Help with finding how much memory a variable is using

[Rich Somerfield]

Hi,

I am generating a huge, huge list of data (cant think of a decent way to
reduce the required storage size and have it in a usable form).  Everytime i
try to keep this list for future derivations I get a memory problem from
Windows (effectively terminating my python script).

I presume this is because of the huge list.  Is it possible to find out the
amount of memory a variable [not a type of the variable, the actual data
contained within the variable] is taking up?  This variable is local to a
class and it would appear that it is when i go out of scope of that class
that the memory error is being issued.  Would I be better making this
variable global (across all classes)? e.g. would this problem still happen
if the variable was not just local to 1 class?

Would a different python datatype solve this problem for me ?

If I cant handle this amount of data then I will have to think of a way of
better representing it, this will be unfortunate though as and compression /
reduction of data will [as far as i can think] vastly reduce performance -
which is already a concern.

Regards
Rich