save all config VS access configObj for each field

Question

I have a config file abc.ini with trivial fields

[SET_1]
a=1
b=2
c=3

[SET_2]
d=4
e=5

Now, in the script(python) I can do 2 things:

1. Access the file abc.ini once and save all config in a data structure
2. Access the each field where I need them as configObj[SET_1][a] etc

Which of these is more efficient and why.

Answer 1

A ConfigObj section actually inherits from a Python dict, so both approaches will actually use the same underlying data structure. There will be no difference in performance.