easy question on parsing python: "is not None"

[Terry Reedy]

On 8/12/2010 10:52 PM, Matt Schinckel wrote:

>>>> a = "hello"
>>>> b = "hello"
>>>> a is b
> True
>
> Ooh, that looks dangerous.

Only for mutable objects

> Are they the same object?

Yes.

>>>> a += "o"

This is equivalent to a = a+"o". The expression creates a new object. 
The assignment binds the object to name 'a'.

 > (Python does not make two copies of small strings until it needs to).

Python never copies *any* object until you ask it to. It never made a 
copy of the original 'a' here either. It combined the values of two 
string objects to make a new string object with a new value.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy