No problem with Python 2.7.3 on a MacBookPro with 2GB memory and a light load of other programs.  Could it be dependent on how much memory you have available?   There might be slight differences in the memory consumption in computing the two different forms.  I would guess the second form might take less memory because it allocates exactly what it needs, not some larger amount based on a dynamic allocation algorithm for expanding lists.

________________________________ From: Litvin <litvin@skylit.com> To: edu-sig@python.org Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2012 1:50 PM Subject: [Edu-sig] MemoryError?

Can someone please explain why

n = 50000000 lst = [i for i in range(n)] # or xrange(n) in Python 2

crashes with MemoryError on a 32-bit system, while

n = 50000000 lst = n*[0] for i in range(n):  # or xrange(n) in Python 2     lst[i] = i

works?

Thanks,

Gary Litvin www.skylit.com

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