del()?

[Delaney, Timothy]

> does del() free the ram used by string?
> 
> like 
> 
> a = "my string"
> del(a)
> 
> will I get my ram back? Should I even worry about this since 
> gc takes care
> of this?

del will free the memory location immediately (so long as nothing else has a
reference to it). If you don't del it, you will have to wait for all
references to disappear - in the case of module namespace, this will only
occur when your program ends, or possibly if someone reloads your module
explicitly.

So yes, if you no longer need it, and especially if it is in the module
namespace (or any long-running namespace such as a long-running function),
you should definitely del it.

You could also set a = None - this would also remove the reference to "my
string", although it would leave the name "a" hanging around. del actually
gets rid of the name (try accessing a after each - after del it will give
you a NameError).

Note: the parentheses you have in
	del(a)
are superfluous - del is a keyword and should be called as
	del a

Tim Delaney

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