Question

We have a large number of Python bytearray strings of variable length which need to remain in memory. Wrt raw-performance, is a Python dictionary the most efficient in-memory storage for read-only random-access for the bytearray strings? The dictionary keys could be integers or strings. If not, what is better?

Answer 1

It all depends on how you intend to access them. If you just want to iterate through them, put them in a list. If you want to search for one by a key, use a dict. No matter what you use, you’ve already paid for the space for all of your bytearrays, the difference between list, dict, or something else will probably be minimal. A list will use something like 500,000 references at 4 bytes a piece = 2MB, a dict maybe a few times that.