List comprehension vs map

Question

Is there a reason to prefer using map   over list comprehension or vice versa   Is either of them generally more efficient or considered generally more pythonic than the other

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Cases   Common case  Almost always  you will want to use a list comprehension in python because it will be more obvious what you re doing to novice programmers reading your code   This does not apply to other languages  where other idioms may apply   It will even be more obvious what you re doing to python programmers  since list comprehensions are the de-facto standard in python for iteration  they are expected  Less-common case  However if you already have a function defined  it is often reasonable to use map  though it is considered  unpythonic   For example  map sum  myLists  is more elegant terse than  sum x  for x in myLists   You gain the elegance of not having to make up a dummy variable  e g  sum x  for x    or sum    for      or sum readableName  for readableName     which you have to type twice  just to iterate  The same argument holds for filter and reduce and anything from the itertools module  if you already have a function handy  you could go ahead and do some functional programming  This gains readability in some situations  and loses it in others  e g  novice programmers  multiple arguments     but the readability of your code highly depends on your comments anyway  Almost never  You may want to use the map function as a pure abstract function while doing functional programming  where you re mapping map  or currying map  or otherwise benefit from talking about map as a function  In Haskell for example  a functor interface called fmap generalizes mapping over any data structure  This is very uncommon in python because the python grammar compels you to use generator-style to talk about iteration  you can t generalize it easily   This is sometimes good and sometimes bad   You can probably come up with rare python examples where map f   lists  is a reasonable thing to do  The closest example I can come up with would be sumEach   partial map sum   which is a one-liner that is very roughly equivalent to      def sumEach myLists       return  sum    for   in myLists     Just using a for-loop  You can also of course just use a for-loop  While not as elegant from a functional-programming viewpoint  sometimes non-local variables make code clearer in imperative programming languages such as python  because people are very used to reading code that way  For-loops are also  generally  the most efficient when you are merely doing any complex operation that is not building a list like list-comprehensions and map are optimized for  e g  summing  or making a tree  etc   -- at least efficient in terms of memory  not necessarily in terms of time  where I d expect at worst a constant factor  barring some rare pathological garbage-collection hiccuping      Pythonism   I dislike the word  pythonic  because I don t find that pythonic is always elegant in my eyes  Nevertheless  map and filter and similar functions  like the very useful itertools module  are probably considered unpythonic in terms of style   Laziness  In terms of efficiency  like most functional programming constructs  MAP CAN BE LAZY  and in fact is lazy in python  That means you can do this  in python3  and your computer will not run out of memory and lose all your unsaved data    gt  gt  gt  map str  range 10  100    lt map object at 0x2201d50 gt    Try doing that with a list comprehension    gt  gt  gt   str n  for n in range 10  100     DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME OR YOU WILL BE SAD     Do note that list comprehensions are also inherently lazy  but python has chosen to implement them as non-lazy  Nevertheless  python does support lazy list comprehensions in the form of generator expressions  as follows    gt  gt  gt   str n  for n in range 10  100    lt generator object  lt genexpr gt  at 0xacbdef gt    You can basically think of the       syntax as passing in a generator expression to the list constructor  like list x for x in range 5     Brief contrived example  from operator import neg print  x x  2 for x in map neg range 5      print  x x  2 for x in  -y for y in range 5      print  x x  2 for x in  -y for y in range 5       List comprehensions are non-lazy  so may require more memory  unless you use generator comprehensions   The square brackets       often make things obvious  especially when in a mess of parentheses  On the other hand  sometimes you end up being verbose like typing  x for x in     As long as you keep your iterator variables short  list comprehensions are usually clearer if you don t indent your code  But you could always indent your code   print       x x  2 for x in  -y for y in range 5        or break things up   rangeNeg5    -y for y in range 5   print       x x  2 for x in rangeNeg5      Efficiency comparison for python3  map is now lazy     python3 -mtimeit -s  xs range 1000    f lambda x x   z map f xs   1000000 loops  best of 3  0 336 usec per loop                        Therefore if you will not be using all your data  or do not know ahead of time how much data you need  map in python3  and generator expressions in python2 or python3  will avoid calculating their values until the last moment necessary  Usually this will usually outweigh any overhead from using map  The downside is that this is very limited in python as opposed to most functional languages  you only get this benefit if you access your data left-to-right  in order   because python generator expressions can only be evaluated the order x 0   x 1   x 2         However let s say that we have a pre-made function f we d like to map  and we ignore the laziness of map by immediately forcing evaluation with list       We get some very interesting results     python3 -mtimeit -s  xs range 1000    f lambda x x   z list map f xs                                                                                                                                                    10000 loops  best of 3  165 124 135 usec per loop                                            for list  lt map object gt      python3 -mtimeit -s  xs range 1000    f lambda x x   z  f x  for x in xs                                                                                                                                         10000 loops  best of 3  181 118 123 usec per loop                                               for list  lt generator gt    probably optimized    python3 -mtimeit -s  xs range 1000    f lambda x x   z list f x  for x in xs                                                                                                                                       1000 loops  best of 3  215 150 150 usec per loop                                                    for list  lt generator gt     In results are in the form AAA BBB CCC where A was performed with on a circa-2010 Intel workstation with python 3      and B and C were performed with a circa-2013 AMD workstation with python 3 2 1  with extremely different hardware  The result seems to be that map and list comprehensions are comparable in performance  which is most strongly affected by other random factors  The only thing we can tell seems to be that  oddly  while we expect list comprehensions       to perform better than generator expressions        map is ALSO more efficient that generator expressions  again assuming that all values are evaluated used    It is important to realize that these tests assume a very simple function  the identity function   however this is fine because if the function were complicated  then performance overhead would be negligible compared to other factors in the program   It may still be interesting to test with other simple things like f lambda x x x   If you re skilled at reading python assembly  you can use the dis module to see if that s actually what s going on behind the scenes    gt  gt  gt  listComp   compile   f x  for x in xs     listComp    eval    gt  gt  gt  dis dis listComp    1           0 LOAD CONST               0   lt code object  lt listcomp gt  at 0x2511a48  file  listComp   line 1 gt                  3 MAKE FUNCTION            0                6 LOAD NAME                0  xs                 9 GET ITER                           10 CALL FUNCTION            1               13 RETURN VALUE           gt  gt  gt  listComp co consts   lt code object  lt listcomp gt  at 0x2511a48  file  listComp   line 1 gt     gt  gt  gt  dis dis listComp co consts 0     1           0 BUILD LIST               0                3 LOAD FAST                0   0            gt  gt     6 FOR ITER                18  to 27                 9 STORE FAST               1  x                12 LOAD GLOBAL              0  f                15 LOAD FAST                1  x                18 CALL FUNCTION            1               21 LIST APPEND              2               24 JUMP ABSOLUTE            6           gt  gt    27 RETURN VALUE    nbsp    gt  gt  gt  listComp2   compile  list f x  for x in xs     listComp2    eval    gt  gt  gt  dis dis listComp2    1           0 LOAD NAME                0  list                 3 LOAD CONST               0   lt code object  lt genexpr gt  at 0x255bc68  file  listComp2   line 1 gt                  6 MAKE FUNCTION            0                9 LOAD NAME                1  xs                12 GET ITER                           13 CALL FUNCTION            1               16 CALL FUNCTION            1               19 RETURN VALUE           gt  gt  gt  listComp2 co consts   lt code object  lt genexpr gt  at 0x255bc68  file  listComp2   line 1 gt     gt  gt  gt  dis dis listComp2 co consts 0     1           0 LOAD FAST                0   0            gt  gt     3 FOR ITER                17  to 23                 6 STORE FAST               1  x                 9 LOAD GLOBAL              0  f                12 LOAD FAST                1  x                15 CALL FUNCTION            1               18 YIELD VALUE                        19 POP TOP                            20 JUMP ABSOLUTE            3           gt  gt    23 LOAD CONST               0  None                26 RETURN VALUE    nbsp    gt  gt  gt  evalledMap   compile  list map f xs      evalledMap    eval    gt  gt  gt  dis dis evalledMap    1           0 LOAD NAME                0  list                 3 LOAD NAME                1  map                 6 LOAD NAME                2  f                 9 LOAD NAME                3  xs                12 CALL FUNCTION            2               15 CALL FUNCTION            1               18 RETURN VALUE    It seems it is better to use       syntax than list       Sadly the map class is a bit opaque to disassembly  but we can make due with our speed test

