[R] parsing speed

Berton Gunter gunter.berton at gene.com
Tue May 17 00:20:01 CEST 2005


(just my additional $.02)

... and as a general rule (subject to numerous exceptions, caveats, etc.)

1) it is programming and debugging time that most impacts "overall" program
execution time;
2) this is most strongly impacted by code readability and size (the smaller
the better);
3) both of which are enhanced by modular construction and reuseability,
which argues for avoiding inline code and using separate functions.

These days, i would argue that most of the time it is program clarity and
correctness (they are related) that is the important issue, not execution
speed.

... again, subject to exceptions and caveats, etc.

-- Bert Gunter
Genentech Non-Clinical Statistics
South San Francisco, CA
 
"The business of the statistician is to catalyze the scientific learning
process."  - George E. P. Box
 
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Duncan Murdoch
> Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 3:09 PM
> To: f.calboli at imperial.ac.uk
> Cc: r-help
> Subject: Re: [R] parsing speed
> 
> Federico Calboli wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> > 
> > I have a question on parsing speed.
> > 
> > I have two functions:
> > 
> > F1
> > F2
> > 
> > As things are now, F2 calls F1 internally:
> > 
> > F2 =  function(x){
> > if (something == 1){
> > y = F1(x)
> > }
> > if (something ==2){
> > do whatever
> > }
> > }
> > 
> > *Assuming there could be some difference*, is is faster to 
> use the code
> > as written above or should I actually write the statements 
> of F1 to make
> > the parsing faster? 
> 
> The parsing only happens once when you define the functions, and is 
> (almost always) a negligible part of total execution time.  I think 
> you're really worried about execution time.  You'll probably get more 
> execution time with a separate function because function 
> calls take time.
> 
> However, my guess is that putting F1 inline won't make enough 
> difference 
> to notice.
> 
> Duncan
> 
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