Is a variable the name, the value, or the memory location?

Question

I\'ve been learning Python for a few months, and also know very little C, and I was wondering if anyone could clear this doubt up for me:

Is a variable the name, the

Answer 1

In Python variables are best considered as names.

In the case of numbers, numbers are immutable so reassigning a variable will always make the variable point to a different number without changing the number.

x = 1
y = x
x += 1 # y is still 1

The difference is clearer with mutable objects, where you can change a value OR make the variable refer to a different value

x = [1,2,3]
y = x
x.append(4) # I mutated x's value, so y is now [1,2,3,4]
x = [] # I made x point to a different list, so y is still [1,2,3,4]

Recommended reading:

http://web.archive.org/web/20180411011411/http://python.net/~goodger/projects/pycon/2007/idiomatic/handout.html

http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/05/23/python-faq-passing/