How to make a completely unshared copy of a complicated list? (Deep copy is not enough)

Question

Have a look at this Python code:

a = [1, 2, 3]
b = [4, 5, 6]
c = [[a, b], [b, a]] # [[[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]], [[4, 5, 6], [1, 2, 3]]]
c[0][0].append(99)   # [         


        

Answer 1

To see Stephan's suggestion at work, compare the two outputs below:

a = [1, 2, 3]
b = [4, 5, 6]
c = [[a, b], [b, a]]
c[0][0].append(99)
print c
print "-------------------"
a = [1, 2, 3]
b = [4, 5, 6]
c = [[a[:], b[:]], [b[:], a[:]]]
c[0][0].append(99)
print c

The output is as follows:

[[[1, 2, 3, 99], [4, 5, 6]], [[4, 5, 6], [1, 2, 3, 99]]]
-------------------
[[[1, 2, 3, 99], [4, 5, 6]], [[4, 5, 6], [1, 2, 3]]]