passing by refference

[Joshua Marshall]

Chris Liechti <cliechti at gmx.net> wrote:
> Joshua Marshall <joshway_without_spam at myway.com> wrote in 
> news:b9r933$8q0$1 at ginger.mathworks.com:

...

>> This is incorrect terminology.  Python has call-by-value semantics,
>> not call-by-reference (it is not possible to pass a reference to a
>> variable into a function).

> uhm...

>>>> def f(x):
> ... 	print id(x)
> ... 	
>>>> a=5
>>>> id(a)
> 3328264
>>>> f(a)
> 3328264
>>>>  

> as you can clearly see, the reference to the same object is passed into the 
> function. but its rebound to a new name in the function. assiging to that 
> name just rebinds a new reference to that name, which has no influence on 
> the callers namespace.

I said that it's not possible to pass a reference to a /variable/ into
a function.  What has been passed to f is not a reference to a
variable, it's a reference to an integer.