python byRef // copy

Question

I am new to Python (and dont know much about programming anyway), but I remember reading that python generally does not copy values so any statement a = b makes b point to a

Answer 1

You can see what you were expecting with just one small change. The two variables do indeed start out pointing to the same object, and if that object is mutable you can see a change in both places at once.

>>> a = [1]
>>> b = a
>>> a[0] = 2
>>> print b
[2]

What you did with your example was to change a so that it no longer referred to the object 1 but rather to the object 2. That left b still referring to the 1.