Peculiar swap behavior

[Terry Reedy]

Tim Chase wrote:
> I stumbled across this oddity and was hoping folks on the list might be 
> able to provide a little understanding:
> 
> # swap scalars
>  >>> x,y = 1,2
>  >>> x,y = y,x
>  >>> x,y
> (2, 1)
> 
> # swap lists
>  >>> a,b = [1,2,3],[4,5,6]
>  >>> a,b = b,a
>  >>> a,b
> ([4, 5, 6], [1, 2, 3])
> 
> # swap list contents...not so much...
>  >>> m,n = [1,2,3],[4,5,6]
>  >>> m[:],n[:] = n,m
>  >>> m,n
> ([4, 5, 6], [4, 5, 6])
> 
> 
> The first two work as expected but the 3rd seems to leak some internal 
> abstraction. 

This works exactly as documented.  Read carefully...

An assignment statement evaluates the expression list (remember that 
this can be a single expression or a comma-separated list, the latter 
yielding a tuple) and assigns the single resulting object to each of the 
target lists, from left to right.
...
If the target is a slicing: The primary expression in the reference is 
evaluated. It should yield a mutable sequence object (such as a list). 
The assigned object should be a sequence object of the same type. Next, 
the lower and upper bound expressions are evaluated, insofar they are 
present; defaults are zero and the sequence’s length. The bounds should 
evaluate to integers. If either bound is negative, the sequence’s length 
is added to it. The resulting bounds are clipped to lie between zero and 
the sequence’s length, inclusive. ***Finally, the sequence object is 
asked to replace the slice with the items of the assigned sequence.*** 
The length of the slice may be different from the length of the assigned 
sequence, thus changing the length of the target sequence, if the object 
allows it.
[*** emphasis added]

and ask What is the value of m when used to replace the contents of n?

tjr