Python loop benchmark with timeit

Question

I would like to benchmark a specific code segment inside a for loop in Python. I am using timeit as follows:

def createTokens():
    keypath=('./pickles/key.pickle')
    path="./data/"
    directory = os.listdir(path)
    tok={}
    print('create tokens..')
    t=[2**4,2**5,2**6,2**7,2**8,2**9,2**10,2**12,2**14,2**16]
    files=['pl_10000004','pl_10000002','pl_100000026']
    for filename in files:
        for i in t:
            code='etok=utils.token(filename,keypath,str(i))'
            t = timeit.Timer(stmt=code,setup='from __main__ import utils')
            print(filename+'_'+str(i)+'.pickle')
            print ('%f'%float(t.timeit(10/10)))

However this raises:

NameError: global name 'filename' is not defined

when I include filename in setup variable Python says:

ImportError: cannot import name filename

How is this is solved?

Answer 1

filename isn't defined in the scope of the code in the timeit block. I don't know what utils is in your code, but assuming it expects filename and keypath as strings just replace your

    code='etok=utils.token(filename,keypath,str(i))'

line with:

    code='etok=utils.token("{}","{}",{})'.format(filename, keypath, i)

Answer 2

Try this:

code='etok=utils.token("%s","%s","%s")' % (filename, keypath, i)

This will allow you to create a code string that has the values you want. Also, by using the %s conversion, i is coerced into a str type for you.

Edit: Added double quotes around values.