Best of way of assigning list/dict values to another list/dict variable

[psbasha]

Hi,

I am assigning the list/dict values to another list/dict variable as shown below.

List :

List1 = [1,4,7,9,10,12,33]

List2 = List1

Dict :

Dict1 = {1:[1,4,7,9,10,12,33],2;[6,8,9]}

Dict2 = Dict1

If we have more data in list (say index of list is '2000').Then the above assignment will not take much time

Is there any other way is there for assiging the list /dict?

Thanks
PSB

[bartonc]

Hi,

I am assigning the list/dict values to another list/dict variable as shown below.

List :

List1 = [1,4,7,9,10,12,33]

List2 = List1

Dict :

Dict1 = {1:[1,4,7,9,10,12,33],2;[6,8,9]}

Dict2 = Dict1

If we have more data in list (say index of list is '2000').Then the above assignment will not take much time

Is there any other way is there for assiging the list /dict?

Thanks
PSB

Use the copy module to make copies. Because of "pass by reference" the above method yeilds:
>>> aList = [1, 2, 3]
>>> bList = aList
>>> bList.append(4)
>>> aList
[1, 2, 3, 4]

[bartonc]

Use the copy module to make copies. Because of "pass by reference" the above method yeilds:
>>> aList = [1, 2, 3]
>>> bList = aList
>>> bList.append(4)
>>> aList
[1, 2, 3, 4]

For dictionaries, you can also use dict.update():

>>> aDict = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3)
>>> bDict = {}
>>> bDict.update(aDict)
>>> bDict['d'] = 4
>>> aDict
{'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2}
>>> bDict
{'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2, 'd': 4}
>>> 

[psbasha]

Which is faster ,whether assigning the variables directlyor using the methods for assigning the variables?

-PSB

[bartonc]

Which is faster ,whether assigning the variables directlyor using the methods for assigning the variables?

-PSB

See my timeit.Timer usage post in the Python > Code section.

[psbasha]

Assigning the dictionary variable to another dictionary variable ,is taking less time than using the method "update()".

But I was thinking "update()" will take less time.

Sample
 
>>> t1 = timeit.Timer("aDict = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3);bDict =aDict")
>>> print t1.timeit()
1.89162365608
>>> 
t2 = timeit.Timer("aDict = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3);bDict = {};bDict.update(aDict)")
>>> print t2.timeit()
3.35477972759
 

[bartonc]

Assigning the dictionary variable to another dictionary variable ,is taking less time than using the method "update()".

But I was thinking "update()" will take less time.

Sample
 
>>> t1 = timeit.Timer("aDict = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3);bDict =aDict")
>>> print t1.timeit()
1.89162365608
>>> 
t2 = timeit.Timer("aDict = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3);bDict = {};bDict.update(aDict)")
>>> print t2.timeit()
3.35477972759
 

The thing is this:
in your t1 test, you merely assign a reference (pointer to aDict) to the variable bDict. There is NO copy of dict a going on there.
>>> aDict = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3)
>>> aDict
{'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2}
>>> bDict = aDict
>>> bDict['d'] = 4
>>> aDict
{'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2, 'd': 4}
>>>
t2 is actually timing a copy of the first dict to the second.