CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
randomUser
randomUser

Reputation: 11

Have a class object remove itself from its containing structure

I have a custom python class object added to a list upon instantiation. I would like for the python class object to remove itself from the list and remove itself from any memory running on the ram or I'm basically looking for a destructor for the class object and a method to remove the instance from the python structure. I'm not tied to using a list and am open to suggestions about what might be a better container, or any other suggestions on coding style.

Bad pseudocode example of what I'm essentially going for:

mylist=[]
class myclass:
    def __init__(self,val):
        self.v=val
        print(self.v)
        mylist.append(self)

        # The following is what I'm looking for
        __superdestructor__(self):
        mylist.pop(self)
        memory.remove(self)

Upvotes: 1

Views: 118

Answers (1)

ti7
ti7

Reputation: 18846

Garbage-collection in Python is somewhat complex, but practically, objects become a candidate when there are no more references to them!

Instead of having the object remove itself from the list, have the caller do it - if this is not directly possible, provide an intermediate class which hosts the collection and does whatever cleanup is needed

class MyBigClass():
    ...

class BigClassHolder():
    def __init__(self):
        self.container = list()  # put your objects in here

    ...  # some getting method
        return container.pop()  # only reference is now with the caller

Do also consider a collections.deque over a list for thread safety and other good properties!

Do also note that there are other Python implementations (you are likely using CPython as referenced in the first link) with their own garbage collectors, but I believe removing all the references to an object should eventually result in its removal from memory.

Upvotes: 1

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