>>> from timeit import timeit >>> timeit(' ["abc" + str(i) for i in range(10)] ') 12.046442985534668 >>> timeit(' ["".join(("abc", str(i))) for i in range(10)] ') 16.259288787841797 >>> timeit(' ["".join(["abc", str(i)]) for i in range(10)] ') 19.62903094291687