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From: Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au>
Subject: Re: Python variables?
Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 08:37:01 +1000
References: <6e338858-b9e6-4745-9959-35d7c0c7724e@googlegroups.com> <02724244-c924-4cf0-9656-71ade6e435c2@googlegroups.com> <l2cjnf$42l$1@ger.gmane.org> <5249ECFE.2050402@nedbatchelder.com> <5249F4EE.60604@stoneleaf.us>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:55135

Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> writes:

> From [Ned Batchelder]'s blog:

> > Names are Python's variables: they refer to values, and
> >  those values can change (vary) over the course of your
> >  program.
>
> This is partially incorrect.  If the value referred to by the name is
> immutable, then it cannot change; perhaps you meant to say that which
> object the name points to can vary over time?

I agree. Names are not Python's variables.

If anything in Python is a “variable” as generally understood, it is not
a name. It is a *binding*, from a reference (a name, or some other
reference like a list item) to a value.

It is the binding which can change over the course of the program, so
that is the variable.

-- 
 \        “Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from |
  `\                              bad judgement.” —Frederick P. Brooks |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney