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In Python, How can I append one string to another in an efficient way? 

var1 = "foo"

var2 = "bar"

var3 = var1 + var2

Is there any built-in method for that?

1 Answer

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by (26.4k points)
edited by

Let's assume you have one reference to a string and you're trying to concatenate another string to the end of that string, Now Cpython will attempts to extend the string in place.

At the end, the result we get is that the operation is amortized O(n).

Example:

s = ""

for i in range(n):

    s+=str(i)

It is used to be O(n^2).

From the source (bytesobject.c):

void

PyBytes_ConcatAndDel(register PyObject **pv, register PyObject *w)

{

    PyBytes_Concat(pv, w);

    Py_XDECREF(w);

}

/* The following function breaks the notion that strings are immutable:

   it changes the size of a string.  We get away with this only if there

   is only one module referencing the object.  You can also think of it

   as creating a new string object and destroying the old one, only

   more efficiently.  In any case, don't use this if the string may

   already be known to some other part of the code...

   Note that if there's not enough memory to resize the string, the original

   string object at *pv is deallocated, *pv is set to NULL, an "out of

   memory" exception is set, and -1 is returned.  Else (on success) 0 is

   returned, and the value in *pv may or may not be the same as on input.

   As always, an extra byte is allocated for a trailing \0 byte (newsize

   does *not* include that), and a trailing \0 byte is stored.

*/

int

_PyBytes_Resize(PyObject **pv, Py_ssize_t newsize)

{

    register PyObject *v;

    register PyBytesObject *sv;

    v = *pv;

    if (!PyBytes_Check(v) || Py_REFCNT(v) != 1 || newsize < 0) {

        *pv = 0;

        Py_DECREF(v);

        PyErr_BadInternalCall();

        return -1;

    }

    /* XXX UNREF/NEWREF interface should be more symmetrical */

    _Py_DEC_REFTOTAL;

    _Py_ForgetReference(v);

    *pv = (PyObject *)

        PyObject_REALLOC((char *)v, PyBytesObject_SIZE + newsize);

    if (*pv == NULL) {

        PyObject_Del(v);

        PyErr_NoMemory();

        return -1;

    }

    _Py_NewReference(*pv);

    sv = (PyBytesObject *) *pv;

    Py_SIZE(sv) = newsize;

    sv->ob_sval[newsize] = '\0';

    sv->ob_shash = -1;          /* invalidate cached hash value */

    return 0;

}

Now it's very easy for verifying empirically.

$ python -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(10):s+='a'"

1000000 loops, best of 3: 1.85 usec per loop

$ python -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(100):s+='a'"

10000 loops, best of 3: 16.8 usec per loop

$ python -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(1000):s+='a'"

10000 loops, best of 3: 158 usec per loop

$ python -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(10000):s+='a'"

1000 loops, best of 3: 1.71 msec per loop

$ python -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(100000):s+='a'"

10 loops, best of 3: 14.6 msec per loop

$ python -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(1000000):s+='a'"

10 loops, best of 3: 173 msec per loop

It's important however to note that this optimisation isn't part of the Python spec. It's just in the cPython execution apparently. The same empirical testing on pypy or jython for example might show the older O(n**2) performance .

$ pypy -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(10):s+='a'"

10000 loops, best of 3: 90.8 usec per loop

$ pypy -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(100):s+='a'"

1000 loops, best of 3: 896 usec per loop

$ pypy -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(1000):s+='a'"

100 loops, best of 3: 9.03 msec per loop

$ pypy -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(10000):s+='a'"

10 loops, best of 3: 89.5 msec per loop

$ pypy -m timeit -s"s=''" "for i in xrange(100000):s+='a'"

10 loops, best of 3: 12.8 sec per loop

From this, pypy is accomplishing something that functions admirably with short strings, yet performs ineffectively for bigger strings.

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