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Optimize ASCII lowercase conversion performance - #15203

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Miladkhoshdel wants to merge 1 commit into
TheAlgorithms:masterfrom
Miladkhoshdel:perf/optimize-lower
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Optimize ASCII lowercase conversion performance#15203
Miladkhoshdel wants to merge 1 commit into
TheAlgorithms:masterfrom
Miladkhoshdel:perf/optimize-lower

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@Miladkhoshdel

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Describe your change:

Improve the performance of the existing ASCII lowercase conversion by replacing the generator expression with an explicit loop.

The updated implementation:

  • Computes each character's ASCII value only once.
  • Uses module-level constants for the ASCII uppercase range and case offset to improve readability and avoid magic numbers.
  • Builds the result using a list and joins it at the end.
  • Preserves the existing behavior and doctests.

Benchmark using:

python -m timeit \
  -s "from strings.lower import lower; s = 'Hello WORLD 123!' * 1000" \
  "lower(s)"

Results on my machine:

  • Previous implementation: ~1.08 ms per loop
  • Updated implementation: ~772 µs per loop
  • Runtime reduction: ~28.5%
  • Add an algorithm?
  • Fix a bug or typo in an existing algorithm?
  • Add or change doctests? -- Note: Please avoid changing both code and tests in a single pull request.
  • Documentation change?

Checklist:

  • I have read CONTRIBUTING.md.
  • This pull request is all my own work -- I have not plagiarized.
  • I know that pull requests will not be merged if they fail the automated tests.
  • This PR only changes one algorithm file. To ease review, please open separate PRs for separate algorithms.
  • All new Python files are placed inside an existing directory.
  • All filenames are in all lowercase characters with no spaces or dashes.
  • All functions and variable names follow Python naming conventions.
  • All function parameters and return values are annotated with Python type hints.
  • All functions have doctests that pass the automated testing.
  • All new algorithms include at least one URL that points to Wikipedia or another similar explanation.
  • If this pull request resolves one or more open issues then the description above includes the issue number(s) with a closing keyword: "Fixes #ISSUE-NUMBER".

@algorithms-keeper algorithms-keeper Bot added awaiting reviews This PR is ready to be reviewed enhancement This PR modified some existing files labels Sep 6, 2026

@cclauss cclauss left a comment

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Please add a benchmark that proves that the proposed changes provide significant runtime improvements.

@algorithms-keeper algorithms-keeper Bot added awaiting changes A maintainer has requested changes to this PR and removed awaiting reviews This PR is ready to be reviewed labels Sep 6, 2026
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3 participants