Save OrderedDict import in re

[serhiy-storchaka]

BPO	32338
Nosy	@rhettinger, @vstinner, @ezio-melotti, @methane, @serhiy-storchaka, @miss-islington
PRs	bpo-32338: OrderedDict import is no longer needed in re. #4891 bpo-32360: Remove OrderedDict from re module #5013 [3.7] bpo-32338: OrderedDict import is no longer needed in re. (GH-4891) #6073

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2018-03-11.07:06:10.801>
created_at = <Date 2017-12-15.18:21:39.079>
labels = ['expert-regex', 'type-feature', 'library', '3.7']
title = 'Save OrderedDict import in re'
updated_at = <Date 2018-03-11.07:06:10.799>
user = 'https://github.com/serhiy-storchaka'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2018-03-11.07:06:10.799>
actor = 'serhiy.storchaka'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2018-03-11.07:06:10.801>
closer = 'serhiy.storchaka'
components = ['Library (Lib)', 'Regular Expressions']
creation = <Date 2017-12-15.18:21:39.079>
creator = 'serhiy.storchaka'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 32338
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 10.0
messages = ['308418', '308516', '308524', '308525', '308526', '308527', '308529', '308534', '313583', '313584']
nosy_count = 7.0
nosy_names = ['rhettinger', 'vstinner', 'ezio.melotti', 'mrabarnett', 'methane', 'serhiy.storchaka', 'miss-islington']
pr_nums = ['4891', '5013', '6073']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue32338'
versions = ['Python 3.7']

[serhiy-storchaka]

Since regular dicts are now ordered by default, the OrderedDict import is no longer necessary.

[methane]

Please don't do this.
del d[next(iter(d))] is not O(1) on current dict implementation.
OrderedDict is designed for such use cases. Please keep using it.

[serhiy-storchaka]

This is surprising. But OrderedDict also can be O(N) here.

Do you have benchmarking results Inada?

[methane]

This is surprising. But OrderedDict also can be O(N) here.

Current dict implementation doesn't skip empty entries.
So next(iter(D)) takes time.
On the other hand, OrderedDict uses doubly-linked list to find first entry.

(I fixed it in compact ODict branch, but it added one word to dict)

Do you have benchmarking results Inada?

$ ./python -m perf timeit -s 'cache={}' -- '
for i in range(10000):
 if len(cache) > 512:
 del cache[next(iter(cache))]
 cache[i]=i
'
.....................
Mean +- std dev: 6.81 ms +- 0.08 ms

$ ./python -m perf timeit -s 'from collections import OrderedDict; cache=OrderedDict()' -- '
for i in range(10000):
 if len(cache) > 512:
 cache.popitem(last=False)
 cache[i]=i
'
.....................
Mean +- std dev: 3.75 ms +- 0.07 ms

Performance difference is measurable even when N is only 512.

Maybe, we can use hack similar to Python 3.5 had for O(1) popitem().
When entries[0].key==NULL, (Py_ssize_t)entries[0].value can be index
to first known non-empty entry.

[methane]

Hmm, 0.3 μs for each lookup may be negligible compared to re.compile() speed?

[vstinner]

del d[next(iter(d))] is not O(1) on current dict implementation.

We are talking about a dictionary of 512 items in the worst case. On such very tiny collection, benchmarking matters more than O(...) complexity ;-)

[methane]

We are talking about a dictionary of 512 items in the worst case. On such very tiny collection, benchmarking matters more than O(...) complexity ;-)

You're right. Rob Pike said:

"Fancy algorithms are slow when n is small, and n is usually small."
http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~adnan/pike.html

[methane]

• del cache[next(iter(cache))] happens only when sre.compile() is called.
• del cache[next(iter(cache))] is much faster than sre.compile().

OK, performance difference is negligible, surely.

[serhiy-storchaka]

New changeset b931bd0 by Serhiy Storchaka in branch 'master':
bpo-32338: OrderedDict import is no longer needed in re. (bpo-4891)
b931bd0

[miss-islington]

New changeset 39441fc by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.7':
bpo-32338: OrderedDict import is no longer needed in re. (GH-4891)
39441fc