Pass a list to diffrerent variables.

[Peter Otten]

user at domain.invalid wrote:

> When trying to pass the contents from one list to another this happens:
> 
> list = [1,2,3]

Don't use list as a name. It hides the builtin list class.

> list1 = list
> print list1
>   [1,2,3]
> list.append(7)
> print list1
>   [1,2,3,7]
> 
> Whats the easiest way to pass the data in a list, not the pointer, to
> another variable

>>> first = [1, 2, 3]
>>> second = list(first) # create a list from the sequence 'first'
>>> second.append(4)
>>> first
[1, 2, 3]
>>> third = first[:] # slice comprising all items of the 'first' list
>>> third.append(5)
>>> first
[1, 2, 3]
>>>

Both methods shown above result in a (shallow) copy of the original list.

Peter