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Timing of looping operators

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg62416] Timing of looping operators
• From: dh <dh at metrohm.ch>
• Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 04:31:55 -0500 (EST)
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Hello,
The Mathematica gospel tells you that you should NOT use loops because 
it is inefficient.
Well consider the following examples and their times:

n=10^6;
d=Table[i,{i,n}];
fun[x_]:=x;

a)  Timing[fun & /@ d;]       needs 0.8 sec
b)  Timing[Scan[fun, d]]      needs 1 second
c)  Timing[Do[f[i], {i, n}];] needs 0.7 sec

a) applies the function and creates a new list. b) does not create a new 
list -- but it is slower! And finally c) the loop is fastest!!!

If you change the function to: f[x_]:=x^2, the times are even more striking:

0.8, 2.4, 0.7
it seems like in a and c the function evaluation takes negliable time 
compared to the loop construct, but not so in b.

has anybody an explanation???

Daniel

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Timing of looping operators
    • From: Sseziwa Mukasa <mukasa@jeol.com>
  • Re: Timing of looping operators
    • From: Pratik Desai <pdesai1@umbc.edu>
  • Re: Timing of looping operators
    • From: "Hermann Schmitt" <schmitther@t-online.de>