python leak variable

Here are two ways to count the numbers from 1 to 1000000 in Python. First, the classical way:

sum([i for i in xrange(1000000)])

Runs 0.8s on an old Linux box. It uses quite a bit of memory.

Second, the better way:

sum((i for i in xrange(1000000)))

Not only that, but expression 2 doesn’t leak a variable!

$ python
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Feb 22 2008, 07:57:53)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5363)] on darwin
Type “help”, “copyright”, “credits” or “license” for more information.
>>> i
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 1, in
NameError: name ‘i’ is not defined
>>> sum([i for i in xrange(100000)])
4999950000L
>>> i
99999
>>> sum(j for j in xrange(100000))
4999950000L
>>> j
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 1, in
NameError: name ‘j’ is not defined
>>>

有趣的是

为什么[i for i in xrange(1000000)] 不是generator

而 In [6]: (i for i in xrange(1000000))
   Out[6]: <generator object <genexpr> at 0x02F7E2D8>