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Start your free trialJASON PETERSEN
14,266 PointsIs >= 1 better than > 0?
In masterticket.py, the instructor chose to use:
while tickets_remaining >= 1:
while I chose to use:
while tickets_remaining > 0:
Is one better than the other? Why/why not?
Thanks!
1 Answer
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,441 PointsHey JASON PETERSEN, great question. I believe that both cases are optimized by the parser. Using timeit a performance analysis says they’re are equivalent:
import timeit
def gt_zero():
for x in range(100):
if x > 0:
pass
def ge_one():
for x in range(100):
if x >= 1:
pass
print(timeit.timeit("gt_zero()", setup="from __main__ import gt_zero"))
print(timeit.timeit("gt_zero()", setup="from __main__ import gt_zero"))
print(timeit.timeit("ge_one()", setup="from __main__ import ge_one"))
print(timeit.timeit("ge_one()", setup="from __main__ import ge_one"))
# yields after 1_000_000 calls
# 28.21725383333296
# 28.741845541666407
# 28.536575374999757
# 28.496736958332804
In this StackOverflow post it demonstrates that gt and gte both execute in equal time since they both have a single opcode representation.
Disassembled Python says they’ll execute in the same number of instructions:
import dis
def gt0():
if x > 0:
pass
def ge1():
if x >= 1:
pass
print("dis gt0")
dis.dis(gt0)
print("dis ge1")
dis.dis(ge1)
yields
dis gt0
21 0 LOAD_GLOBAL 0 (x)
3 LOAD_CONST 1 (0)
6 COMPARE_OP 4 (>)
9 POP_JUMP_IF_FALSE 15
22 12 JUMP_FORWARD 0 (to 15)
>> 15 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
18 RETURN_VALUE
dis ge1
25 0 LOAD_GLOBAL 0 (x)
3 LOAD_CONST 1 (1)
6 COMPARE_OP 5 (>=)
9 POP_JUMP_IF_FALSE 15
26 12 JUMP_FORWARD 0 (to 15)
>> 15 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
18 RETURN_VALUE
So, there is no practical difference. Use the one that would give the better readability.
Post back if you need more help. Good luck!!!