Aliasing and copying dictionaries
18-minute lesson · module-dictionaries-03
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Aliasing and copying dictionaries
18-minute lesson · module-dictionaries-03
- Explain that assigning a dictionary to a new name creates an alias, not a copy.
- Predict when a mutation through one name is visible through another.
- Use `.copy()` to make an independent (shallow) copy.
- Recognize that a shallow copy still shares nested mutable values.
Source attribution
Status: adapted
How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Interactive Edition — source · Dictionaries / Aliasing and copying
Adaptation notes. Reading rewritten in our voice. Examples use an Iowa State student-record theme (a dict of advising notes shared between two variables). Hidden tests check that the student can distinguish aliasing from copying by reporting whether a mutation is shared.
License notes. Original chapter is GNU FDL 1.3 (Brad Miller, David Ranum, and the upstream Elkner/Downey/Meyers text). No verbatim text reproduced.