How To Reduce Python Script Memory Usage

Question

I have a very large python script, 200K, that I would like to use as little memory as possible. It looks something like:

# a lot of data structures
r = [34, 78,         


        

Answer 1

If you're taking advantage of OOP and have some objects, say:

class foo:
    def __init__(self, lorem, ipsum):
        self.lorem = lorem
        self.ipsum = ipsum
    # some happy little methods

You can have the object take up less memory by putting in:

__slots__ = ("lorem", "ipsum")

right before the __init__ function, as shown:

class foo:
    def __init__(self, lorem, ipsum):
        self.lorem = lorem
        self.ipsum = ipsum
    # some happy little methods

Of course, "premature optimization is the root of all evil". Also profile mem usage before and after the addition to see if it actually does anything. Beware of breaking code (shcokingly) with the understanding that this might end up not working.