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So since Python 3  map   is an iterator  you need to keep in mind what do you need  an iterator or list object   As  AlexMartelli already mentioned  map   is faster than list comprehension only if you don t use lambda function   I will present you some time comparisons    Python 3 5 2 and CPythonI ve used Jupiter notebook and especially  timeit built-in magic command Measurements  s    1000 ms    1000   1000   s   1000   1000   1000 ns   Setup   x list     i  i 1  i 2  i 2  i-9  for i in range 1000   i list   list range 1000     Built-in function    timeit map sum  x list     creating iterator object   Output  The slowest run took 9 91 times longer than the fastest     This could mean that an intermediate result is being cached    1000000 loops  best of 3  277 ns per loop   timeit list map sum  x list      creating list with map   Output  1000 loops  best of 3  214   s per loop   timeit  sum x  for x in x list     creating list with list comprehension   Output  1000 loops  best of 3  290   s per loop   lambda function    timeit map lambda i  i 1  i list    Output  The slowest run took 8 64 times longer than the fastest     This could mean that an intermediate result is being cached    1000000 loops  best of 3  325 ns per loop   timeit list map lambda i  i 1  i list     Output  1000 loops  best of 3  183   s per loop   timeit  i 1 for i in i list    Output  10000 loops  best of 3  84 2   s per loop   There is also such thing as generator expression  see PEP-0289  So i thought it would be useful to add it to comparison   timeit  sum i  for i in x list    Output  The slowest run took 6 66 times longer than the fastest     This could mean that an intermediate result is being cached    1000000 loops  best of 3  495 ns per loop   timeit list  sum x  for x in x list     Output  1000 loops  best of 3  319   s per loop   timeit  i 1 for i in i list    Output  The slowest run took 6 83 times longer than the fastest     This could mean that an intermediate result is being cached    1000000 loops  best of 3  506 ns per loop   timeit list  i 1 for i in i list     Output  10000 loops  best of 3  125   s per loop   You need list object   Use list comprehension if it s custom function  use list map    if there is builtin function  You don t need list object  you just need iterable one   Always use map

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If you plan on writing any asynchronous  parallel  or distributed code  you will probably prefer map over a list comprehension -- as most asynchronous  parallel  or distributed packages provide a map function to overload python s map   Then by passing the appropriate map function to the rest of your code  you may not have to modify your original serial code to have it run in parallel  etc

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Python 2  You should use map and filter instead of list comprehensions  An objective reason why you should prefer them even though they re not  quot Pythonic quot  is this  They require functions lambdas as arguments  which introduce a new scope  I ve gotten bitten by this more than once  for x  y in somePoints         several lines of code here      squared    x    2 for x in numbers        Oops  x was silently overwritten   but if instead I had said  for x  y in somePoints         several lines of code here      squared   map lambda x  x    2  numbers   then everything would ve been fine  You could say I was being silly for using the same variable name in the same scope  I wasn t  The code was fine originally -- the two xs weren t in the same scope  It was only after I moved the inner block to a different section of the code that the problem came up  read  problem during maintenance  not development   and I didn t expect it  Yes  if you never make this mistake then list comprehensions are more elegant  But from personal experience  and from seeing others make the same mistake  I ve seen it happen enough times that I think it s not worth the pain you have to go through when these bugs creep into your code  Conclusion  Use map and filter  They prevent subtle hard-to-diagnose scope-related bugs  Side note  Don t forget to consider using imap and ifilter  in itertools  if they are appropriate for your situation

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I tried the code by  alex-martelli but found some discrepancies  python -mtimeit -s  xs range 123456    map hex  xs   1000000 loops  best of 5  218 nsec per loop python -mtimeit -s  xs range 123456     hex x  for x in xs   10 loops  best of 5  19 4 msec per loop   map takes the same amount of time even for very large ranges while using list comprehension takes a lot of time as is evident from my code  So apart from being considered  unpythonic   I have not faced any performance issues relating to usage of map

