Python memory management for variables

Question

I have a question regarding python memory management. I have the following code

def operation(data):
    #some manipulations on data
    result=something.do(data)
    #some manipulations on result
    return result

Now I am calling this function operation many times (probably like more than 200 times). Does python use a same memory for the result variable everytime I call operation? As in C we can use Malloc to allocate memory once and use to the same memory inorder to avoid fragmentation.

Daniel Roseman · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-28 20:56:36Z

3

The whole point of high-level languages like Python is that they free you from having to worry about memory management. If exact control over memory allocation is important to you, you should write C. If not, you can write Python.

As most Python programmers will tell you from their experience, manual memory management isn't nearly as important as you think it is.

answered Dec 28, 2013 at 20:56

Daniel Roseman

602k68 gold badges910 silver badges923 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Keeto · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-28 20:47:36Z

3

No it is not but it is not a big deal because once you return from the function, the variable is deleted so there is no memoru-capacity issues involved. If you are talking performance level then it will not matter that much in terms of performance.

answered Dec 28, 2013 at 20:47

Keeto

4,2289 gold badges40 silver badges63 bronze badges

2 Comments

Heisenberg Over a year ago

But will it not lead to fragmentation of memory if I am keeping my program in execution for a long time?

Keeto Over a year ago

Good question. You dont really have control over this. This will be the job of the OS. Whatever variables you are using are actually in the virtual memory. For instance in C, your function local variables are stored in the virtual memory stack, along with the function arguments and the return address, etc... What happens in the "physical" memory is up to the OS. Once your function returns, all the function contents stored in the stack will not exist anymore.

user284244 · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-28 20:41:55Z

2

No, it does not.

You can, however, write optimized code in C and use it in python:

http://docs.python.org/2/extending/extending.html

This will help if you are concerned about performance.

answered Dec 28, 2013 at 20:41

user284244

Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:15:53Z

0

@heisenberg

Your question is very well valid and as you just anticipated above code might create small fragments of free memory chunks. But interesting point to be noted here is: this free chunks won't be returned back to the Operating system, rather python's memory manager manage its own chunks of free memory blocks.

But again, this free memory blocks can be used by python to allocate same block to next request.

Beautiful explanation of the same given at: http://deeplearning.net/software/theano/tutorial/python-memory-management.html

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:15

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Apr 11, 2016 at 4:33

Jadav Bheda

5,3611 gold badge33 silver badges30 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Python memory management for variables

4 Answers 4

Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related