import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.rc('figure', figsize=(10, 6))
PREVIOUS_MAX_ROWS = pd.options.display.max_rows
pd.options.display.max_columns = 20
pd.options.display.max_rows = 20
pd.options.display.max_colwidth = 80
np.set_printoptions(precision=4, suppress=True)
# a very large list of strings
strings = ['foo', 'foobar', 'baz', 'qux',
'python', 'Guido Van Rossum'] * 100000
method1 = [x for x in strings if x.startswith('foo')]
method2 = [x for x in strings if x[:3] == 'foo']
%time method1 = [x for x in strings if x.startswith('foo')]
%time method2 = [x for x in strings if x[:3] == 'foo']
pd.options.display.max_rows = PREVIOUS_MAX_ROWS