Favorite Python Optimizations: Slots

If you are using any objects in Python, here is a quick way to knock a couple of seconds off the execution time - add slots. This is maybe the easiest optimization mod ever. It doesn't produce massive gains, but every little bit helps. So for a basic object like

class MyClass:
    def __init__(self, var1, var2, var3):
        self.myVar1 = var1
        self.myVar2 = var2
        self.myVar3 = var3

you add one line creating a list of slots like this:

class MyClass:
    __slots__ = ['myVar1', 'myVar2', 'myVar3']
    def __init__(self, var1, var2, var3):
        self.myVar1 = var1
        self.myVar2 = var2
        self.myVar3 = var3

and you get a bit of a speed up!