getting memory usage of varaibles

[Terry Reedy]

On 5/3/2017 6:21 PM, Larry Martell wrote:
> On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 6:15 PM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:

>> Python already uses this trick for functions, classes, and modules by giving
>> them .__name__ attribute.  Code objects have a .co_name attribute.  These
>> are used for tracing and tracebacks.

I left out the most important use -- in string presentations.

def f(): pass
print(f)
'<function f at 0x0000019F17053D90>' (guaranteed to be unique!)

> But not for a variable like a list or dict?

Numbers and collections are better represented by their value.

Making the .__name__ of 123 be 'one hundred twenty three' or the 
.__name__ of [1,2,'abc'] be 'list of one, two, (string of a, bee, cee)' 
would not be generally helpful ;-).

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy