On 5/24/21 8:17 AM, hw wrote:
> What does python actually do in the first example? Does it overshadow a
> variable or does it change one? If it overshadows a variable, it would
> be dubious, if it doesn't, it won't be dubious.
Are you referring to this?
num = input("Enter a number: ")
num = int(num)
No it is not "overshadowing" a variable. You cannot get back to the
original string value for num.
> There are more alternatives: Python might create a new variable with
> the same name and forget about the old one. Or it doesn't forget about
> the old one and the old one becomes inaccessible (unless you have a
> reference to it, if there is such a thing in python). How do you call that?
Python variables are not memory boxes like in a compiled language. They
are names bound to objects, as Mr Simpson alluded to. So in the first
line, the name num is bound to a string. In the second line, the name
is re-bound to an int object. Furthermore, if num had come from the
global name scope, either of these lines would create a local name num
that does shadow the name from the global scope.
Hope that helps.
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