Timing of Static Methods vs. Inline Functions

time_inline_v_static.py

"""
========================================================================
Timing Static Methods vs. Inline Functions
========================================================================

A simple test to compare the overhead of calling static functions vs.
defining and calling inline functions.

At least in this experiment, static methods are ~15-20% faster. This
is of course not even considering their improvements in testability
and compasability.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Results on MacOS 10.14.2, 3.1 GHz i7
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Python 2.7.15
*************

Average time to call inline functions over 1000000 iterations:
   7.55923986435e-07
Average time to call static methods over 1000000 iterations:
   6.24632835388e-07

Percent Difference: 17.37%

Python 3.7.1
************

Average time to call inline functions over 1000000 iterations:
   1.0708249599999999e-06
Average time to call static methods over 1000000 iterations:
   8.65215882e-07

Percent Difference: 19.20%

"""
from __future__ import division, print_function
from timeit import timeit


ITERATIONS = int(1e6)


class StaticFunctions(object):

    @staticmethod
    def a():
        return 'a'

    @staticmethod
    def b():
        return 'b'

    @staticmethod
    def c():
        return 'c'

    @staticmethod
    def d():
        return 'd'

    @staticmethod
    def e():
        return 'e'

    @staticmethod
    def f():
        return 'f'


def call_static_functions():
    return (
        StaticFunctions.a()
        + StaticFunctions.b()
        + StaticFunctions.c()
        + StaticFunctions.d()
        + StaticFunctions.e()
        + StaticFunctions.f()
    )


def define_and_call_inline_functions():
    def a():
        return 'a'

    def b():
        return 'b'

    def c():
        return 'c'

    def d():
        return 'd'

    def e():
        return 'e'

    def f():
        return 'f'

    return a() + b() + c() + d() + e() + f()


print(
    'Average time to call inline functions over {} iterations:'.format(
        ITERATIONS,
    )
)
inline_total = timeit(
    'define_and_call_inline_functions()',
    setup='from __main__ import define_and_call_inline_functions',
    number=ITERATIONS
)
inline_avg = inline_total / ITERATIONS
print('   {}'.format(inline_avg))


print(
    'Average time to call static methods over {} iterations:'.format(
        ITERATIONS,
    )
)
static_total = timeit(
    'call_static_functions()',
    setup='from __main__ import call_static_functions',
    number=ITERATIONS
)
static_avg = static_total / ITERATIONS
print('   {}'.format(static_avg))

higher = max(inline_total, static_total)
lower = min(inline_total, static_total)

pcent_dif = (higher - lower) / higher

print()
print('Percent Difference: {:.2%}'.format(pcent_dif))