Python style guide: intermittent variables

Question

I was searching for a Python style guide in terms of "intermittent variables" and readability. The code that I develope will be mainly used by non-programming-experts, so it should be easy to read, but on the other hand, I would like to learn standard Python style.

A simple example:

import numpy as np

a = [2,3,5,4]
b = [2,2,2,2]

#Version 1
a1 = np.array(a)
b1 = np.array(b)

a2 = np.transpose(a1)
b2 = np.transpose(b1)

c = np.vstack((a2,b2))

#Version 2
c1 = np.vstack((np.transpose(np.array(a)), np.transpose(np.array(b))))

I guess in this case, Version 2 is not really hard to read, but I hope you know what I mean.

• What is the correct word for this "intermittent variables" (if there is one)? Is there a something available like a style guide?
• Is there a big difference in terms of computation time (Version 1 vs. Version 2)?

Answer 1

The correct words are either intermediate variable or temporary variable . I tend more towards the style in version 1 of your example code, so I use them a lot, but I also tend to prefer more descriptive variable names when I use them. One benefit of version 2 of your code is that this isn't really necessary, since the nested function calls already describe what's happening.

There should be no significant performance difference in creating a few temporary variables. The memory allocation and processing required to execute the two different versions of your code are virtually identical.