[Python-Dev] Re: heaps

[Raymond Hettinger]

> The relative speed (compared to the heapq code) varies under 2.3, seeming to
> depend mostly on M/N.  The test case is set up to find the 1000 largest of a
> million random floats.  In that case the sorting method takes about 3.4x
> longer than the heapq approach.  As N gets closer to M, the sorting method
> eventually wins; when M and N are both a million, the sorting method is 10x
> faster.  For most N-best apps, M is much smaller than N, and the heapq code
> should be quicker unless the data is already in order.

FWIW, there is C implementation of heapq at:
   http://zhar.net/projects/python/


Raymond Hettinger