memory allocated for arrays in perl

[rathankar]

dear friends
thanks for the mail sent
today i have one more question:
1. since in perl arrays need not be declared, [i.e arrays are expandable], what is the maximum limit of elements an array could have?
2. in java/ c/ c++, if we declare an array with 5 elements it can have utmost 5 elements, and we could also know what is the memory allocated for an array. how do we know it in perl
3. how many bytes does a scalar , array, list and hashes occupy.
though most of the questions are elementary, but iam unable to get answers for these from the other books and hence i request the board members to clarify it
with regards
rathankar

[numberwhun]

dear friends
thanks for the mail sent
today i have one more question:
1. since in perl arrays need not be declared, [i.e arrays are expandable], what is the maximum limit of elements an array could have?
2. in java/ c/ c++, if we declare an array with 5 elements it can have utmost 5 elements, and we could also know what is the memory allocated for an array. how do we know it in perl
3. how many bytes does a scalar , array, list and hashes occupy.
though most of the questions are elementary, but iam unable to get answers for these from the other books and hence i request the board members to clarify it
with regards
rathankar

Well, the answer to your first question is, it depends on the amount of memory in your system and what you are storing in your arrays.

To find out ( through your own research) how much memory is used by perl variables (arrays, hashes, etc), I did a search on CPAN and discovered the module Devel::Size which does something similar to what you are asking.

Regards,

Jeff

[KevinADC]

Perl does not put any limits on how much memory variables can store. They will use all available memory if necessary. In general you almost never worry about memory issues with perl unless you are processing large amounts of data. By defining your variables lexically perl frees up memory as variables go out of scope. The allocaion of memory to arrays is not very efficient though if my own memory serves me. In the name of faster processing perl allocates large chunks of memory to arrays instead of adding memory as necessary when an array grows larger.

You might want to ask ths question on www.perlmonks.com where there are more members with mor experience with these type of developer questions.