Custom alphabetical sort

[Ian Kelly]

On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 3:17 PM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
>> PS Py 3.3 warranty: ~30% slower than Py 3.2
>
>
> Do you have any actual timing data to back up that claim?
> If so, please give specifics, including build, os, system, timing code, and
> result.

There was another thread about this one a while back.  Using IDLE on Windows XP:

>>> import timeit, locale
>>> li = ['noël', 'noir', 'nœud', 'noduleux', 'noétique', 'noèse', 'noirâtre']
>>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'French_France')
'French_France.1252'

>>> # Python 3.2
>>> min(timeit.repeat("sorted(li, key=locale.strxfrm)", "import locale; from __main__ import li", number=100000))
1.1581226105552531

>>> # Python 3.3.0
>>> min(timeit.repeat("sorted(li, key=locale.strxfrm)", "import locale; from __main__ import li", number=100000))
1.4595282361305697

1.460 / 1.158 = 1.261

>>> li = li * 100
>>> import random
>>> random.shuffle(li)

>>> # Python 3.2
>>> min(timeit.repeat("sorted(li, key=locale.strxfrm)", "import locale; from __main__ import li", number=1000))
1.233450899485831

>>> # Python 3.3.0
>>> min(timeit.repeat("sorted(li, key=locale.strxfrm)", "import locale; from __main__ import li", number=1000))
1.5793845307155152

1.579 / 1.233 = 1.281

So about 26% slower for sorting a short list of French words and about
28% slower for a longer list.  Replacing the strings with ASCII and
removing the 'key' argument gives a comparable result for the long
list but more like a 40% slowdown for the short list.