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

Answer 1

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.