Entering a very large number

[bartc]

On 26/03/2018 00:27, Richard Damon wrote:
> On 3/25/18 8:32 AM, bartc wrote:

>> Using CPython on my machine, doing a string to int conversion that 
>> specific number took 200 times as long as doing a normal assignment.
>>
>> That conversion took 4 microseconds.
>>
>> Not significant if it's only done once. But it might be executed a 
>> million times.
>>
> 
> The other half of that thought is how does the 4 microseconds to create 
> the constant compare to the operations USING that number. My guess is 
> that for most things the usage will swamp the initialization, even if 
> that is somewhat inefficient.

Calling a function that sets up C using 'C = 288714...' on one line, and 
that then calculates D=C+C, takes 0.12 seconds to call 1000000 times.

To do D=C*C, takes 2.2 seconds (I've subtracted the function call 
overhead of 0.25 seconds; there might not be any function call).

If I instead initialise C using 'C = int("288712...")', then timings 
increase as follows:

0.12  =>   3.7 seconds
2.2   =>   5.9 seconds

So the overhead /can/ be substantial, and /can/ be significant compared 
with doing bignum calculations.

Of course, once initialised, C might be used a hundred times, then the 
overhead is less significant. But it is not small enough to just dismiss.

-- 
bartc