Python "is" behavior

[George Sakkis]

On Jun 20, 12:31 pm, michalis.avr... at gmail.com wrote:
> I am not certain why this is the case, but...
>
> >>> a = 256
> >>> b = 256
> >>> a is b
>
> True
>
> >>> a = 257
> >>> b = 257
> >>> a is b
>
> False
>
> Can anyone explain this further? Why does it happen? 8-bit integer
> differences?

No, implementation-dependent optimization (caching). For all we know,
the next python version may cache up to 1024 or it may turn off
caching completely; do not rely on it. More generally, do not use 'is'
when you really mean '=='.

George