[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I just want an alias.
What you want is impossible. But there are many workarounds. > I just want to be able to make a reference to any old thing in Python. > A list, an integer variable, a function etc. so that I, in complicated > cases, can make a shorthand. If "myRef" could somehow "point at" > something long an complicated like a[42]["pos"][-4], that might be > useful. One simple workaround: def createAlias(L, idx1, idx2, idx3): def setval(n): L[idx1][idx2][idx3] = n return setval k = createAlias(a, 42, "pos", -4) [...] n = computeValue(...) k(n) # store it! You will also find out that your case is actually very unlikely in well-designed code. You don't usually work with stuff with three level of nesting like a[][][], since it gets totally confusing and unmaintanable. You will end up always with objects with better semantic, and methods to modify them. So in the end you will always have a reference to the moral equivalent of a[42]["pos"], and that would be a well defined object with a method setThis() which will modify the moral equivalent of [-4]. -- Giovanni Bajo -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list