[Python-Dev] Interning string subtype instances (original) (raw)

Greg Ewing greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz
Wed Feb 14 03:32:24 CET 2007

Martin v. Löwis wrote:

Greg Ewing schrieb:

The string comparison method knows when both > strings are interned No, it doesn't - see stringobject.c:stringrichcompare.

Well, I'm surprised and confused.

It's certainly possible to tell very easily whether a string is interned -- there's a PyString_CHECK_INTERNED macro that tests a field in the string object header. But, I can't find anywhere that it's used in the core, apart from the interning code itself and the string alloc/dealloc code.

Can anyone shed any light on this? It seems to me that by not using this information, only half the benefit of interning is being achieved.

-- Greg

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