Question

There is this code:

>>> (a, b) = (2, 3)
>>> a
2
>>> b
3

Why variables a and b are alive after tuple creation? I mean that here:

(a, b) = (2, 3)

is created some tuple and this tuple is not assigned to any variable so garbage collector should immediately destroy this tuple after this line.

Variables a and b are only references by this tuple – so if this tuple (a, b) is destroyed then variables a and b should be only destroyed also.

So why these variables still exist after definition of tuple?

Answer 1

The parser doesn’t see (a, b) as a tuple, although it does do tuple unpacking for you. Thus, there is no tuple to create, let alone destroy. Instead, python sees this as two separate variables a and b.

You can see this if you were to disassemble the compiled bytecode for the statement:

>>> import dis
>>> def foo():
...     (a, b) = (2, 3)
... 
>>> dis.dis(foo)
  2           0 LOAD_CONST               3 ((2, 3))
              3 UNPACK_SEQUENCE          2
              6 STORE_FAST               0 (a)
              9 STORE_FAST               1 (b)
             12 LOAD_CONST               0 (None)
             15 RETURN_VALUE        

The constant (2, 3) is unpacked, then stored into the local variables a and b.