What is the id( ) function used for?

Question

I read the Python 2 docs and noticed the id() function:

Return the “identity” of an object. This is an integer (or long integer) which is

Answer 1

That's the identity of the location of the object in memory...

This example might help you understand the concept a little more.

foo = 1
bar = foo
baz = bar
fii = 1

print id(foo)
print id(bar)
print id(baz)
print id(fii)

> 1532352
> 1532352
> 1532352
> 1532352

These all point to the same location in memory, which is why their values are the same. In the example, 1 is only stored once, and anything else pointing to 1 will reference that memory location.