Size of String in Memory - Python

There can be situations in which we require to get the size that the string takes in bytes using Python which is usually useful in case one is working with files. Let's discuss certain ways in which this can be performed.

Using sys.getsizeof()

This task can also be performed by one of the system calls, offered by Python as in sys function library, the getsizeof function can get us the size in bytes of desired string. 

import sys
s = "geekforgeeks"

# getting the size of the string in bytes
res = sys.getsizeof(s)
print(str(res))

61

Note : Here 61 bytes result comes from the string "geekforgeeks", which takes 12 bytes for its content, and around 49-50 bytes for Python's internal overhead. The total memory size is 61 bytes.

Using encode()

The simplest and initial method that comes to mind is to convert the string into a byte format and then extract its size. 

s= "geekforgeeks"

# getting the size of the string in bytes
res = len(s.encode('utf-8'))
print(str(res))

12

Using memoryview()

To get the number of bytes in a string using a memoryview, we can use the nbytes attribute of the memoryview object. This attribute returns the total size of the memoryview's data in bytes.

s= "geekforgeeks"

# getting size of string in bytes
res = memoryview(s.encode('utf-8')).nbytes
print(str(res))

12

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Article Tags :

• Python
• Python Programs
• Python string-programs

Practice Tags :

• python