Pass by reference or by value?

[Robert Dailey]

Hi,

I previously created a topic named "Pass by reference or by value" where I
inquired on how python's function parameters work. I received a lot of nice
responses, however I'm still confused on the topic. Note that I come from a
C++ background to Python, so any comparisons to C++ would be very helpful.

I ran a few tests. There's two tests in particular I wanted to show you
guys:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
myvar = []

def changeme( param ):
    param.append( "blah" )
    print param

changeme( myvar )

print myvar

The above code yields the following output:
['blah']
['blah']

This means that the list passed in was modified by the function.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now test case 2:

myvar = 4

def changeme( param ):
    param = 5
    print param

changeme( myvar )

print myvar

The above code yields the following output:
5
4

This means that the integer passed in was NOT modified by the function.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Between these two tests, both types passed in are mutable objects. I'm
having trouble figuring out what mandates an object to be changed from
within a function versus not. What is happening in test case 2 to cause it
to not be modified?

Thanks for reading guys. Hopefully one day I'll understand this lol.
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