Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> writes: > On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 10:39 AM, Ben Finney <ben+pyt...@benfinney.id.au> > wrote:
> > Instead, Python has objects, and references to those objects so you > > can get at them. The Python documentation, much to my frustration, > > calls these references “variables” even though that gives exactly > > the wrong implication of how they'd behave. > > But variable names in C and variable names in Python follow fairly > similar rules. The names are similar, yes. But names are not variables, and the conceptual baggage of the term “variable” simply doesn't apply to a Python identifier. > Yes, there's the whole thing of automatic sharing and automatic > deallocation, but the name still follows rules of scoping that are > very similar - but more flexible in C. The *binding* is scoped. > > With the assignment statements (the statements using ‘txt = …’), the > > name ‘txt’ is bound as a reference to a value. It's not a C-like > > variable; it doesn't have a type, it doesn't need to be declared, > > etc. It's just a name, that you can bind to exactly one value any > > time you like. > > It does have a type. It's a Python object. No, a name is not a Python object, and has no type. A name is simply an identifier. > That data type can hold any one "thing". :) A name refers to an object, it doesn't “hold” anything. -- \ “… it's best to confuse only one issue at a time.” —Brian W. | `\ Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie, _The C programming language_, | _o__) 1988 | Ben Finney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
