How can I create customized classes that have similar properties as 'str'?

[Colin J. Williams]

Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 01:38:51 +0100, Hrvoje Niksic wrote:
> 
>> samwyse <samwyse at gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> create a hash that maps your keys to themselves, then use the values of
>>> that hash as your keys.
>> The "atom" function you describe already exists under the name "intern".
> 
> Not really. intern() works very differently, because it can tie itself to 
> the Python internals. Samwyse's atom() function doesn't, and so has no 
> purpose.
> 
> 
> In any case, I'm not sure that intern() actually will solve the OP's 
> problem, even assuming it is a real and not imaginary problem. According 
> to the docs, intern()'s purpose is to speed up dictionary lookups, not to 
> save memory. I suspect that if it does save memory, it will be by 
> accident.
> 
>>From the docs: 
> http://docs.python.org/lib/non-essential-built-in-funcs.html

Yes, but it seems that buffer remains 
with Python 3000.

Colin W.
> 
> intern(  string)
> Enter string in the table of ``interned'' strings and return the interned 
> string - which is string itself or a copy. Interning strings is useful to 
> gain a little performance on dictionary lookup - if the keys in a 
> dictionary are interned, and the lookup key is interned, the key 
> comparisons (after hashing) can be done by a pointer compare instead of a 
> string compare. Normally, the names used in Python programs are 
> automatically interned, and the dictionaries used to hold module, class 
> or instance attributes have interned keys. Changed in version 2.3: 
> Interned strings are not immortal (like they used to be in Python 2.2 and 
> before); you must keep a reference to the return value of intern() around 
> to benefit from it.
> 
> 
> Note the words "which is string itself or a copy". It would be ironic if 
> the OP uses intern to avoid having copies of strings, and ends up with 
> even more copies than if he didn't bother.
> 
> I guess he'll actually need to measure his memory consumption and see 
> whether he actually has a memory problem or not, right?
> 
>