collections in python - using less memory

Each object in python takes up far more memory than you might think. An int object for example does not take up 4 bytes.


So creating python objects for each element of a collection of data can use up far more memory than is needed.

A simple pattern for avoiding this wasted memory is to store the data in a array.array() then construct an object from the part of the data as you need it.


Using python classes to store an int.
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Constructing python classes to store an int dynamically.
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As you can see this method can save a *lot* of memory.

Here's some basic code demonstrating this technique... this isn't necessarily the API to use, but just demonstrates the memory savings. You can make a nicer to use API on top of that... or use your existing api with get magic properties.

wget http://rene.f0o.com/~rene/stuff/collection_memory.py

# using python objects...
python collection_memory.py 100000 -object & sleep 2 ; ps aux | grep python
# using a collection of python objects, which constructs a class from the raw data.
python collection_memory.py 100000 & sleep 2 ; ps aux | grep python

Many uses of python could use this technique to save lots of memory. Anything that operates on a large number of python objects.

  • Python database drivers are one area which could use this technique.

  • Sprite classes (like pygame sprites) could use an array of underlying data to store all the attributes.
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