How do dictionaries affect memory usage in Python?

How do dictionaries affect memory usage in Python?

Dictionaries in Python use a hash table for storage, which can lead to higher memory usage compared to lists.

Why do they use more memory?

Dictionaries store key-value pairs and require additional memory for the hash table structure, which allows for fast lookups.

Is there a way to reduce their memory footprint?

You can use the collections.defaultdict or collections.OrderedDict for specific use cases, but they may not always reduce memory.

What about using other data structures?

Using lists or tuples can be more memory-efficient for certain applications, especially when you don't need key-value pairs.