operator.itemgetter vs lambda

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Accepted Answer

operator.itemgetter is a C-level callable from the operator module. On tight loops with millions of elements, it is measurably faster than an equivalent lambda because there is no Python function call overhead per element. For small lists the difference is negligible. Both are idiomatic - use whichever is clearer. itemgetter('age', 'name') can also extract multiple fields at once, which lambda cannot do as cleanly.