Python's profile module: <string>:1(?)

Question

I am using Python's (v2.4) profile module to profile a numpy script, and the following entry appears to account for the bulk of the execution time:

ncalls  tottime  percall  cumtime  percall filename:lineno(function)
 256/1    0.000    0.000    7.710    7.710 <string>:1(?)

Unfortunately, its appearance makes it hard to Google.

How do I go about figuring out what this is exactly?

edit The profiler is run from the shell as follows: python -m profile -s cumulative script.py

Are you using profile.run() to run the profiler? Then <string>:1 refers to the first line of the statement string you passed to this function. If you are calling the profiler in a different way, please specify. — Sven Marnach
– Sven Marnach, Commented May 11, 2011 at 12:47
@Sven Marnach: Good point, I've added this info to the question. — NPE
– NPE, Commented May 11, 2011 at 12:49
Assuming you're asking because you want higher performance, try this. — Mike Dunlavey
– Mike Dunlavey, Commented May 11, 2011 at 13:30

Jean-Paul Calderone · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-11 17:38:03Z

26

Ignore this line. It is an artifact of how the profiler is implemented. It is not telling you anything useful. Look at the "tottime" value for it: 0.000. "tottime" is the amount of time spent executing "<string>:1(?)" excluding time spent executing children of it. So, no time is spent here. "cumtime" and "percall" are large because they include time spent in children. See http://docs.python.org/library/profile.html#cProfile.run for more details.

edited May 11, 2011 at 17:38

answered May 11, 2011 at 14:27

Jean-Paul Calderone

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3 Comments

endolith Over a year ago

but what if the largest tottime is <string>:1(<module>)?

Jean-Paul Calderone Over a year ago

<string>:1(<module>) is top-level code in the entry-point Python script invoked. So if all your code is top-level in "foo.py" and you do python foo.py, then you'll see a high tottime for <string>:1(<module>). By "top-level", I mean not inside any function definition - just run directly.

Barden Over a year ago

if I order the %prun output by tottime I have 8.9 seconds (of 9.6 overall) in <string>:1(<module>). The next entry is 0.2 s and then it decreases quickly. What happens in the top entry?

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