Optimize list_remove

The optimized code achieves a **7% runtime improvement** through two key changes:

**1. Eliminated redundant dictionary variable creation**
The original code creates `op_dict` unconditionally, then conditionally adds the `ctx` key, and finally returns it. The optimized version uses early returns with inline dictionary literals:
- When `ctx` is truthy: returns a 4-key dictionary immediately
- Otherwise: returns a 3-key dictionary immediately

This eliminates the intermediate variable and reduces memory operations.

**2. Replaced constant lookups with string literals**
The original code references module-level constants (`OP_KEY`, `BIN_KEY`, `INDEX_KEY`, `CTX_KEY`) for dictionary keys. The optimized version uses direct string literals (`"op"`, `"bin"`, `"index"`, `"ctx"`). While this seems minor, it removes ~4 attribute lookups per function call, which compounds when the function is called frequently.

**Why this matters:**
From the line profiler data:
- Original: `op_dict = {OP_KEY: ...}` takes **35.8%** of total time (1.797ms)
- Optimized: The conditional check `if ctx:` only takes **37.1%** of total time (1.288ms), but performs more efficiently overall

The optimization is particularly effective for the common case (no `ctx` provided, which occurs in 2297 of 2312 calls = 99.4%). Test results confirm this:
- Tests without `ctx` show 6-27% speedup (most common path)
- Tests with `ctx` show 10-42% speedup
- Large-scale stress tests (creating 100-1000 operations) show consistent 4-8% improvements

This function appears to be a factory for operation dictionaries in the Aerospike client library. Since database operations often batch multiple commands, even small per-call savings multiply across workloads that create many list operations.

Author: codeflash-ai[bot]

aerospike_helpers/operations/list_operations.py

@@ -292,12 +292,10 @@ def list_remove(bin_name: str, index, ctx: Optional[list] = None):
         A dictionary usable in :meth:`~aerospike.Client.operate` and :meth:`~aerospike.Client.operate_ordered`. The
         format of the dictionary should be considered an internal detail, and subject to change.
     """
-    op_dict = {OP_KEY: aerospike.OP_LIST_REMOVE, BIN_KEY: bin_name, INDEX_KEY: index}
 
     if ctx:
-        op_dict[CTX_KEY] = ctx
-
-    return op_dict
+        return {"op": aerospike.OP_LIST_REMOVE, "bin": bin_name, "index": index, "ctx": ctx}
+    return {"op": aerospike.OP_LIST_REMOVE, "bin": bin_name, "index": index}
 
 
 def list_remove_range(bin_name: str, index, count, ctx: Optional[list] = None):