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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Copying a reference, or cloning

If you copy a variable in a program, you end up with a duplicate, right?
set second $first ... in Tcl
second=$first ... in shell
second = first ... in Python, Ruby, C and Java
$second = $first ... in Perl and PHP

Well - ALMOST right. For sure an assignment copies a variable, but where that variable is a reference you may be doing no more that assigning a second name to the same underlying data. For example, if I had a python object called charlie and I wrote thecat = charlie, then any subsequent changes that I made to charlie would also be reflected in data accessed via thecat and vice versa. When you think about it, this is a natural way of doing things and also efficient in that it does not duplicate data but it's quite a tough idea for programmers from a structured programming environment.

There are actually three levels of copying a variable in Python.

If you do a straight forward assignment, you're copying the reference - in other words, you're giving the variable a new name or an alias and content changes under either name will be reflected in the same objects. Our charlie and thecat is a good example of where you might do something like this.

If you use the deepcopy function, then you'll be cloning an object and you'll duplicate its content, so that any subsequent amendment to the original or the copy will be unique to the original or to the copy. If you had an object that contained this year's data and you wanted a new object for next year's data too, you might do a deep copy ... then change next year's data to reflect the event you are expecting to happen. Next year's data changes but this year's remains unaltered.

The third (intermediate) level of copying in Python uses a list slice notation and is described as a shallow copy. If you have a table of staff members and you shallow copy it, you'll end up with a new table of staff members. Take the copy, add in some extra staff, take some away, and only the copy is effected. However, each staff member object refers to the same data from both the original and new data sets, so if you change a property of an individual staff member - say their home address is altered - then that will change in both "copy"s. Once again, in the correct circumstance this is a very natural way to handle data.

Here are the three syntaxes - deep copy (i.e. clone), shallow copy and alias:
firstyear = deepcopy(team)
secondyear = team[:]
thirdyear = team


I've written these three examples into an example program available under the More on Collections and Sequences in Python section of our resource centre ... here are the results of running the program to see the effect of changes in firstyear, secondyear and thirdyear variables when the team gets changed.

The changes made:
team[2] = person("Charlotte","Cat's home entertainer",10)
team[1].setage(53)


and a listing of the various teams ...

Original team
Lisa
Trained as Graphic Designer
Aged 21
Graham
Trained as Support Manager
Aged 51
Charlie
Trained as Unknown
Aged 9

Team after changes
Lisa
Trained as Graphic Designer
Aged 21
Graham
Trained as Support Manager
Aged 53
Charlotte
Trained as Cat's home entertainer
Aged 10

Deep copy - no changes from original
Lisa
Trained as Graphic Designer
Aged 21
Graham
Trained as Support Manager
Aged 51
Charlie
Trained as Unknown
Aged 9

Shallow copy - some changes
Lisa
Trained as Graphic Designer
Aged 21
Graham
Trained as Support Manager
Aged 53
Charlie
Trained as Unknown
Aged 9

Normal copy (alias) - all changes shown
Lisa
Trained as Graphic Designer
Aged 21
Graham
Trained as Support Manager
Aged 53
Charlotte
Trained as Cat's home entertainer
Aged 10

Source code - here
(written 2006-03-05, updated 2006-06-09)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Y111 - Python - More on Collections and Sequences
  [61] Python is a fabulous language - (2004-09-24)
  [386] What is a callback? - (2005-07-22)
  [899] Python - extend v append on a list - (2006-10-20)
  [1304] Last elements in a Perl or Python list - (2007-08-16)
  [1310] Callbacks - a more complex code sandwich - (2007-08-19)
  [1869] Anonymous functions (lambdas) and map in Python - (2008-11-04)
  [1873] List Comprehensions in Python - (2008-11-06)
  [2718] Python - access to variables in the outer scope - (2010-04-12)
  [2894] Sorting people by their names - (2010-07-29)
  [2920] Sorting - naturally, or into a different order - (2010-08-14)
  [2996] Copying - duplicating data, or just adding a name? Perl and Python compared - (2010-10-12)
  [3150] Python dictionaries - mutable and immutable keys and values - (2011-01-29)
  [3348] List slices in Python - 2 and 3 values forms, with an uplifting example - (2011-07-06)
  [3439] Python for loops - applying a temporary second name to the same object - (2011-09-14)
  [3797] zip in Python - (2012-07-05)
  [4398] Accessing variables across subroutine boundaries - Perl, Python, Java and Tcl - (2015-01-18)
  [4442] Mutable v Immuatble objects in Python, and the implication - (2015-02-24)

Y102 - Python - Fundamentals
  [328] Making programs easy for any user to start - (2005-05-29)
  [748] Getting rid of variables after you have finished with them - (2006-06-06)
  [956] Python security - trouble with input - (2006-11-30)
  [1430] Integer v float - Python - (2007-11-12)
  [1448] Question on division (Java) - Also Perl, PHP, Python ... - (2007-11-28)
  [1461] Python - input v raw input - (2007-12-06)
  [1878] Pascals Triangle in Python and Java - (2008-11-10)
  [2368] Python - fresh examples of all the fundamentals - (2009-08-20)
  [2442] Variable storage - Perl, Tcl and Python compared - (2009-10-08)
  [2778] Learning to program in Python 2 ... and / or in Python 3 - (2010-05-24)
  [3083] Python - fresh examples from recent courses - (2010-12-11)
  [3181] Beware - a=a+b and a+=b are different - Python - (2011-02-23)
  [3278] Do I need to initialise variables - programming in C, C++, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby or Java. - (2011-05-05)
  [3551] Some terms used in programming (Biased towards Python) - (2011-12-12)
  [3886] Formatting output - why we need to, and first Python example - (2012-10-09)
  [3917] BODMAS - the order a computer evaluates arithmetic expressions - (2012-11-09)
  [4324] Learning to program - variables and constants - (2014-11-22)
  [4712] A reminder of the key issues to consider in moving from Python 2 to Python 3 - (2016-10-30)


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Carnival
What is your business latency and potential?
Odd one out.
Real chance to make a difference
Copying a reference, or cloning
Moral dilemma
Apache httpd to Tomcat - jk v proxy
Hostnames spring forward
Choosing the right language
Active Learning
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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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