List comprehension vs map

map may be microscopically faster in some cases (when you're NOT making a lambda for the purpose, but using the same function in map and a listcomp). List comprehensions may be faster in other cases and most (not all) pythonistas consider them more direct and clearer.

An example of the tiny speed advantage of map when using exactly the same function:

$ python -m timeit -s'xs=range(10)' 'map(hex, xs)'
100000 loops, best of 3: 4.86 usec per loop
$ python -m timeit -s'xs=range(10)' '[hex(x) for x in xs]'
100000 loops, best of 3: 5.58 usec per loop

An example of how performance comparison gets completely reversed when map needs a lambda:

$ python -m timeit -s'xs=range(10)' 'map(lambda x: x+2, xs)'
100000 loops, best of 3: 4.24 usec per loop
$ python -m timeit -s'xs=range(10)' '[x+2 for x in xs]'
100000 loops, best of 3: 2.32 usec per loop

I find list comprehensions are generally more expressive of what I'm trying to do than map - they both get it done, but the former saves the mental load of trying to understand what could be a complex lambda expression.

There's also an interview out there somewhere (I can't find it offhand) where Guido lists lambdas and the functional functions as the thing he most regrets about accepting into Python, so you could make the argument that they're un-Pythonic by virtue of that.

I ran a quick test comparing three methods for invoking the method of an object. The time difference, in this case, is negligible and is a matter of the function in question (see @Alex Martelli's response). Here, I looked at the following methods:

# map_lambda
list(map(lambda x: x.add(), vals))

# map_operator
from operator import methodcaller
list(map(methodcaller("add"), vals))

# map_comprehension
[x.add() for x in vals]

I looked at lists (stored in the variable vals) of both integers (Python int) and floating point numbers (Python float) for increasing list sizes. The following dummy class DummyNum is considered:

class DummyNum(object):
    """Dummy class"""
    __slots__ = 'n',

    def __init__(self, n):
        self.n = n

    def add(self):
        self.n += 5

Specifically, the add method. The __slots__ attribute is a simple optimization in Python to define the total memory needed by the class (attributes), reducing memory size. Here are the resulting plots.

As stated previously, the technique used makes a minimal difference and you should code in a way that is most readable to you, or in the particular circumstance. In this case, the list comprehension (map_comprehension technique) is fastest for both types of additions in an object, especially with shorter lists.

Visit this pastebin for the source used to generate the plot and data.

I timed some of the results with perfplot (a project of mine).

As others have noted, map really only returns an iterator so it's a constant-time operation. When realizing the iterator by list(), it's on par with list comprehensions. Depending on the expression, either one might have a slight edge but it's hardly significant.

Note that arithmetic operations like x ** 2 are much faster in NumPy, especially if the input data is already a NumPy array.

hex:

x ** 2:

Code to reproduce the plots:

import perfplot


def standalone_map(data):
    return map(hex, data)


def list_map(data):
    return list(map(hex, data))


def comprehension(data):
    return [hex(x) for x in data]


b = perfplot.bench(
    setup=lambda n: list(range(n)),
    kernels=[standalone_map, list_map, comprehension],
    n_range=[2 ** k for k in range(20)],
    equality_check=None,
)
b.save("out.png")
b.show()

import perfplot
import numpy as np


def standalone_map(data):
    return map(lambda x: x ** 2, data[0])


def list_map(data):
    return list(map(lambda x: x ** 2, data[0]))


def comprehension(data):
    return [x ** 2 for x in data[0]]


def numpy_asarray(data):
    return np.asarray(data[0]) ** 2


def numpy_direct(data):
    return data[1] ** 2


b = perfplot.bench(
    setup=lambda n: (list(range(n)), np.arange(n)),
    kernels=[standalone_map, list_map, comprehension, numpy_direct, numpy_asarray],
    n_range=[2 ** k for k in range(20)],
    equality_check=None,
)
b.save("out2.png")
b.show()

I tried the code by @alex-martelli but found some discrepancies

python -mtimeit -s "xs=range(123456)" "map(hex, xs)"
1000000 loops, best of 5: 218 nsec per loop
python -mtimeit -s "xs=range(123456)" "[hex(x) for x in xs]"
10 loops, best of 5: 19.4 msec per loop

map takes the same amount of time even for very large ranges while using list comprehension takes a lot of time as is evident from my code. So apart from being considered "unpythonic", I have not faced any performance issues relating to usage of map.

Image Source: Experfy

You can see for yourself which is better between - List Comprehension and the Map Function

(List Comprehension takes lesser time to process 1 million records when compared to a map function)

Hope it helps! Good Luck :)

My use case:

def sum_items(*args):
    return sum(args)


list_a = [1, 2, 3]
list_b = [1, 2, 3]

list_of_sums = list(map(sum_items,
                        list_a, list_b))
>>> [3, 6, 9]

comprehension = [sum(items) for items in iter(zip(list_a, list_b))]

I found myself starting to use more map, I thought map could be slower than comp due to pass and return arguments, that's why I found this post.

I believe using map could be much more readable and flexible, especially when I need to construct the values of the list.

You actually understand it when you read it if you used map.

def pair_list_items(*args):
    return args

packed_list = list(map(pair_list_items,
                       lista, *listb, listc.....listn))

Plus the flexibility bonus. And thank for all other answers, plus the performance bonus.