Compare speed of different ways of constructing a list.

pylistbench.py

stmt_index = 'ls = [0]*10000\nfor i in range(10000):\n    ls[i] = i\n'
stmt_append = 'ls = []\nfor i in range(10000):\n    ls.append(i)\n'
stmt_comprehension = '[i for i in range(10000)]'

t_index = timeit(stmt_index, number=10000)
# >>> 3.06s

t_append = timeit(stmt_append, number=10000)
# >>> 4.23s

t_comprehension = timeit(stmt_comprehension, number=10000)
# >>> 2.07s

t_numpy = timeit('ls = arange(10000)', setup='from numpy import arange', number=1000)
# >>> 0.05s