Question

I am using the following code to do the test and it seems like < is slower that >=., does anyone know why?

import timeit
s = """
  x=5
  if x<0: pass
"""
  t = timeit.Timer(stmt=s)
  print "%.2f usec/pass" % (1000000 * t.timeit(number=100000)/100000)
#0.21 usec/pass
z = """
  x=5
  if x>=0: pass
"""
t2 = timeit.Timer(stmt=z)
print "%.2f usec/pass" % (1000000 * t2.timeit(number=100000)/100000)
#0.18 usec/pass

Answer 1

In Python 3.1.2, sometime < is faster than >=. I try to read it in disassembler,

import dis
def f1():
    x=5
    if x < 0: pass

def f2():
    x = 5
    if x >=0: pass

>>> dis.dis(f1)
  2           0 LOAD_CONST               1 (5) 
              3 STORE_FAST               0 (x) 

  3           6 LOAD_FAST                0 (x) 
              9 LOAD_CONST               2 (0) 
             12 COMPARE_OP               0 (<) 
             15 POP_JUMP_IF_FALSE       21 
             18 JUMP_FORWARD             0 (to 21) 
        >>   21 LOAD_CONST               0 (None) 
             24 RETURN_VALUE         
>>> dis.dis(f2)
  2           0 LOAD_CONST               1 (5) 
              3 STORE_FAST               0 (x) 

  3           6 LOAD_FAST                0 (x) 
              9 LOAD_CONST               2 (0) 
             12 COMPARE_OP               5 (>=) 
             15 POP_JUMP_IF_FALSE       21 
             18 JUMP_FORWARD             0 (to 21) 
        >>   21 LOAD_CONST               0 (None) 
             24 RETURN_VALUE         

Code is almost identical, but f1 is always run line 15 and jump to 21, f2 is always run 15 -> 18 -> 21, so that performance should be affected by true/false in if statement rather than < or >= problem.