#!/usr/bin/python def get_primes7(n): """ standard optimized sieve algorithm to get a list of prime numbers --- this is the function to compare your functions against! --- """ if n < 2: return [] if n == 2: return [2] # do only odd numbers starting at 3 s = range(3, n+1, 2) # n**0.5 simpler than math.sqr(n) mroot = n ** 0.5 half = len(s) i = 0 m = 3 while m <= mroot: if s[i]: j = (m*m-3)//2 # int div s[j] = 0 while j < half: s[j] = 0 j += m i = i+1 m = 2*i+3 return [2]+[x for x in s if x] for t in range(10): res = get_primes7(10000000) print len(res)