Cython Speed Boost vs. Usability [closed]

The other answers have already explained how you were just compiling the Cython code, not executing it. However, I thought that you might want to know how much faster Cython can make your code. When I compiled the code you have (though I ran the function from from a different module) with distutils, I got very marginal speed gains over straight Python – about 1%. However, when I added a few small changes to your code:

def test(long long value):
    cdef long long i
    cdef long long z
    for i in xrange(value):
        z = i**2
        if(i==1000000):
            print i
        if z < i:
            print "yes"

and compiled it, I got the following times:

  • Pure Python code: 20.4553578737 seconds
  • Cython code: 0.199339860234 seconds

That’s a 100× speed-up. Not too shabby.

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