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I ran a quick test comparing three methods for invoking the method of an object  The time difference  in this case  is negligible and is a matter of the function in question  see  Alex Martelli s response   Here  I looked at the following methods     map lambda list map lambda x  x add    vals      map operator from operator import methodcaller list map methodcaller  add    vals      map comprehension  x add   for x in vals    I looked at lists  stored in the variable vals  of both integers  Python int  and floating point numbers  Python float  for increasing list sizes  The following dummy class DummyNum is considered   class DummyNum object          Dummy class          slots      n        def   init   self  n           self n   n      def add self           self n    5   Specifically  the add method  The   slots   attribute is a simple optimization in Python to define the total memory needed by the class  attributes   reducing memory size  Here are the resulting plots     As stated previously  the technique used makes a minimal difference and you should code in a way that is most readable to you  or in the particular circumstance  In this case  the list comprehension  map comprehension technique  is fastest for both types of additions in an object  especially with shorter lists   Visit this pastebin for the source used to generate the plot and data

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I find list comprehensions are generally more expressive of what I m trying to do than map - they both get it done  but the former saves the mental load of trying to understand what could be a complex lambda expression   There s also an interview out there somewhere  I can t find it offhand  where Guido lists lambdas and the functional functions as the thing he most regrets about accepting into Python  so you could make the argument that they re un-Pythonic by virtue of that

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Actually  map and list comprehensions behave quite differently in the Python 3 language  Take a look at the following Python 3 program   def square x       return x x squares   map square   1  2  3   print list squares   print list squares     You might expect it to print the line   1  4  9   twice  but instead it prints   1  4  9   followed by       The first time you look at squares it seems to behave as a sequence of three elements  but the second time as an empty one   In the Python 2 language map returns a plain old list  just like list comprehensions do in both languages  The crux is that the return value of map in Python 3  and imap in Python 2  is not a list - it s an iterator   The elements are consumed when you iterate over an iterator unlike when you iterate over a list  This is why squares looks empty in the last print list squares   line   To summarize    When dealing with iterators you have to remember that they are stateful and that they mutate as you traverse them  Lists are more predictable since they only change when you explicitly mutate them  they are containers  And a bonus  numbers  strings  and tuples are even more predictable since they cannot change at all  they are values

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I consider that the most Pythonic way is to use a list comprehension instead of map and filter  The reason is that list comprehensions are clearer than map and filter   In  1   odd cubes    x    3 for x in range 10  if x   2    1    using a list comprehension  In  2   odd cubes alt   list map lambda x  x    3  filter lambda x  x   2    1  range 10       using map and filter  In  3   odd cubes    odd cubes alt Out 3   True   As you an see  a comprehension does not require extra lambda expressions as map needs  Furthermore  a comprehension also allows filtering easily  while map requires filter to allow filtering

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map may be microscopically faster in some cases  when you re NOT making a lambda for the purpose  but using the same function in map and a listcomp   List comprehensions may be faster in other cases and most  not all  pythonistas consider them more direct and clearer   An example of the tiny speed advantage of map when using exactly the same function     python -mtimeit -s xs range 10    map hex  xs   100000 loops  best of 3  4 86 usec per loop   python -mtimeit -s xs range 10     hex x  for x in xs   100000 loops  best of 3  5 58 usec per loop   An example of how performance comparison gets completely reversed when map needs a lambda     python -mtimeit -s xs range 10    map lambda x  x 2  xs   100000 loops  best of 3  4 24 usec per loop   python -mtimeit -s xs range 10     x 2 for x in xs   100000 loops  best of 3  2 32 usec per loop

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Here is one possible case   map lambda op1 op2  op1 op2  list1  list2    versus    op1 op2 for op1 op2 in zip list1 list2     I am guessing the zip   is an unfortunate and unnecessary overhead you need to indulge in if you insist on using list comprehensions instead of the map   Would be great if someone clarifies this whether affirmatively or negatively

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Image Source  Experfy You can see for yourself which is better between - List Comprehension and the Map Function  List Comprehension takes lesser time to process 1 million records when compared to a map function  Hope it helps  Good Luck

[python] List comprehension vs map

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