Really weired; Here is my code: a = ["a", 1, 3, 4] print "a:", a c = copy(a) c[0] = "c" c[1] = 2 print "c:", c print "a:",a output as follows: a: ['a', 1, 3, 4] c: ['c' '2' '3' '4'] a: ['a', 1, 3, 4] Btw, I'm using python 2.5. I'm very curious why the copied list changed data type. Thanks, Zhenhai