Syntax Question - list multiplication

[Roel Schroeven]

Pablo Torres schreef:
> Hi guys!
> 
> I am working on Conway's Game of Life right now and I've run into a
> little problem.
> I represent dead cells with 0s and live ones with 1s. Check this out:
> 
> 	>>> grid = [[0] * 3] * 3
> 	>>> grid
> 	[[0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]]
> 	>>> grid[0][0] = 1
> 	[[1, 0, 0], [1, 0, 0], [1, 0, 0]]
> 
> Now, that's not what I want. I just want the first element of the
> first sublist to be a 1, not the first of every one. Here's what I
> tried and didn't work:
> 
> 0.  grid = [[0] * 3][:] * 3    then the same grid[0][0] = 1 statement
> 1.  grid = [[0][:] * 3] * 3    followed by the same assignment
> 2.  (grid[0])[0] = 1    with the original initialization of the grid
> 
> So, that means that it isn't a problem with two different variables
> refering to the same list (0. and 1. prove that). What I don't
> understand is why 2. doesn't work either. I'm baby-feeding my
> instructions to Python and the mistake is still there. Any ideas?
> 
> Hope you can help. Thanks in advance,

The multiplication operator doesn't make new copies; all elements 
reference the same object, as you can see with id():

 >>> lst = [0] * 3
 >>> lst
[0, 0, 0]
 >>> id(lst[0]), id(lst[1]), id(lst[2])
(9788716, 9788716, 9788716)

As a consequence, if you modify one element, you change them all (since 
it's all the same object). Solution: make sure to create independent lists.

 >>> grid = [[0] * 3 for i in range(3)]
 >>> grid
[[0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]]
 >>> grid[0][0] = 1

-- 
If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood
on the shoulders of giants.  -- Isaac Newton

Roel Schroeven