Multiple assignment and evaluation order in Python

Question

What is the difference between the following Python expressions:

# First:

x,y = y,x+y

# Second:

x = y
y = x+y

First gives diffe

Answer 1

An observation regarding the left-hand side as well: the order of assignments is guaranteed to be the order of their appearance, in other words:

a, b = c, d

is equivalent functionally to precisely (besides t creation):

t = (c, d)
a = t[0] # done before 'b' assignment
b = t[1] # done after 'a' assignment

This matters in cases like object attribute assignment, e.g.:

class dummy:
    def __init__(self): self.x = 0

a = dummy(); a_save = a
a.x, a = 5, dummy()
print(a_save.x, a.x) # prints "5 0" because above is equivalent to "a = dummy(); a_save = a; t = (5, dummy()); a.x = t[0]; a = t[1]"

a = dummy(); a_save = a
a, a.x = dummy(), 5
print(a_save.x, a.x) # prints "0 5" because above is equivalent to "a = dummy(); a_save = a; t = (dummy(), 5); a = t[0]; a.x = t[1]"

This also implies that you can do things like object creation and access using one-liners, e.g.:

class dummy:
    def __init__(self): self.x = 0
# Create a = dummy() and assign 5 to a.x
a, a.x = dummy(), 5