Addressing the last element of a list

[Antoon Pardon]

Op 2005-11-14, Bengt Richter schreef <bokr at oz.net>:
> On 14 Nov 2005 11:20:53 GMT, Antoon Pardon <apardon at forel.vub.ac.be> wrote:
>
>>Op 2005-11-14, Paul Rubin schreef <http>:
>>> Antoon Pardon <apardon at forel.vub.ac.be> writes:
>>>> We could then have something like the following.
>>>> 
>>>> a = 5
>>>> b = a
>>>> a @= 7
>>>> b ==> would result in 7.
>>>
>>> Ouch!  :-(((
>>>
>>> Can't you live with
>>>
>>> a = [5]
>>> b = a
>>> a[0] = 7
>>>
>>> so b[0] is now 7.
>>
>>And what do I have to do, in case of the following:
>>
>>a = [3, 5]
>>b = a[0]
>>b @= 7
>>a ==> would result in [7, 5]
>>
>>This may seem contrived, but in combination with
>>parameters it could be usefull.
>>
>>Something like:
>>
>>a = [3, 5]
>>
>>def treat(b):
>>  lots of code
>>  b @= new_value
>>
>>f(a[0])
>>a ==> would result in [7, 5]
>>
>>-- 
> You may be interested in reviewing
>
>     http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/f96b496b6ef14e2/32d3539e928986b3
>
> before continuing this topic ;-)

It is a rather long thread. You want to avoid this one becomes of
comparable length?

-- 
Antoon Pardon