[Tutor] Maximum recursion depth problem.

[Peter Otten]

Wesley Brooks wrote:

> I'm having real difficulty understanding why the following is not
> working and hoped I've either missed something obvious of I'm doing
> something wrong!
> 
> class A:
>     def break_down(self, value, base, broken_list=[]):

> I'm a little stumped as I don't think I'm using any global or class
> variables? Any help would be much appreciated.

You are on the right track, the default value for broken_list is 
evaluated only once; Modifications during an invocation of the 
break_down() method are visible when break_down() is called again later.

See also

http://docs.python.org/faq/design.html#why-are-default-values-shared-between-objects

Peter