Does making python more compact, make it more efficient?

Question

Ignoring code readability, is it worth removing redundant variables?

Eg. converting this code:

seconds = (milisec / 1000) % 60
minutes = milisec // (1000 * 60)
name = "{:>3}-{:0>5.2f}".format(minutes, seconds)

into:

name = "{:>3}-{:0>5.2f}".format(
    milisec // (1000 * 60), # minutes
    (milisec / 1000) % 60,  # seconds
    )

Answer 1

In term of execution time, the compact code is slighlty faster than the long code. A quick evaluation could be this:

That being said, the readability of the code matters . It is one of the milestones of Python code. Debugging, maintenance, team working (just to name a few) take advantage of a better code readability.

Answer 2

Creating variables take a little place in memory, so it would be faster if you don't do so. However, it is a really small difference.

Answer 3

Yes, your second piece of code, as you say more compact, will be slightly more efficient as assigning to variables correspond to some machine instructions.

from timeit import timeit

def function():

    milisec = 173000

    seconds = (milisec / 1000) % 60
    minutes = milisec // (1000 * 60)
    name = "{:>3}-{:0>5.2f}".format(minutes, seconds)


print(timeit(stmt='function()', setup='from __main__ import function', ))



def function2():
    milisec = 173000
    name = "{:>3}-{:0>5.2f}".format(
    milisec // (1000 * 60), # minutes
    (milisec / 1000) % 60,  # seconds
    )

print(timeit(stmt='function2()', setup='from __main__ import function2', ))

see some difference on one run of batches (in seconds)