> a=10 > > 'a' is an integer. Is it an object too? In Python, objects have an identity. When you do "a=10" then you *bind* the object to the name *a*. By "variable", the documentation refers to a name that was bound to an object. This is different from many other low level languages. For example: in C, you can do
a=10; And it will "set the value of the variable 'a' to 10". In other words: "a" is not just a name, it refers to a certain location in memory where an integer value is stored. And in C, it is not an object but a value of a built-in type. In contrast, this is what happens in Python: * An "Integer" object is constructed with the value 10. * This object is then bound to the name "a". The key point is that "variables" are just names that may reference to objects. There is a distinction between names and objects. Strictly speaking, you cannot "set the value of a variable", because variables do not hold values. They just refer to objects. In Python, you can only "create an object", or "change the state of an object", and "bind a name to an object". -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
