The reference count is the number of times an object is referenced by a variable. If an object isn’t referenced anymore, it can be safely removed from the memory—what’s the use of an object nobody cares for anyway? This article shows you how to count the number of references to a Python object.

What’s the Current Reference Count of Python Object

Question: How to get the current reference count of a Python object?

Answer: You can get the current reference count with the sys module’s getrefcount() method. For example, to get the number of times variable x is referenced, run sys.getrefcount(x).

Here’s the general strategy for an arbitrary object:

import sys

print(sys.getrefcount(object))

The following code snippet shows an example of an object x that has a reference count of 13. After creating a new reference y to the object x, the reference count increases by one to 14.

import sys x = 42 print(sys.getrefcount(x))

# 13 y = x print(sys.getrefcount(x))

# 14

You may not have expected that the initial reference count is 13. So, why is that? Let’s see.

Why is the Reference Count Higher Than Expected?

Reason 1: Implicit Helper Variables

Python is a high-level programming language. It provides you many convenience functions and memory management. You don’t have to care about the concrete memory locations of your objects and Python automatically performs garbage collection—that is—removing unused objects from memory. To do all of this work, Python relies on its own structures. Among those, are helper variables that may refer to an object you’ve created. All of this happens under the hood, so even if you don’t refer an object in your code, Python may still have created many references to that object. That’s why the reference count can be higher than expected.

Reason 2: Temporary Reference in getrefcount()

Note that by calling the function getrefcount(x), you create an additional temporary reference to the object x. This alone increases the reference counter by one.

The post How to Get The Current Reference Count of an Object in Python? first appeared on Finxter.

The open source cross platform HTML5 game framework just got a major update, Phaser 3.50. We’ve long been a fan of Phaser, going back to Phaser 2 with our Complete Phaser Game tutorial as well as our Phaser 3 tutorial video. The Phaser 3.50 release is called the single biggest Phaser release yet.

Details from the Phaser blog:

After 13 beta releases, over 200 resolved issues, thousands of lines of new code and the culmination of over 6 months incredibly hard work, Phaser 3.50 is finally here.

It’s not hyperbole or exaggeration when I say that Phaser 3.50 is the single biggest point release ever in the history of Phaser. There are quite literally hundreds of new features to explore, updates to key areas and of course bug fixes. I did actually try counting all the changes, but gave up after I’d reached 900 of them! Thankfully, they are, as always, meticulously detailed in the Change Log. The changes for 3.50 actually grew so large that I had to split them out from the main Change Log and put them into their own file.

However, don’t let this overwhelm you. A massive number of the changes are purely internal and while there are absolutely some API breaking changes in this release (hence the large version number jump), we’ve kept them as sensible as possible. We already know of lots of devs who have upgraded with minimal, or no, changes to their actual game code. We cannot guarantee that for everyone, of course, but depending on how complex your game is, the chances are good.

This release comes with several new examples and all of the existing examples have been audited to guarantee they are compatible with version 3.50. Major new features from Phaser 3.50 include an improved post processing effect pipeline, 3D Mesh game objects, multi texture support, isometric and hexagonal maps directly from Tiled support, Aseprite export support with animations, point lighting game objects and much much more.

Full details of the hundreds of changes in this release can be found in the release notes. Phaser is an open source project under the MIT source license and is available on GitHub. You can learn more about the Phaser 3.50 release in the video below.

The Look Around feature of Apple Maps may work with more countries in the future, with Apple’s vehicles driving around Israel, New Zealand, and Singapore to collect images used to generate the street-level views.

Geno, as you’ve likely heard by now, has returned to the Smash Bros. series once again as a Mii Fighter costume.

It might not necessarily be the news every Geno fan wanted to hear, but hey – some acknowledgment is arguably better than nothing. To celebrate this special occasion, Super Mario RPG‘s character designer, Kazuyuki Kurashima, has shown some original concept artwork of what Geno looked like before his design was finalised.

Here’s every shot, courtesy of Kurashima’s official Twitter account:

@kurashimakaz

@kurashimakaz

@kurashimakaz

@kurashimakaz

Different, huh? Obviously, we all know what Geno ended up looking like, and well, the rest is history! Which design do you like the most? Have you decked out one of your own Smash Bros. Mii Fighters as Geno yet? Leave a comment down below.

It’s been a busy old week in the world of Nintendo, with a brand new Smash fighter, more retro NES and SNES goodness on Switch, and even a very random update for a game that was practically discontinued seven years ago, but now it’s finally time to have a sit down and relax.

