## 25.9.2 Examples

Here are two example sessions (one using the command line, one using the module interface) that compare the cost of using `hasattr()` vs. `try`/`except` to test for missing and present object attributes.

    % timeit.py 'try:' '  str.__nonzero__' 'except AttributeError:' '  pass'
    100000 loops, best of 3: 15.7 usec per loop
    % timeit.py 'if hasattr(str, "__nonzero__"): pass'
    100000 loops, best of 3: 4.26 usec per loop
    % timeit.py 'try:' '  int.__nonzero__' 'except AttributeError:' '  pass'
    1000000 loops, best of 3: 1.43 usec per loop
    % timeit.py 'if hasattr(int, "__nonzero__"): pass'
    100000 loops, best of 3: 2.23 usec per loop

    >>> import timeit
    >>> s = """\
    ... try:
    ...     str.__nonzero__
    ... except AttributeError:
    ...     pass
    ... """
    >>> t = timeit.Timer(stmt=s)
    >>> print "%.2f usec/pass" % (1000000 * t.timeit(number=100000)/100000)
    17.09 usec/pass
    >>> s = """\
    ... if hasattr(str, '__nonzero__'): pass
    ... """
    >>> t = timeit.Timer(stmt=s)
    >>> print "%.2f usec/pass" % (1000000 * t.timeit(number=100000)/100000)
    4.85 usec/pass
    >>> s = """\
    ... try:
    ...     int.__nonzero__
    ... except AttributeError:
    ...     pass
    ... """
    >>> t = timeit.Timer(stmt=s)
    >>> print "%.2f usec/pass" % (1000000 * t.timeit(number=100000)/100000)
    1.97 usec/pass
    >>> s = """\
    ... if hasattr(int, '__nonzero__'): pass
    ... """
    >>> t = timeit.Timer(stmt=s)
    >>> print "%.2f usec/pass" % (1000000 * t.timeit(number=100000)/100000)
    3.15 usec/pass

To give the `timeit` module access to functions you define, you can pass a `setup` parameter which contains an import statement:

    def test():
        "Stupid test function"
        L = []
        for i in range(100):
            L.append(i)

    if __name__=='__main__':
        from timeit import Timer
        t = Timer("test()", "from __main__ import test")
        print t.timeit()