Pass by reference or by value?

[Robert Dailey]

Hi,

I noticed in Python all function parameters seem to be passed by
reference. This means that when I modify the value of a variable of a
function, the value of the variable externally from the function is
also modified.

Sometimes I wish to work with "copies", in that when I pass in an
integer variable into a function, I want the function to be modifying
a COPY, not the reference. Is this possible?

Thanks.