High memory usage in python

Question

The following simple python code:

class Node:
    NumberOfNodes = 0
    def __init__(self):
        Node.NumberOfNodes += 1
if __name__ == '__main__':
    nodes = []
    for i in xrange(1, 7 * 1000 * 1000):
        if i % 1000 == 0:
            print i
        nodes.append(Node())

takes gigabytes of memory; Which I think is irrational. Is that normal in python?

How could I fix that?(in my original code, I have about 7 million objects each with 10 fields and that takes 8 gigabytes of RAM)

Answer 1

If you have fixed number of fields then you can use __slots__ to save quite a lot of memory. Note that __slots__ do have some limitations, so make sure your read the Notes on using __slots__ carefully before choosing to use them in your application:

>>> import sys
>>> class Node(object):
    NumberOfNodes = 0
    def __init__(self):
        Node.NumberOfNodes += 1
...         
>>> n = Node()
>>> sys.getsizeof(n)
64
>>> class Node(object):
    __slots__ = ()
    NumberOfNodes = 0
    def __init__(self):
        Node.NumberOfNodes += 1
...         
>>> n = Node()
>>> sys.getsizeof(n)
16

Answer 2

Python is an inherently memory heavy programming language. There are some ways you can get around this. __slots__ is one way. Another, more extreme approach is to use numpy to store your data. You can use numpy to create a structured array or record -- a complex data type that uses minimal memory, but suffers a substantial loss of functionality compared to a normal python class. That is, you are working with the numpy array class, rather than your own class -- you cannot define your own methods on your array.

import numpy as np

# data type for a record with three 32-bit ints called x, y and z
dtype = [(name, np.int32) for name in 'xyz']
arr = np.zeros(1000, dtype=dtype)
# access member of x of a record
arr[0]['x'] = 1 # name based access
# or
assert arr[0][0] == 1 # index based access
# accessing all x members of records in array
assert arr['x'].sum() == 1
# size of array used to store elements in memory
assert arr.nbytes == 12000 # 1000 elements * 3 members * 4 bytes per int

See more here .