Is Python strongly typed?

Question

I\'ve come across links that say Python is a strongly typed language.

However, I thought in strongly typed languages you couldn\'t do this:

bob = 1
b         


        

Answer 1

A Python variable stores an untyped reference to the target object that represent the value.

Any assignment operation means assigning the untyped reference to the assigned object -- i.e. the object is shared via the original and the new (counted) references.

The value type is bound to the target object, not to the reference value. The (strong) type checking is done when an operation with the value is performed (run time).

In other words, variables (technically) have no type -- it does not make sense to think in terms of a variable type if one wants to be exact. But references are automatically dereferenced and we actually think in terms of the type of the target object.