how to pass parameters of a function when using timeit.Timer()

This is the outline of a simple program

# some pre-defined constants
A = 1
B = 2

# function that does something critical
def foo(num1, num2):
    # do something

# main program.... do something to A and B
for i in range(20):
    # do something to A and B
    # and update A and B during each iteration

import timeit
t = timeit.Timer(stmt="foo(num1,num2)")  
print t.timeit(5)

I just keep getting "global name foo is not defined"..... Can anyone help me on this? Thanks!

Solution 1:

The functions can use arguments in timeit if these are created using closures, we can add this behaviours by wrapping them in another function.

def foo(num1, num2):
    def _foo():
        # do something to num1 and num2
        pass
    return _foo

A = 1
B = 2

import timeit
t = timeit.Timer(foo(A,B))  
print(t.timeit(5))

or shorter, we can use functools.partial instead of explicit closures declaration

def foo(num1, num2):
    # do something to num1 and num2
    pass

A = 1
B = 2

import timeit, functools
t = timeit.Timer(functools.partial(foo, A, B)) 
print(t.timeit(5))

EDIT using lambda, thanks @jupiterbjy

we can use lambda function without parameters instead of functools library

def foo(num1, num2):
    # do something to num1 and num2
    pass

A = 1
B = 2

import timeit
t = timeit.Timer(lambda: foo(A, B)) 
print (t.timeit(5))

Solution 2:

The code snippets must be self-contained - they cannot make external references. You must define your values in the statement-string or setup-string:

import timeit

setup = """
A = 1
B = 2

def foo(num1, num2):
    pass

def mainprog():
    global A,B
    for i in range(20):
        # do something to A and B
        foo(A, B)
"""

t = timeit.Timer(stmt="mainprog()" setup=setup)
print(t.timeit(5))

Better yet, rewrite your code to not use global values.

Solution 3:

Supposing that your module filename is test.py

# some pre-defined constants
A = 1
B = 2

# function that does something critical
def foo(n, m):
    pass

# main program.... do something to A and B
for i in range(20):
    pass

import timeit
t = timeit.Timer(stmt="test.foo(test.A, test.B)", setup="import test")  
print t.timeit(5)

Solution 4:

I usually create an extra function:

def f(x,y):
    return x*y

v1 = 10
v2 = 20

def f_test():
    f(v1,v2)

print(timeit.timeit("f_test()", setup="from __main__ import f_test"))

Solution 5:

Your function needs to be define in the setup string. A good way to do this is by setting up your code in a module, so you simple have to do

t = timeit.Timer("foo(num1, num2)", "from myfile import foo")
t.timeit(5)

Otherwise, you'll have to define all of the setup as a string inside the setup statement.

setup = """
 # some pre-defined constants
A = 1
B = 2

# function that does something critical
def foo(num1, num2):
    # do something

# main program.... do something to A and B
for i in range(20):
    # do something to A and B
    # and update A and B during each iteration
"""

t = timeit.Timer("foo(num1, num2)", setup)
t.timeit(5)

Something awesome I just found out about is a shortcut for iPython that uses cProfile.

def foo(x, y):
    print x*y

%prun foo("foo", 100)