbours.  I MUST GO THROUGH ALL NODES BEFORE DECIDING 
> WHICH ONES TO TURN ON.

If the nodes do not have to be processed in any particular order, then 
you could keep them either in a dict, with the value being either On or 
Off (True,False)(plus connection data) or a pair of sets, one for On and 
one for Off.  The advantage of the dict is that the items would be fixed 
and only their values would change, but you needlessly scan through On 
items.   The advantage of the set pair is that you only scan through Off 
items but have to move some from Off to On.  I will not guess which 
would be faster over a complete run, or how this will compare with using 
lists.

tjr