On 5/16/08, John Fouhy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 17/05/2008, Adam Clarridge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I'm fairly new to Python, and I am not sure whether it would be faster > > for me to use a Dictionary data type to represent the board > > (advantages: indices can be strings or tuples, and the dictionary can > > store different types of data as well, so programming would be easier) > > or the Numpy array type (don't know much about this, but I have heard > > Numpy is faster). > > > Hi Adam, > > I believe a general rule of programming is: don't optimize until you > know you need to. I would advise using dictionaries for simplicity. > If the program turns out slower than you would like, you can use > profiling tools to figure out where in the code it is spending most of > its time. If this turns out to involve dictionary lookups, you could > then look at changing to Numpy (hint: you could use the timeit module > to benchmark dictionary access against Numpy arrays). If your program > design is good, the change should be too hard. > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimization_(computer_science)#When_to_optimize > > -- > > John.
Thanks for the insight - I guess I was sort of overlooking that general principle, good to be reminded. The timeit module seems like exactly what I would want later on, too. Thanks again! Adam
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