Members of Nintendo Life have discussed their weekend gaming plans below, and we’d love for you to join in with your own entries via our comment section. Enjoy!

Gavin Lane, features editor

With the arrival of the holiday Switch eShop sale, I picked up I Am Dead, Evergate and Florence and I’d love to give them each a fair shake before Monday when I’m looking to set my Game of the Year picks in stone. There have been so many great indie releases this year that it’s been a struggle to keep up. I’m also falling in love with Dicey Dungeons, which could easily soak up every spare minute if I let it.

Then there’s TT Isle of Man 2. I’ve got my custom control layout sorted and I’m slowly improving – now I only drop the bike five or six times a lap compared to eating tarmac on every single corner. To be fair, I am using manual and it’s the pleasure of riding that’s keeping me engaged rather than winning races. Just as well, really.

Have a fantastic holiday if you’re celebrating, folks. If you’re not, well, still have an excellent time! That’s an order.

Ollie Reynolds, reviewer

Hi friends! So you’ll no doubt have seen that Horace went on sale recently; like many others, I immediately snapped it up and will be playing through it this weekend. Based on just a short session with it so far, I’m finding it to be a charming game with excellent controls, so I’m looking forward to diving into it a bit more and seeing what it’s all about!

As we’re nearly at the end of this wretched, wretched year, I’m also revisiting a few gaming highlights, including Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2, and Streets of Rage 4. We’ve had a few nice things this year at least, haven’t we? Have a good one, folks!

PJ O’Reilly, reviewer

Hello. This weekend I’m getting to grips with the phenomenon that is Among Us for review purposes. My son is absolutely obsessed with this game so he’s showing me the ropes and I’m quite looking forward to discovering what all the excitement and hype is about. Elsewhere I’ll be digging around in the current eShop sale looking for some bargains – I’ve already grabbed the excellent Horace for the ludicrous price of one pound – and I’ll also be continuing to relax with my selection of Xmas replays, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze will be completed by holiday’s end, and I mean it this time! Hope you all have a great weekend, whatever you’re up to and stay safe out there.

Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer

I have begun my daily routine of Fitness Boxing 2 and the weekend is no excuse to stop, aiming for another 300+ days marathon in 2021. If you owned a Commodore Amiga you will not be surprised to find The Bluecoats: North & South is on my list, along with a few other late arrivals like Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin and Cloudpunk. But I am mostly still playing GameCube, I hope by Monday to have cleared Moria and make it to Helm’s Deep in The Lord of The Rings: The Third Age. Now if only I can get this Latin earworm out of my head: Estuans interius, Ira vehementi, Estuans interius, Ira vehementi… somethingroth?

My game of the week is DOOM Eternal. Sure, late to the party on this one, but better late than arriving in a miserable broken state. My congratulations to everyone at Panic Button, these will be some real bloody holidays.

As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave us a comment below with your gaming choices over the next few days…

© Nintendo

Although Nintendo made it very clear “no game content would be featured” in its latest Direct presentation, there was some new stuff revealed on behalf of the “development team” by the creator of Super Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto.

One of these items was a toy called Tokotoko Mario and it’ll be exclusive to Super Nintendo World. Mario’s Dad briefly elaborated on this item during the 15-minute livestream and noted how the team enjoyed making items like this alongside its regular video game releases.

There’s some exclusive Super Mario merchandise that can only be purchased here. I’d like to show you one of those items – a special toy that the Nintendo development team created.

Here it is. It’s called Tokotoko Mario. Mario starts walking around when you push him along, like this. No batteries are required. The development team paid close attention to his movesets as they produced it.

In addition to video games, the development team has been really enjoying making real-life items like this. We hope you like it.

So, yeah…in case you were wondering, that’s what Nintendo’s “development team” has been up to as of late – they’ve been making new Mario toys for Super Nintendo World. In fact, there’ll be two types, as shown on Nintendo’s Japanese website. View the presentation to see the toy in motion.

In an interview with Famitsu earlier this year, Miyamoto said he wanted Nintendo’s characters (including Mario) to go beyond video games, into a variety of different settings and give people more opportunities to make contact with these characters on a much larger scale than usual.

Tokotoko Mario will be available from the 1-UP Factory when Super Nintendo World opens its doors in Japan on 4th February 2021. Is this a toy you would like to add to your own Mario collection? Leave a comment down below.