Peculiar swap behavior

[Aaron Brady]

On Feb 23, 12:43 pm, Tim Chase <python.l... at tim.thechases.com> 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])
snip

This may help:

>>> a= [1,2,3]
>>> id(a)
12170584
>>> id(a[:])
12235520

However, I'm not thinking in English at the moment.