到目前为止，我尝试过的最快的方法是基于Python烹饪书erat2函数:

import itertools as it
def erat2a( ):
    D = {  }
    yield 2
    for q in it.islice(it.count(3), 0, None, 2):
        p = D.pop(q, None)
        if p is None:
            D[q*q] = q
            yield q
        else:
            x = q + 2*p
            while x in D:
                x += 2*p
            D[x] = p

关于加速的解释，请看下面的答案。

这是使用存储列表查找质数的一种优雅而简单的解决方案。从4个变量开始，你只需要测试除数的奇数质数，你只需要测试你要测试的质数的一半(测试9,11,13是否能整除17没有意义)。它将先前存储的质数作为除数进行测试。

    # Program to calculate Primes
 primes = [1,3,5,7]
for n in range(9,100000,2):
    for x in range(1,(len(primes)/2)):
        if n % primes[x] == 0:
            break
    else:
        primes.append(n)
print primes

下面是一个使用python的列表推导式生成质数的有趣技术(但不是最有效的):

noprimes = [j for i in range(2, 8) for j in range(i*2, 50, i)]
primes = [x for x in range(2, 50) if x not in noprimes]

第一次使用python，所以我在这里使用的一些方法可能看起来有点麻烦。我只是直接将我的c++代码转换为python，这就是我所拥有的(尽管在python中有点慢)

#!/usr/bin/env python
import time

def GetPrimes(n):

    Sieve = [1 for x in xrange(n)]

    Done = False
    w = 3

    while not Done:

        for q in xrange (3, n, 2):
            Prod = w*q
            if Prod < n:
                Sieve[Prod] = 0
            else:
                break

        if w > (n/2):
            Done = True
        w += 2

    return Sieve



start = time.clock()

d = 10000000
Primes = GetPrimes(d)

count = 1 #This is for 2

for x in xrange (3, d, 2):
    if Primes[x]:
        count+=1

elapsed = (time.clock() - start)
print "\nFound", count, "primes in", elapsed, "seconds!\n"

pythonw Primes.py 在12.799119秒内找到664579个质数!

#!/usr/bin/env python
import time

def GetPrimes2(n):

    Sieve = [1 for x in xrange(n)]

    for q in xrange (3, n, 2):
        k = q
        for y in xrange(k*3, n, k*2):
            Sieve[y] = 0

    return Sieve



start = time.clock()

d = 10000000
Primes = GetPrimes2(d)

count = 1 #This is for 2

for x in xrange (3, d, 2):
    if Primes[x]:
        count+=1

elapsed = (time.clock() - start)
print "\nFound", count, "primes in", elapsed, "seconds!\n"

pythonw Primes2.py 在10.230172秒内找到664579个质数!

#!/usr/bin/env python
import time

def GetPrimes3(n):

    Sieve = [1 for x in xrange(n)]

    for q in xrange (3, n, 2):
        k = q
        for y in xrange(k*k, n, k << 1):
            Sieve[y] = 0

    return Sieve



start = time.clock()

d = 10000000
Primes = GetPrimes3(d)

count = 1 #This is for 2

for x in xrange (3, d, 2):
    if Primes[x]:
        count+=1

elapsed = (time.clock() - start)
print "\nFound", count, "primes in", elapsed, "seconds!\n"

python Primes2.py 在7.113776秒内找到664579个质数!

如果你接受itertools，但不接受numpy，这里有一个针对Python 3的rwh_primes2的改编版本，它在我的机器上运行速度大约是原来的两倍。唯一的实质性变化是使用bytearray而不是列表来表示布尔值，并使用压缩而不是列表推导来构建最终列表。(如果可以的话，我会把这句话作为moarningsun之类的评论。)

import itertools
izip = itertools.zip_longest
chain = itertools.chain.from_iterable
compress = itertools.compress
def rwh_primes2_python3(n):
    """ Input n>=6, Returns a list of primes, 2 <= p < n """
    zero = bytearray([False])
    size = n//3 + (n % 6 == 2)
    sieve = bytearray([True]) * size
    sieve[0] = False
    for i in range(int(n**0.5)//3+1):
      if sieve[i]:
        k=3*i+1|1
        start = (k*k+4*k-2*k*(i&1))//3
        sieve[(k*k)//3::2*k]=zero*((size - (k*k)//3 - 1) // (2 * k) + 1)
        sieve[  start ::2*k]=zero*((size -   start  - 1) // (2 * k) + 1)
    ans = [2,3]
    poss = chain(izip(*[range(i, n, 6) for i in (1,5)]))
    ans.extend(compress(poss, sieve))
    return ans

比较:

>>> timeit.timeit('primes.rwh_primes2(10**6)', setup='import primes', number=1)
0.0652179726976101
>>> timeit.timeit('primes.rwh_primes2_python3(10**6)', setup='import primes', number=1)
0.03267321276325674

and

>>> timeit.timeit('primes.rwh_primes2(10**8)', setup='import primes', number=1)
6.394284538007014
>>> timeit.timeit('primes.rwh_primes2_python3(10**8)', setup='import primes', number=1)
3.833829450302801

假设N < 9,080,191, Miller-Rabin's Primality检验的确定性实现

import sys

def miller_rabin_pass(a, n):
    d = n - 1
    s = 0
    while d % 2 == 0:
        d >>= 1
        s += 1

    a_to_power = pow(a, d, n)
    if a_to_power == 1:
        return True
    for i in range(s-1):
        if a_to_power == n - 1:
            return True
        a_to_power = (a_to_power * a_to_power) % n
    return a_to_power == n - 1


def miller_rabin(n):
    if n <= 2:
        return n == 2

    if n < 2_047:
        return miller_rabin_pass(2, n)

    return all(miller_rabin_pass(a, n) for a in (31, 73))


n = int(sys.argv[1])
primes = [2]
for p in range(3,n,2):
  if miller_rabin(p):
    primes.append(p)
print len(primes)

根据维基百科(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller -Rabin_primality_test)上的文章，对于a = 37和73，测试N < 9,080,191足以判断N是否为合数。

我从原始米勒-拉宾测试的概率实现中改编了源代码:https://www.literateprograms.org/miller-rabin_primality_test__python_.html