Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com>: >> characters, words, lines = stats.read() > > That's not really pass-by-reference, though. What you're doing is > output parameters, which are usually implemented in C with pointers, > but in Python with a return tuple.
Correct, but it is worth questioning the question itself: what do you need pass-by-reference for? A very common case is returning multiple values. For that, Python has other idioms available. > And, by the way, it's not purely academic. There have been times when > I've done exactly that as a means of passing state around. It's not > common, but it has its place. Nobody has been disputing Steven's technique. There are many variations to that as well. For example, instead of a list, there might be an appropriate class/object that could host the interesting piece of information and act as the desired reference. Marko -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
