A stupid experiment to see which is faster

compare.py

"""A stupid experiment to see which is faster."""
import inspect
import os
import tempfile
import timeit


def get_contents_exists(path):
    """Test if the path exists and return its contents.

    :param path: The path to the file
    :returns contents: the file contents
    """
    contents = ""

    if os.path.exists(path):
        contents = path.read()

        path.seek(0)

    return contents


def get_contents_access(path):
    """Test if the path exists and return its contents.

    :param path: The path to the file
    :returns contents: the file contents
    """
    contents = ""

    if os.access(path, os.F_OK):
        contents = path.read()

        path.seek(0)

    return contents


def get_contents_try(path):
    """Return the contents of a file if it exists.

    :param path: The path to the file
    :returns contents: the file contents
    """
    contents = ""

    try:
        contents = path.read()

        path.seek(0)
    except FileNotFoundError as e:
        pass

    return contents


def prepare():
    """Prepare to run tests. Create a temp file and write something to it.

    :returns temp_file: the temporary file
    """
    temp_file = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile()

    with open(__file__, 'rb') as in_file:
        temp_file.write(in_file.read())

    temp_file.seek(0)

    return temp_file


def compare(functions, **kwargs):
    """Compare the performance of the functions.

    :param functions: a tuple containing the functions to test
    """
    results = list()
    number = kwargs.pop("number")
    message = "{0:<43} {1} operations in {2:.3f} seconds"

    for function in functions:
        stmt = inspect.getsource(function)
        timer = timeit.Timer(stmt=stmt, **kwargs)

        results.append(timer.timeit(number=number))
        print(message.format(function.__name__, number, results[-1]))


def test():
    """Begin the test."""
    temp_file = prepare()
    functions = (
        get_contents_exists,
        get_contents_access,
        get_contents_try
    )
    arguments = {
        "setup": "path='{}'".format(temp_file.name),
        "number": 100000000
    }

    for i in range(0, 2):
        if os.access(temp_file.name, os.F_OK):
            print("{:*^80s}".format("File exists"))
        else:
            print("{:*^80s}".format("File does not exist"))

        compare(functions, **arguments)

        if os.access(temp_file.name, os.F_OK):
            temp_file.close()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    test()