Hi, I am trying to know if the keys in defstruct are atoms, and if so what is the maximum amount of defstruct instance I can create dynamically.
For example, I am creating an online game server, it has a Player struct with four keys, I create a new player when a client joins the game. If the keys are atoms, then they should be a limit on how many players can join the game due to the cap on atoms in the Beam.
Please let me know if there is anything I am missing, thanks.
Yes, keys in structs are atoms.
And you can have zero or one defstruct per module.
Though, as player1 and player2 share the same set of atomkeys, you do not have a problem.
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They are atoms, but if you have a player struct with 4 keys, and you create 10 players, that’s still only 4 atoms, not 40. If you have some atom :name, every instance of :name is exactly the same atom. The BEAM limit on atoms is about dynamically generating entirely new atoms. For example 1..1000 |> Enum.map(fn i -> String.to_atom("name#{i}") end) would generate 1000 new atoms :name1, :name2, etc.
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