Multi-dimensional list initialization

[rusi]

On Nov 7, 5:26 am, MRAB <pyt... at mrabarnett.plus.com> wrote:
> I prefer the term "reference semantics".

Ha! That hits the nail on the head.

To go back to the OP:

On Nov 5, 11:28 am, Demian Brecht <demianbre... at gmail.com> wrote:
> So, here I was thinking "oh, this is a nice, easy way to initialize a 4D matrix" (running 2.7.3, non-core libs not allowed):
>
> m = [[None] * 4] * 4
>
> The way to get what I was after was:
>
> m = [[None] * 4, [None] * 4, [None] * 4, [None * 4]]
>
> (Obviously, I could have just hardcoded the initialization, but I'm too lazy to type all that out ;))
>
> The behaviour I encountered seems a little contradictory to me. [None] * 4 creates four distinct elements in a single array while [[None] * 4] * 4 creates one distinct array of four distinct elements, with three references to it:
>
> >>> a = [None] * 4
> >>> a[0] = 'a'
> >>> a
>
> ['a', None, None, None]
>
> >>> m = [[None] * 4] * 4
> >>> m[0][0] = 'm'
> >>> m
>
> [['m', None, None, None], ['m', None, None, None], ['m', None, None, None], ['m', None, None, None]]
>
> Is this expected behaviour and if so, why? In my mind either result makes sense, but the inconsistency is what throws me off.
>

m=[[None] * 2] * 3

is the same as

m=[[None]*2, [None]*2, [None]*2]

until one starts doing things like

m[0][0] = 'm'

So dont do it!

And to get python to help you by saying the same that I am saying do
m=((None) * 2) * 3
(well almost... its a bit more messy in practice)
m=(((None,) * 2),)*3

After that try assigning to m[0][0] and python will kindly say NO!

tl;dr version:
reference semantics is ok
assignment is ok (well up to a point)
assignment + reference semantics is not