How Big can a Python List Get?

Solution 1:

According to the source code, the maximum size of a list is PY_SSIZE_T_MAX/sizeof(PyObject*).

PY_SSIZE_T_MAX is defined in pyport.h to be ((size_t) -1)>>1

On a regular 32bit system, this is (4294967295 / 2) / 4 or 536870912.

Therefore the maximum size of a python list on a 32 bit system is 536,870,912 elements.

As long as the number of elements you have is equal or below this, all list functions should operate correctly.

Solution 2:

As the Python documentation says:

sys.maxsize

The largest positive integer supported by the platform’s Py_ssize_t type, and thus the maximum size lists, strings, dicts, and many other containers can have.

In my computer (Linux x86_64):

>>> import sys
>>> print sys.maxsize
9223372036854775807

Solution 3:

Sure it is OK. Actually you can see for yourself easily:

l = range(12000)
l = sorted(l, reverse=True)

Running the those lines on my machine took:

real    0m0.036s
user    0m0.024s
sys  0m0.004s

But sure as everyone else said. The larger the array the slower the operations will be.

Solution 4:

In casual code I've created lists with millions of elements. I believe that Python's implementation of lists are only bound by the amount of memory on your system.

In addition, the list methods / functions should continue to work despite the size of the list.

If you care about performance, it might be worthwhile to look into a library such as NumPy.

Solution 5:

12000 elements is nothing in Python... and actually the number of elements can go as far as the Python interpreter has memory on your system.