Newbie question about reference

[Terry Reedy]

"Tim Smith" <tssmith at velocio.com> wrote in message
news:a5jp7v4n254bu0j4nnu16sevll3qeiaglp at 4ax.com...
> Something that this beginner does not understand about Python.

correct ;-)

> Why does the following--
>
>  > python
>  Python 2.2.2 (#37, Oct 14 2002, 17:02:34) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] on
> win32
>  Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more
> information.
>  >>> x = 1
>  >>> y = 2
>  >>> z = 3
>  >>> list = [x, y, z]

You here bind 'list' to the object [1,2,3].  (Note: DON'T use builtin
names as vars unless you have a positive reason for so doing.)

>  >>> list
>  [1, 2, 3]
>  >>> y = 0

You here rebind the name 'y' to the value 0.  Neither has nothing to
do with 'list'

>  >>> list
>  [1, 2, 3[
>
> do what it does? I expected the last "list" to return [1, 0, 3].

This is almost funny.  More ofter, newbies do something like the
following

a = b= [0,1]
a[0]=2

and then wonder why b[0] is 2 rather than 0.


Terry J. Reedy