memory error in python

Question

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/run-1341144766-1067082874/solution.py", line 27, in 
main()
File "/run-1341144766-1067082874/solution.py", line 11, in main
if len(s[i:j+1]) > 0:
MemoryError
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 64, in apport_excepthook
from apport.fileutils import likely_packaged, get_recent_crashes
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/__init__.py", line 1, in 
from apport.report import Report
MemoryError

Original exception was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/run-1341144766-1067082874/solution.py", line 27, in 
main()
File "/run-1341144766-1067082874/solution.py", line 11, in main
if len(s[i:j+1]) > 0:
MemoryError

The above errors appeared when I tried to run the following program. Can someone explain what is a memory error, and how to overcome this problem? . The program takes strings as input and finds all possible sub strings and creates a set(in a lexicographical order) out of it and it should print the value at the respective index asked by the user otherwise it should print 'Invalid'

def main():
    no_str = int(raw_input())
    sub_strings= []
    for k in xrange(0,no_str):
        s = raw_input()
        a=len(s)
        for i in xrange(0, a):
            for j in xrange(0, a):
                if j >= i:
                    if len(s[i:j+1]) > 0:
                        sub_strings.append(s[i:j+1])
    sub_strings = list(set(sub_strings))
    sub_strings.sort()
    queries= int(raw_input())
    resul = []
    for i in xrange(0,queries):
        resul.append(int(raw_input()))
    for p in resul:
        try:
            print sub_strings[p-1]
        except IndexError:
            print 'INVALID'


if __name__ == "__main__":
   main()

Answer 1

If you get an unexpected MemoryError and you think you should have plenty of RAM available, it might be because you are using a 32-bit python installation.

The easy solution, if you have a 64-bit operating system, is to switch to a 64-bit installation of python.

The issue is that 32-bit python only has access to ~4GB of RAM. This can shrink even further if your operating system is 32-bit, because of the operating system overhead.

You can learn more about why 32-bit operating systems are limited to ~4GB of RAM here: https://superuser.com/questions/372881/is-there-a-technical-reason-why-32-bit-windows-is-limited-to-4gb-of-ram