Pandas import is very slow (Anaconda Python 2.7)

Question

I am using the pandas module within a script. However, it is taking anywhere from 3-10 seconds to import pandas every time I run the script. I am using the Anaconda package for Python 2.7 and I haven't had have this issue with any other modules.

I used cProfile on a separate script that consisted of only an 'import Pandas' statement. Top results from the output are below.

C:\Users\*****\AppData\Local\Continuum\Anaconda> python -m cProfile -s cumtime test_pandas_import.py
     204229 function calls (199729 primitive calls) in 3.480 seconds

Ordered by: cumulative time

ncalls  tottime  percall  cumtime  percall filename:lineno(function)
    2    0.216    0.108    3.490    1.745 __init__.py:4(<module>)
    1    0.019    0.019    3.482    3.482 test_imports.py:1(<module>)
   19    0.155    0.008    1.300    0.068 __init__.py:1(<module>)
    1    0.024    0.024    0.895    0.895 config_init.py:11(<module>)
    1    0.049    0.049    0.803    0.803 __init__.py:106(<module>)
    1    0.024    0.024    0.669    0.669 format.py:2(<module>)
    1    0.005    0.005    0.628    0.628 add_newdocs.py:10(<module>)
    2    0.029    0.015    0.604    0.302 index.py:2(<module>)
    2    0.094    0.047    0.542    0.271 __init__.py:9(<module>)
    2    0.092    0.046    0.532    0.266 common.py:1(<module>)
    1    0.008    0.008    0.506    0.506 type_check.py:3(<module>)

Any ideas why the import pandas statement takes so long for me, or how I might better diagnose/fix what is happening? Has anyone else experienced this issue?

Answer 1

Internally pandas imports a bunch of other stuff. There is a github issue on this topic.

Note that pytz takes a long time to import (about half of the entire pandas import) if it is version 2016.4; version 2016.7 and 2017.2 are much quicker. You might want to upgrade your pytz version; that should have a significant impact.