If you need to initialize an array fast, you might do it by blocks instead of with a generator initializer, and it's going to be much faster. Creating a list by [0]*count is just as fast, still.
import array
def zerofill(arr, count):
count *= arr.itemsize
blocksize = 1024
blocks, rest = divmod(count, blocksize)
for _ in xrange(blocks):
arr.fromstring("\x00"*blocksize)
arr.fromstring("\x00"*rest)
def test_zerofill(count):
iarr = array.array('i')
zerofill(iarr, count)
assert len(iarr) == count
def test_generator(count):
iarr = array.array('i', (0 for _ in xrange(count)))
assert len(iarr) == count
def test_list(count):
L = [0]*count
assert len(L) == count
if __name__ == '__main__':
import timeit
c = 100000
n = 10
print timeit.Timer("test(c)", "from __main__ import c, test_zerofill as test").repeat(number=n)
print timeit.Timer("test(c)", "from __main__ import c, test_generator as test").repeat(number=n)
print timeit.Timer("test(c)", "from __main__ import c, test_list as test").repeat(number=n)
Results:
(array in blocks) [0.022809982299804688, 0.014942169189453125, 0.014089107513427734]
(array with generator) [1.1884641647338867, 1.1728270053863525, 1.1622772216796875]
(list) [0.023866891860961914, 0.035660028457641602, 0.023386955261230469]