[Tutor] Is len(a_list) a computed value or a stored attribute of a_list?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 08:53:49PM -0600, boB Stepp wrote:
> I was wondering if len(a_list) is computed on the fly or is it a
> stored attribute of the a_list object?  And is the answer the same for
> both Python 2 and 3?

Technically the Python language doesn't make any guarantees about this, 
but in practice it is a stored attribute of the list (as well as other 
built-ins like tuples, strings, dicts and sets).

The answer is the same for both Python 2 and 3, and all the major Python 
implementations (CPython, IronPython, Jython, PyPy). But technically I 
guess it counts as a "quality of implementation" marker: crappy Python 
interpreters might count the items in a list on the fly, good ones will 
store it as a pre-computed attribute.

In practice, it is probably fine to assume that calling len() on 
built-ins is fast, but for third-party sequences and collections it 
might not be.



-- 
Steve