Python list comprehension - want to avoid repeated evaluation

Question

I have a list comprehension which approximates to:

[f(x) for x in l if f(x)]

Where l is a list and f(x) is an expensive function which retu

Answer 1

A solution (the best if you have repeated value of x) would be to memoize the function f, i.e. to create a wrapper function that saves the argument by which the function is called and save it, than return it if the same value is asked.

a really simple implementation is the following:

storage = {}
def memoized(value):
    if value not in storage:
        storage[value] = f(value)
    return storage[value]

[memoized(x) for x in l if memoized(x)]

and then use this function in the list comprehension. This approach is valid under two condition, one theoretical and one practical. The first one is that the function f should be deterministic, i.e. returns the same results given the same input, and the other is that the object x can be used as a dictionary keys. If the first one is not valid than you should recompute f each timeby definition, while if the second one fails it is possible to use some slightly more robust approaches.

You can find a lot of implementation of memoization around the net, and I think that the new versions of python have something included in them too.

On a side note, never use the small L as a variable name, is a bad habit as it can be confused with an i or a 1 on some terminals.

EDIT:

as commented, a possible solution using generators comprehension (to avoid creating useless duplicate temporaries) would be this expression:

[g(x, fx) for x, fx in ((x,f(x)) for x in l) if fx]

You need to weight your choice given the computational cost of f, the number of duplication in the original list and memory at you disposition. Memoization make a space-speed tradeoff, meaning that it keep tracks of each result saving it, so if you have huge lists it can became costly on the memory occupation front.