On 13 Mar, 20:40, Tobiah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I checked out the array module today. It claims that > arrays are 'efficient'. I figured that this must mean > that they are faster than lists, but this doesn't seem > to be the case: > > ################ one.py ############## > import array > > a = array.array('i') > > for x in xrange(10000000): > a.append(x)
Lists are better optimized for appending to the end. Python lists are implemented as arrays of pointers, with a few empty slots at the end. Arrays are contigous memory buffers. They provide faster read-write access, particularly for chunks of data, but are slower at resizing. I never use the array module, as NumPy is superior. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list