How do I loop through a large dataset in python without getting a MemoryError?

Question

I have a large series of raster datasets representing monthly rainfall over several decades. I\'ve written a script in Python that loops over each raster and does the following:

Answer 1

You don't need to concern youself with memory management, especially not with the garbage collector that has a very specific task that you most likely don't even use. Python will always collect the memory it can and reuse it.

There are just two reasons for your problem: Either the data you try to load is too much to fit into memory or your calculations store data somewhere (a list, dict, something persistent between iterations) and that storage grows and grows. Memory profilers can help finding that.

Answer 2

a quick way to "force" the garbage collector to clean the temporary loop-only objects is the del statement:

for obj in list_of_obj:   
    data = obj.getData()  
    do_stuff(data)   
    del data 

this forces the interpreter to delete and free the temporary objects. NOTE: this does not make sure the program does not leak or consume memory in other parts of the computation, it's just a quick check