r0g <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I'm collecting together a bunch of fairly random useful functions I have > written over the years into a module. Generally speaking is it best to > > a) Import all the other modules these functions depend on into the > modules global namespace by putting them at the top of the module or > should I... > > b) Include them in each function individually. > > Stylistically I like the idea of b) better as it makes for easy > refactoring in the future but is there any drawback to doing it this > way? i.e. does it get repeatedly parsed, use more memory, become > inefficient when several functions that use the same includes are > invoked etc Or does it really not matter?
I guess it costs you a dictionary lookup (in sys.modules) and an assignment every time the import statement is executed. But the module is not reimported every time. > Performance is probably not important for the majority of these > functions but there's the odd one that may end up in an inner loop some day. It depends on the function but unless it is a function with special status (such as testing, or a main() function) I would import stuff at the top of the module. I makes it clear what the module depends on. -- Arnaud -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
