in reply to array overhead

If you join your six values into a string rather than an array, you'll save a substantial amount of memory whilst leaving the individual values quickly retrievable:

$x = [ 123.45, 123.456, 123,456,789,012 ];;
print total_size( $x );;
384

$y = "123.45,123.456,123,456,789,012";;
print total_size( $y );;
80

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YOu might save a little more by packing them, but not much.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

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Re^2: array overhead
by Fletch (Bishop) on Jan 05, 2011 at 21:51 UTC

    If you use this make sure to choose a separator that won't appear in your data domain (because if you use "," and then start getting European-style formatted numbers with that as the decimal indicator rather than "." . . . ow; Perl will handle (say) a NUL ("\0") quite happily and you can be pretty sure it's not going to crop up in your inputs).

    (Not that that may be an issue for the OP but it was something that came to mind from BrowserUk's choice of sample data :)

    The cake is a lie.
    The cake is a lie.
    The cake is a lie.

[reply]
[d/l]
      ut it was something that came to mind from BrowserUk's choice of sample data :)

      My "choice of sample data" was simply a guess at approximating the sizes of the elements shown in the OP.

      In the unlikely event that the OPs data actually includes floating point values, and his systems are configured to use ',' as the floating point, and he is dumb enough to take the commas in my string as a recommendation of a separator, completely missing the conflict that arises from doing so, then he will discover his error the first time he runs his program.

      And unless he is silly enough to make that first run a production run on a system in a hospital, or a nuclear power plant, or an aircraft--does anyone use Perl in critical systems?--then there will almost certainly be no harm done.

      Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
      "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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