Set contract storage directly at deployment

Question

Is there a way to pre-define a contracts storage when deploying it?

Say I want a mapping to be filled with 1000 entries but want to avoid having to pay gas for adding every entry on its own.

Since storage is just a key-value map, I was wondering if can't just hardcode its initial state.

Answer 1

A contract storage can be modified in two cases:

• At contract deployment
• A function is called during a transaction

Answer 2

You can add the 1000 entries during deployment by modifying the constructor. But you will still have to pay for the gas consumed.