Litvin wrote:
At 01:54 AM 7/13/2010, kirby urner wrote:
You mean some methods actually change an object
"in place"? Change it's state? No copies, no
output? No "back up"?
I've found it disconcerting that in Python 3
lst1 += lst2 changes lst1 in place, while
lst1 = lst1 + lst2 makes a copy.
Actually this behavior has been in Python since augmented assignments
were introduced in version 2.0. The official wording on this (buried in
the language reference) is (2.7 version, emphasis mine):
"An augmented assignment expression like x += 1 can be rewritten as x =
x + 1 to achieve a similar, *but not exactly equal* effect. In the
augmented version, x is only evaluated once. Also, when possible, *the
actual operation is performed in-place*, meaning that rather than
creating a new object and assigning that to the target, the old object
is modified instead."
It *is* a bit disconcerting, but I can't at the moment think of a likely
scenario where it would be a real problem.
Cheers,
Vern
Gary Litvin
www.skylit.com
--
This time for sure!
-Bullwinkle J. Moose
-----------------------------
Vern Ceder, Director of Technology
Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804
vce...@canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137
The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW
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