python preallocate some integers?
Alex Martelli
aleaxit at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 19 17:45:20 EDT 2004
Dave Reed <drlinux at columbus.rr.com> wrote:
> I seem to recall somewhere, possibly in the Python Essential Reference
> (but unfortunately, books don't have a "find" function), that Python
> preallocates and never destroys the first 100 integers. A minute of
> google searching didn't help me so I tried some simple tests. Based on
> these, it appears that only one copy of the integers -5 through 99 is
> created.
>
> Can someone please verify this for me or tell me what is done with
> regard to this?
In the current implementation, that is indeed the case. Of course,
since it's strictly an optimization issue, that's a detail which could
change even between one subrelease and the next, so make sure your
application doesn't depend on it.
Alex
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