maximum length of a list & tuple

[Tim Roberts]

Josiah Carlson <jcarlson at uci.edu> wrote:

>> I just would like to know if there is any limit to a list or tuple.
>
>It depends on how much memory you have.
>
>Run the following and the last thing it prints out is your limit...
>
>     c = 1
>     while c < 2**32:
>         try:
>             d = [1]*c
>             print c
>             c *= 2
>         except:
>             break

Interesting experiment.  I get 64M on my 384MB machine, which suggests 4
bytes per list entry.  Of course, now my swap file is packed full, and all
my apps are running slowly while they page themselves back in...
-- 
- Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.