Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.albasani.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail
From: Peter Pearson <ppearson@nowhere.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Subject: Re: lists and for loops
Date: 18 Aug 2011 16:43:20 GMT
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <9b4tp8FdrgU1@mid.individual.net>
References: <a47fc507-4e45-4a1d-b133-10a6bd2095f3@c14g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>
X-Trace: individual.net qNcirKAQSE0EtmawA5z+jQ2jvaDO6790HG9Qu4sCYAt1L6NFXy
Cancel-Lock: sha1:AJoJrjT0TfQokrvmHHttPzAxbFI=
User-Agent: slrn/pre1.0.0-16 (Linux)
Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.python:11780

On Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:08:23 -0700 (PDT), Emily Anne Moravec wrote:
> I want to add 5 to each element of a list by using a for loop.
>
> Why doesn't this work?
>
> numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
> for n in numbers:
>      n = n + 5
> print numbers

Because integers are immutable.  You cannot turn 1 into 6.
Contrast this behavior with lists, which *are* mutable:

>>> numbers = [[1],[2],[3],[4],[5]]
>>> for n in numbers:
...   n[0]= n[0] + 5
... 
>>> numbers
[[6], [7], [8], [9], [10]]

For practical purposes, I'm sure you'll find other responders'
excellent posts to be of more immediate use, but keeping
mutability in mind helps.

-- 
To email me, substitute nowhere->spamcop, invalid->net.