Part of the series

Several example codes

~1 min read • Updated Sep 24, 2025

Program Overview

This Python program reads a set of numbers and analyzes how much memory each one consumes.
It uses the getsizeof() function from the sys module to measure memory usage in bytes.
This is useful for optimizing performance in numeric-heavy applications.


Python Code:


import sys

# Sample list of numbers
numbers = [1, 255, 1024, 999999, -42, 0]

# Analyze memory usage of each number
for num in numbers:
    size = sys.getsizeof(num)
    print(f"Number {num} uses {size} bytes of memory")

Sample Output:


Number 1 uses 28 bytes of memory  
Number 255 uses 28 bytes of memory  
Number 1024 uses 28 bytes of memory  
Number 999999 uses 32 bytes of memory  
Number -42 uses 28 bytes of memory  
Number 0 uses 28 bytes of memory

Explanation:

- The sys module is imported to access getsizeof()
- A list of integers is defined
- A for loop calculates the memory size of each number
- Larger integers may consume more memory depending on their internal representation
- The result is printed for each value


Written & researched by Dr. Shahin Siami