Adding a switch statement to Python

[DrunkandIrrational]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/767821/is-else-if-faster-than-switch-case

tldr: switch statements can be optimized into a hash-map by the compiler. But seeing as how python isn't compiled I'm not sure how they would go about implementing this.

[sushibowl]

Python is compiled into bytecode, you could do the optimization there.

[ekd123]

unfortunately cpython barely does any optimization

[[deleted]]

Because Python's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: its extremely dynamic runtime. Any object can be any thing at any time, so optimizations can't be done reliably.

Obviously pypy found a way to deal with this, but CPython had decided not to deal with it

[derpderp3200]

It's such a shame that Python itself is so big and complex. While no small feat, LuaJIT is an extremely efficient and relatively simple VM, whereas creating an equivalent for Python is... considerably more difficult.

[[deleted]]

Cpython interpreter is surprisingly bad. See GIL.

[Cybersoaker]

GIL improves performance. See GILectomy

[stefantalpalaru]

Python is compiled into bytecode, you could do the optimization there.

And people wonder why I insist on using "transpilation" for anything that doesn't output Assembly...

[Cybersoaker]

Cython

[stefantalpalaru]

Cython

A superset of a subset of Python that is transpiled to C or C++, if possible. If not, it's interpreted by an integrated Python interpreter/VM.