[Tutor] Copying a list?

[Bob Gailer]

At 02:25 PM 8/27/2003 -0700, Zak Arntson wrote:

>I feel pretty silly asking this, but is there a way to quickly copy a
>list? I'd love to be able to type:
>
>###
> >>> a = [1,2,3]
> >>> b = a
>###
>
>But that's a pass-by-reference. The quickest thing that comes to mind is:
>
>###
> >>> a = [1,2,3]
> >>> b = [i for i in a]
>###
>
>Which is okay, but not as obvious as, say:
>
>###
> >>> a = [1,2,3]
> >>> b= a.__copy__()
>###
>
>or something. Am I forgetting something?

Can't answer that, as we don't know what you formerly remembered.

To the original question:
b = a[:]
OR b = list(a)

Note that these are "shallow" copies; any object reference in the list will 
be copied as is. See the copy module for deepcopy and more comments on copying.

Bob Gailer
bgailer at alum.rpi.edu
303 442 2625
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