in place input

[andy@post.tau.ac.il]

i'm working on an python application with intensive i/o.

file.read() and its cousins all allocate and return a new string.

I want to know if there is a way in which I can provide the space on which the
data is going to be put, in order to recycle memory, instead of allocating it
each time again and again.

thanks





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[Peter Otten]

Re: in place input

andy@post.tau.a c.il wrote:
[color=blue]
> i'm working on an python application with intensive i/o.
>
> file.read() and its cousins all allocate and return a new string.
>
> I want to know if there is a way in which I can provide the space on which
> the data is going to be put, in order to recycle memory, instead of
> allocating it each time again and again.[/color]

The following may do:

import array
file("tmp.txt", "w").write( "x" * 5)
buf = array.array("c" )
buf.fromstring( "-" * 10)
print buf
file("tmp.txt", "r").readinto(b uf)
print buf

However, file.readinto() has a frightening docstring:
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> print file.readinto._ _doc__[/color][/color][/color]
readinto() -> Undocumented. Don't use this; it may go away.[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>>[/color][/color][/color]

Peter