Pass variable by reference

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 06 May 2014 15:16:54 -0400, Terry Reedy wrote:

> On 5/5/2014 8:39 PM, Satish Muthali wrote:
>> Hello experts,
>>
>> I have a burning question on how to pass variable by reference in
>> Python.
> 
> Python passes objects to functions. CPython implements this by passing
> object pointers. In one sense, your request is impossible. In another,
> it already happens.

Pass *by* reference is not the same as pass *a* reference. Confusing 
variables, values and references to values is how you get Ruby 
programmers swearing that Ruby does pass by reference, and Java 
programmers swearing that Java does pass by value, for *exactly* the same 
behaviour that Python has.



-- 
Steven D'Aprano
http://import-that.dreamwidth.org/