[Tutor] lists, name semantics

[Peter Otten]

Bill Allen wrote:

> Everyone that responded,
> 
> Thanks very much for the excellent explanations!  The distinction between
> a reference to an object and a seperate copy of the object is quite clear
> now.

You can test your newfound knowledge by predicting the output of the 
following script:


a = [1, ["x", "y"], 3]
b = a[:]

a[1][1] = "hello!"

print(a) # [1, ['x', 'hello!'], 3]
print(b) # what will that print?

Think twice before you answer. What is copied, what is referenced?