⚡️ Speed up function flatten_dict by 13%
#265
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📄 13% (0.13x) speedup for
flatten_dictinunstructured/staging/base.py⏱️ Runtime :
6.95 milliseconds→6.16 milliseconds(best of30runs)📝 Explanation and details
The optimized code achieves a 12% speedup by restructuring the recursion strategy to eliminate repeated dictionary creation and
.update()calls.Key Optimization
Original approach: Creates temporary dictionaries and merges them via
.update()for each recursive call:Optimized approach: Uses a nested helper function
_flatten_recursive()that writes directly to the sharedflattened_dict:Why This is Faster
Eliminates dictionary allocation overhead: The original code creates a new dictionary for every recursive call (4,332 calls per profiler), then merges it. The optimized version writes directly to one dictionary.
Avoids
.update()operations: Dictionary merging is expensive - it involves iterating through key-value pairs and copying them. The line profiler shows this accounts for ~10% of total time in the original code.Reduces function call overhead: While both versions recurse, the optimized version doesn't pass dictionaries as arguments or return values in recursive calls, reducing parameter passing overhead.
Simpler list/tuple handling: The original wraps list items in temporary dictionaries (
{f"{new_key}{separator}{index}": item}), which the optimized version avoids entirely.Performance Impact by Workload
Based on annotated tests:
flatten_lists=Trueon large datasets (test cases liketest_flatten_large_list_flattening,test_flatten_mixed_large_structure)Function References Context
The function is called in
convert_to_csv()andconvert_to_dataframe()to flatten metadata dictionaries. These appear to be data transformation pipelines where:rowsin CSV conversion)The optimization is particularly beneficial here because metadata flattening happens per-row in batch operations, making the cumulative effect of the 12% speedup meaningful in data-heavy workloads.
✅ Correctness verification report:
⚙️ Click to see Existing Unit Tests
staging/test_base.py::test_default_pandas_dtypesstaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dictstaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_alt_separatorstaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_empty_listsstaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_flatten_liststaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_flatten_list_none_in_list_remove_nonestaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_flatten_list_omit_keysstaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_flatten_list_omit_keys2staging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_flatten_list_omit_keys3staging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_flatten_list_omit_keys4staging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_flatten_list_omit_keys_remove_nonestaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_flatten_list_remove_nonestaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_flatten_tuplestaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_with_listsstaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_with_omit_keysstaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_dict_with_tuplesstaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_empty_dictstaging/test_base.py::test_flatten_nested_dict🌀 Click to see Generated Regression Tests
🔎 Click to see Concolic Coverage Tests
codeflash_concolic_xdo_puqm/tmphc_5lxaq/test_concolic_coverage.py::test_flatten_dictcodeflash_concolic_xdo_puqm/tmphc_5lxaq/test_concolic_coverage.py::test_flatten_dict_2codeflash_concolic_xdo_puqm/tmphc_5lxaq/test_concolic_coverage.py::test_flatten_dict_3To edit these changes
git checkout codeflash/optimize-flatten_dict-mks0isd1and push.