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Groups > comp.lang.python > #86372

Re: Bug in timsort!?

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On 02/24/2015 07:07 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 10:50 AM, Skip Montanaro
> <skip.montanaro@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Even if/when we get to the point where machines can hold an array of
>> 2**49 elements, I suspect people won't be using straight Python to
>> wrangle them.
>
> Looking just at CPython, what is the absolute minimum storage space
> for a massive list like that? My guess is that a 64-bit CPython might
> get as good as eight bytes per element; playing around with smaller
> figures (up to circa a million elements) shows it ranging from 8 to 9
> bytes per element, bottoming out at just a smidge over 8, presumably
> at the moments when there's no slack space (there's a fixed overhead,
> which gets diminishingly significant). So an array of 2**49 elements
> would take 2**52 bytes (4 petabytes) of storage - addressable, to be
> sure, but an awful lot to be sorting.
>
> Would it be sufficient to stick a comment into the source saying "This
> may have problems with lists in excess of 2**49 elements", and leave
> it until that's actually likely to happen?
>
> ChrisA
>

One could do much better than that.  Put in a test for the length of the 
list, and if it's too large for the current implementation, throw an 
exception.  Much better than a comment.

-- 
DaveA

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Thread

Bug in timsort!? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2015-02-24 13:34 -0800
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Zachary Ware <zachary.ware+pylist@gmail.com> - 2015-02-24 15:40 -0600
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2015-02-24 21:49 +0000
    Re: Bug in timsort!? sohcahtoa82@gmail.com - 2015-02-24 14:36 -0800
      Re: Bug in timsort!? Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2015-02-25 00:38 +0000
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2015-02-24 22:45 +0000
    Re: Bug in timsort!? Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2015-02-24 15:59 -0700
    Re: Bug in timsort!? Robert Kern <robert.kern@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 11:34 +0000
      Re: Bug in timsort!? Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2015-02-25 15:49 +0000
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 10:33 +1100
  Re: Bug in timsort!? MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2015-02-24 23:38 +0000
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Skip Montanaro <skip.montanaro@gmail.com> - 2015-02-24 17:50 -0600
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 11:07 +1100
    Re: Bug in timsort!? Paddy <paddy3118@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 01:10 -0800
      Re: Bug in timsort!? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 21:11 +1100
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Chris Kaynor <ckaynor@zindagigames.com> - 2015-02-24 16:38 -0800
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2015-02-24 21:52 -0500
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Dave Angel <davea@davea.name> - 2015-02-24 21:41 -0500
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Ned Deily <nad@acm.org> - 2015-02-25 01:04 -0800
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Sturla Molden <sturla.molden@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 14:58 +0100
    Re: Bug in timsort!? alister <alister.nospam.ware@ntlworld.com> - 2015-02-25 15:03 +0000
      Re: Bug in timsort!? Zachary Ware <zachary.ware+pylist@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 09:23 -0600
      Re: Bug in timsort!? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2015-02-25 16:08 -0500
    Re: Bug in timsort!? Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2015-02-25 19:12 -0500
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Jonas Wielicki <jonas@wielicki.name> - 2015-02-25 15:07 +0100
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-02-26 01:33 +1100
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Sturla Molden <sturla.molden@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 16:05 +0100
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-02-26 02:11 +1100
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2015-02-25 17:04 +0100
    Re: Bug in timsort!? Mario Figueiredo <marfig@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 18:22 +0100
      Re: Bug in timsort!? Sturla Molden <sturla.molden@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 19:41 +0100
      Re: Bug in timsort!? Jonas Wielicki <jonas@wielicki.name> - 2015-02-25 19:46 +0100
      Re: Bug in timsort!? Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2015-02-25 20:07 +0000
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Sturla Molden <sturla.molden@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 17:44 +0100
    Re: Bug in timsort!? Mario Figueiredo <marfig@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 18:29 +0100
    Re: Bug in timsort!? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2015-02-26 10:13 +1100
      Re: Bug in timsort!? Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 22:51 -0700
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2015-02-25 16:50 +0000
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2015-02-25 16:55 +0000
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Chris Kaynor <ckaynor@zindagigames.com> - 2015-02-25 08:56 -0800
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-02-26 04:18 +1100
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2015-02-25 18:21 +0100
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2015-02-25 12:42 -0700
  Re: Bug in timsort!? Serhiy Storchaka <storchaka@gmail.com> - 2015-02-26 09:33 +0200

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