Maximum characters that can be stuffed into raw_input() in Python
Question:
For an InterviewStreet challenge, we have to be able to accomodate for a 10,000 character String input from the keyboard, but when I copy/paste a 10k long word into my local testing, it cuts off at a thousand or so.
What’s the official limit in Python? And is there a way to change this?
Thanks guys
Here’s the challenge by-the-by:
http://www.interviewstreet.com/recruit/challenges/solve/view/4e1491425cf10/4edb8abd7cacd
Answers:
Are you sure of the fact that your 10k long word doesn’t contain newlines?
raw_input([prompt])
If the prompt argument is present, it is written to standard output without a trailing newline. The function then reads a line from input, converts it to a string (stripping a trailing newline), and returns that. When EOF is read, EOFError is raised.
…
If the readline module was loaded, then raw_input() will use it to provide elaborate line editing and history features.
There is no maximum limit (in python) of the buffer returned by raw_input, and as I tested some big length of input to stdin I could not reproduce your result. I tried to search the web for information regarding this but came up with nothing that would help me answer your question.
my tests
:/tmp% python -c 'print "A"*1000000' | python -c 'print len (raw_input ())';
1000000
:/tmp% python -c 'print "A"*210012300' | python -c 'print len (raw_input ())';
210012300
:/tmp% python -c 'print "A"*100+"n"+"B"*100' | python -c 'print len (raw_input ())';
100
I guess this is part of the challenges. The faq suggest raw_input() might not be the optimal approach:
The most common (possibly naive) methods are listed below. (…)
There are indeed Python standard modules helping to handle system input/output.
I had this same experience, and found python limits the length of input to raw_input if you do not import the readline module. Once I imported the readline module, it lifted the limit (or at least raised it significantly enough to where the text I was using worked just fine). This was on my Mac with Python 2.7.15. Additionally, it’s been confirmed working on at least 3.9.5.
For an InterviewStreet challenge, we have to be able to accomodate for a 10,000 character String input from the keyboard, but when I copy/paste a 10k long word into my local testing, it cuts off at a thousand or so.
What’s the official limit in Python? And is there a way to change this?
Thanks guys
Here’s the challenge by-the-by:
http://www.interviewstreet.com/recruit/challenges/solve/view/4e1491425cf10/4edb8abd7cacd
Are you sure of the fact that your 10k long word doesn’t contain newlines?
raw_input([prompt])
If the prompt argument is present, it is written to standard output without a trailing newline. The function then reads a line from input, converts it to a string (stripping a trailing newline), and returns that. When EOF is read, EOFError is raised.
…
If the readline module was loaded, then raw_input() will use it to provide elaborate line editing and history features.
There is no maximum limit (in python) of the buffer returned by raw_input, and as I tested some big length of input to stdin I could not reproduce your result. I tried to search the web for information regarding this but came up with nothing that would help me answer your question.
my tests
:/tmp% python -c 'print "A"*1000000' | python -c 'print len (raw_input ())';
1000000
:/tmp% python -c 'print "A"*210012300' | python -c 'print len (raw_input ())';
210012300
:/tmp% python -c 'print "A"*100+"n"+"B"*100' | python -c 'print len (raw_input ())';
100
I guess this is part of the challenges. The faq suggest raw_input() might not be the optimal approach:
The most common (possibly naive) methods are listed below. (…)
There are indeed Python standard modules helping to handle system input/output.
I had this same experience, and found python limits the length of input to raw_input if you do not import the readline module. Once I imported the readline module, it lifted the limit (or at least raised it significantly enough to where the text I was using worked just fine). This was on my Mac with Python 2.7.15. Additionally, it’s been confirmed working on at least 3.9.5.