Question

I can’t find concise information about what is going on in this very simple program:

print 'case 1'
# a and b stay different
a = [1,2,3]
b = a
b = [4,5,6]

print 'a =',a
print 'b =',b

print
print 'case 2'
# a and b becomes equal
a = [1,2,3]
b = a
b[0] = 4 
b[1] = 5 
b[2] = 6 

print 'a =',a
print 'b =',b
print

print 'case 3'
# a and b stay different now
a = [1,2,3]
b = a[:]
b[0] = 4 
b[1] = 5 
b[2] = 6 
print 'a =',a
print 'b =',b
print

print 'case 4'
# now the funny thing
a=[1,2,[3]]
b=a[:]
b[0]    = 4 
b[1]    = 5 
b[2][0] = 6 # this modifies b and a!!!

The output of this simple test is:

case 1
a = [1, 2, 3]
b = [4, 5, 6]

case 2
a = [4, 5, 6]
b = [4, 5, 6]

case 3
a = [1, 2, 3]
b = [4, 5, 6]

case 4
a = [1, 2, [6]]
b = [4, 5, [6]]

I clearly do not understand how python handles each case. Could any one provide a link so that I can read about it, or a short explanation of what is happening?

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

This is a fantastic visualization tool for python code.

Run your code in it and everything should become clear in a minute.