Estimating how much memory a list requires - understanding how sys.getsizeof() work

Question

As far as I understand, in Python, the List type stores only the pointers to the objects. and when I have, for instance, two lists:

>> a = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
>> b = ["1","2","3","4","5","6","7"]
>> sys.getsizeof(a) == sys.getsizeof(b)
>> True

the sys.getsizeof() returns the same size.

So,basically, the size of the list (in terms of memory required) does not depend on the types stored. Is there a way (by calling a single method/function) to find out how much memory a given list and the stored elements (even when the elements are big and complex objects) in it will require?

Not in python: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33978/find-out-how-much-memory-is-being-used-by-an-object-in-python — Richard Barber, Jan 07 '22 at 16:04

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 07 '22 at 11:25

0

Correct. List's are just a collection of pointers to the actual memory at each address. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/30316760/6014330 for a deep explanation on the way python manages memory for built in types

answered Jan 07 '22 at 11:25

testfile

2,145
1
12
31

1

I wanted to know if there is a one-function-call approach for size estimation. – teoML Jan 07 '22 at 11:39

Estimating how much memory a list requires - understanding how sys.getsizeof() work

1 Answers1