How can I assign by value in python

Question

I understand that, due to the way Python works x = []; y = x; x.append(1); y will print [1]. However, the reverse, say,

z = [1,2]
temp          


        

Answer 1

Why not make temp a copy of z:

>>> z = [1, 2]
>>> temp = z[:]
>>> temp[1] = 3
>>> z
[1, 2]
>>> temp
[1, 3]
>>>

[:] easily makes a shallow copy of a list.

However, you might also be interested in copy.copy and copy.deepcopy, both of which come from Python's copy module.