Unusual Speed Difference between Python and C++

Question

I recently wrote a short algorithm to calculate happy numbers in python. The program allows you to pick an upper bound and it will determine all the happy numbers below it.

Answer 1

There's a new, radically faster version as a separate answer, so this answer is deprecated.

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I rewrote your algorithm by making it cache whenever it finds the number to be happy or unhappy. I also tried to make it as pythonic as I could, for example by creating separate functions digits() and happy(). Sorry for using Python 3, but I get to show off a couple a useful things from it as well.

This version is much faster. It runs at 1.7s which is 10 times faster than your original program that takes 18s (well, my MacBook is quite old and slow :) )

#!/usr/bin/env python3

from timeit import Timer
from itertools import count

print_numbers = False
upperBound = 10**5  # Default value, can be overidden by user.


def digits(x:'nonnegative number') -> "yields number's digits":
    if not (x >= 0): raise ValueError('Number should be nonnegative')
    while x:
        yield x % 10
        x //= 10


def happy(number, known = {1}, happies = {1}) -> 'True/None':
    '''This function tells if the number is happy or not, caching results.

    It uses two static variables, parameters known and happies; the
    first one contains known happy and unhappy numbers; the second 
    contains only happy ones.

    If you want, you can pass your own known and happies arguments. If
    you do, you should keep the assumption commented out on the 1 line.

    '''

#        assert 1 in known and happies <= known  # <= is expensive

    if number in known:
        return number in happies

    history = set()
    while True:
        history.add(number)
        number = sum(x**2 for x in digits(number))
        if number in known or number in history:
            break

    known.update(history)
    if number in happies:
        happies.update(history)
        return True


def calcMain():
    happies = {x for x in range(upperBound) if happy(x) }
    if print_numbers:
        print(happies)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    upperBound = eval(
            input("Pick an upper bound [default {0}]: "
                    .format(upperBound)).strip()
            or repr(upperBound))
    result = Timer(calcMain).timeit(1)
    print ('This computation took {0} seconds'.format(result))