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Pointers

Kragen Sitaker kragen at dnaco.net
Wed Mar 15 22:13:23 EST 2000 
In article <38D00DCE.9740380F at be-research.ucsd.edu>,
Curtis Jensen  <cjensen at be-research.ucsd.edu> wrote:
>I haven't found anything about pointers in python.  Is there a pointer
>type?  If so, what is the syntax?

All Python variables are pointers.

a = 2
b = 3
# now a is a pointer to the integer object 2, and b is a pointer to the
# integer object 3.
a = a + b
# now we have added what a points to and what b points to; the result is 5.
# So an integer object 5 is created.  a gets pointed to it.  Nothing points
# to the 2 object any more, so it gets destroyed.
# (Actually, that's a lie; integers are handled a little bit oddly.  Small
# integers are created early and are immortal.)
# (It may be that all of this is a lie; it's just what I've gathered from
# reading the newsgroup; I haven't read the source yet.  Surely someone
# will correct me if I am wrong.)
-- 
<kragen at pobox.com>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
The Internet stock bubble didn't burst on 1999-11-08.  Hurrah!
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The power didn't go out on 2000-01-01 either.  :)
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