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pythonloopsrangepython-2.xxrange

What is the difference between range and xrange functions in Python 2.X?

Apparently xrange is faster but I have no idea why it's faster (and no proof besides the anecdotal so far that it is faster) or what besides that is different about

for i in range(0, 20):
for i in xrange(0, 20):
Solution

  • In Python 2.x:

    • range creates a list, so if you do range(1, 10000000) it creates a list in memory with 9999999 elements.

    • xrange is a sequence object that evaluates lazily.

    In Python 3:

    • range does the equivalent of Python 2's xrange. To get the list, you have to explicitly use list(range(...)).
    • xrange no longer exists.