CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.xspacemultilinestring
Sanjay Raut
Sanjay Raut

Reputation: 3

Do Python multi-line strings take some space in the memory?

Guido van Rossum tweeted:

Python tip: You can use multi-line strings as multi-line comments. Unless used as docstrings, they generate no code! :-)

Does the below multi-line string, when not used as a docstring, take some space in memory?

'''
Hello, folks!
This is a multi-line string.
'''

Upvotes: 0

Views: 401

Answers (1)

kaya3
kaya3

Reputation: 51122

It's straightforward to confirm that if you write a string by itself without assigning it to a variable or using it as part of another statement or expression, then that string (1) does not generate any CPython bytecode, and (2) does not appear in the code object's tuple of constants:

>>> code = 'x = 1; "bar"; x = 2;'
>>> from dis import dis
>>> dis(code)
  1           0 LOAD_CONST               0 (1)
              2 STORE_NAME               0 (x)
              4 LOAD_CONST               1 (2)
              6 STORE_NAME               0 (x)
              8 LOAD_CONST               2 (None)
             10 RETURN_VALUE
>>> compile(code, '<string>', 'exec').co_consts
(1, 2, None)

So the string is discarded at compile-time just like a comment would be, and therefore cannot be present in memory at runtime. Note that this applies to all literal values, not just multi-line strings.

Upvotes: 4

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