interning strings

[Peter Otten]

"Martin v. Löwis" wrote:

> Peter Otten wrote:
>> String constants that are potential attribute names are also interned:
> 
> Peter has explained all this correctly, but this aspect needs some
> stressing perhaps: string *literals* that are potential attribute
> names are also interned. This interning is done in the compiler,
> when the code object is created, so strings not created by the compiler
> are not interned.
> 
> [all strings are "constant", i.e. immutable, so the statement
>   above might have been confusing]

Yes, string "literal", not "constant" is the appropriate term for what I
meant. 
For completeness here is an example demonstrating that names appearing as
"bare words" in the code are interned:

>>> class X:
...     def __getattr__(self, name):
...             return name
...
>>> a = X().this_is_an_attribute
>>> X().this_is_an_attribute is a
True

Peter