indirectly addressing vars in Python

[Jeremy Sanders]

Ross wrote:

>  >>> myList[1]= myList[1]+1

The problem is this makes myList[1] point to a new integer, and not the one
that peas points to.

Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Jul 10 2008, 17:25:56)
[GCC 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> oats=[1]
>>> peas=[6]
>>> mylist = [oats, peas]
>>> mylist[1][0] = mylist[1][0]+1
>>> mylist
[[1], [7]]
>>> peas
[7]

This is because integers are immutable, but lists are mutable.

-- 
Jeremy Sanders
http://www.jeremysanders.net/