Why does += behave unexpectedly on lists?

Question

The += operator in python seems to be operating unexpectedly on lists. Can anyone tell me what is going on here?

class foo:  
     bar = []
            


        

Answer 1

>>> a = 89
>>> id(a)
4434330504
>>> a = 89 + 1
>>> print(a)
90
>>> id(a)
4430689552  # this is different from before!

>>> test = [1, 2, 3]
>>> id(test)
48638344L
>>> test2 = test
>>> id(test)
48638344L
>>> test2 += [4]
>>> id(test)
48638344L
>>> print(test, test2)  # [1, 2, 3, 4] [1, 2, 3, 4]```
([1, 2, 3, 4], [1, 2, 3, 4])
>>> id(test2)
48638344L # ID is different here

We see that when we attempt to modify an immutable object (integer in this case), Python simply gives us a different object instead. On the other hand, we are able to make changes to an mutable object (a list) and have it remain the same object throughout.

ref : https://medium.com/@tyastropheus/tricky-python-i-memory-management-for-mutable-immutable-objects-21507d1e5b95

Also refer below url to understand the shallowcopy and deepcopy

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/copy-python-deep-copy-shallow-copy/