pickle_experiments.py

import StringIO
import cPickle

small = [{i: i} for i in xrange(9)]
medium = [{i: i} for i in xrange(999)]
large = [{i: i} for i in xrange(999999)]


def dumps(obj):
    return cPickle.dumps(obj)


def dumps_highest_protocol(obj):
    return cPickle.dumps(obj, cPickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)


def dumps_fast_mode(obj):
    buff = StringIO.StringIO()
    pickler = cPickle.Pickler(buff, cPickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)
    pickler.fast = 1
    pickler.dump(obj)
    buff.flush()
    return buff.getvalue()

run.sh

#!/bin/sh

echo 'SMALL'
echo 'dumps' && python -m timeit -n 10 -s "import pickle_experiments as p" "p.dumps(p.small)"
echo 'highp' && python -m timeit -n 10 -s "import pickle_experiments as p" "p.dumps_highest_protocol(p.small)"
echo 'pickl' && python -m timeit -n 10 -s "import pickle_experiments as p" "p.dumps_fast_mode(p.small)"
echo
echo 'MEDIUM'
echo 'dumps' && python -m timeit -n 10 -s "import pickle_experiments as p" "p.dumps(p.medium)"
echo 'highp' && python -m timeit -n 10 -s "import pickle_experiments as p" "p.dumps_highest_protocol(p.medium)"
echo 'pickl' && python -m timeit -n 10 -s "import pickle_experiments as p" "p.dumps_fast_mode(p.medium)"
echo
echo 'LARGE'
echo 'dumps' && python -m timeit -n 3 -s "import pickle_experiments as p" "p.dumps(p.large)"
echo 'highp' && python -m timeit -n 10 -s "import pickle_experiments as p" "p.dumps_highest_protocol(p.large)"
echo 'pickl' && python -m timeit -n 10 -s "import pickle_experiments as p" "p.dumps_fast_mode(p.large)"