Revision 3 as of 2008-03-11 15:23:12

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This page documents the time-complexity of various operations in current CPython. Other Python implementations (or older or still-under development versions of CPython) may have slightly different performance characteristics. However, it is generally safe to assume that they are not slower by more than a factor of O(log n).

Generally, 'n' is the number of elements currently in the container. 'k' is either the value of a parameter or the number of elements in the parameter.

list

The Average Case assumes parameters generated uniformly at random.

Operation

Average Case

Amortized Worst Case

Copy

O(n)

O(n)

Append

O(1)

O(1)

Insert

O(n)

O(n)

Get Item

O(1)

O(1)

Set Item

O(1)

O(1)

Delete Item

O(n)

O(n)

Iteration

O(n)

O(n)

Get Slice

O(k)

O(k)

Del Slice

O(n)

O(n)

Set Slice

O(k+n)

O(k+n)

Extend

O(k)

O(k)

Sort

O(n log n)

O(n log n)

Multiply

O(nk)

O(nk)

dict

The Average Case times listed for dict objects assume that the hash function for the objects is sufficiently robust to make collisions uncommon. The Average Case assumes the keys used in parameters are selected uniformly at random from the set of all keys.

Operation

Average Case

Amortized Worst Case

Copy[1]

O(n)

O(n)

Get Item

O(1)

O(n)

Set Item

O(1)

O(n)

Delete Item

O(1)

O(n)

Iteration

O(n)

O(n)

[1] = For the copy operation, n is maximum size the dictionary object ever achieved rather than the current size of the object.

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