Saving data structures using slots

[dvas0004]

Usually Python devs store data structures in dictionaries. A more efficient way is to use "slotted objects". A slotted object is a class which has the slots attributed defined. In the interest of space, the typical class dict attribute is removed.

Example of a slotted object:

class DemoObject(object):   # Note we subclass "object" to remove the __dict__ attr
    __slots__ = ('a', 'b', 'c')

demo1 = DemoObject()
demo1.a = 1
demo1.b = 2

Slotted objects have a couple of advantages over dicts:

• Faster attribute access (approx 15% speedup)
• Savings on storage space especially when multiple objects are created (over 50% savings)

Caveats:

• Use of multiple inheritance can be tricky
• Make sure to use latest pickling protocol

[dvas0004]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/472000/usage-of-slots