What is the main advantage of using the array module instead of lists?
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3 Answers
The arrays will take less space.
I've never used the array module, numpy provides the same benefits plus many many more.
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Arrays are very similar to lists "except that the type of objects stored in them is constrained. The type is specified at object creation time by using a type code, which is a single character."
http://docs.python.org/library/array.html
So if you know your array will only contain objects of a certain type then go ahead (if performance is crucial), if not just use a list.
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Arrays can be very useful if you want to strictly type the data in your collection. Notwithstanding performance it can be quite convenient to be sure of the data types contained within your data structure. However, arrays don't feel very 'pythonic' to me (though I must stress this is only personal preference). Unless you are really concerned with the type of data within the collection I would stick with lists as they afford you a great deal of flexibility. The very slight memory optimisations gained between lists vs arrays are insignificant unless you have an extremely large amount of data.
