python lists, appending something to the list changes the entire thing?

Question

so im trying to implement selection sort in python.. and im appending the result of each iteration to a list to print at the end.. my code sorts the list of numbers properly but

Answer 1

I don't see the actual sort that you're doing, but in general:

Lists are mutable. Any change you make to it affects all links to that list. To make a copy of it and break its connection to other references, you need to return alist[:]

def s_sort(numbers):
  alist=[]
  #do actual sorting here and swap numbers/index if neccessary

       alist.append(numbers)
  return alist[:]  # this makes it a copy!

def main():
    numbers=[5,7,3]
    print(s_sort(numbers))
main()