Just use `s = sys.intern(s)` for every string and be done with it. Or something like: _my_intern_dict = {} my_intern = lambda x: _my_intern_dict.setdef

Just use `s = sys.intern(s)` for every string and be done with it. Or something like: _my_intern_dict = {} my_intern = lambda x: _my_intern_dict.setdefault(x, x) s = my_intern(s) Just make sure to delete _my_intern_dict when it's not needed anymore.