Aren't Python strings immutable? Then why does

Question

My understanding was that Python strings are immutable.

I tried the following code:

a = "Dog"
b = "eats"
c = "treats"

print a, b, c
# Dog eats treats

print a + " " + b + " " + c
# Dog eats treats

print a
# Dog

a = a + " " + b + " " + c
print a
# Dog eats treats
# !!!

Shouldn't Python have prevented the assignment? I am probably missing something.

Any idea?

Answer 1

Adding a bit more to above-mentioned answers.

id of a variable changes upon reassignment.

>>> a = 'initial_string'
>>> id(a)
139982120425648
>>> a = 'new_string'
>>> id(a)
139982120425776

Which means that we have mutated the variable a to point to a new string. Now there exist two string(str) objects:

'initial_string' with id = 139982120425648

and

'new_string' with id = 139982120425776

Consider the below code:

>>> b = 'intitial_string'
>>> id(b)
139982120425648

Now, b points to the 'initial_string' and has the same id as a had before reassignment.

Thus, the 'intial_string' has not been mutated.

Answer 2

The string objects themselves are immutable.

The variable, a, which points to the string, is mutable.

Consider:

a = "Foo"
# a now points to "Foo"
b = a
# b points to the same "Foo" that a points to
a = a + a
# a points to the new string "FooFoo", but b still points to the old "Foo"

print a
print b
# Outputs:

# FooFoo
# Foo

# Observe that b hasn't changed, even though a has.

Answer 3

>>> a = 'dogs'

>>> a.replace('dogs', 'dogs eat treats')

'dogs eat treats'

>>> print a

'dogs'

Immutable, isn't it?!

The variable change part has already been discussed.

Answer 4

Python string objects are immutable. Example:

>>> a = 'tanim'
>>> 'Address of a is:{}'.format(id(a))
'Address of a is:64281536'
>>> a = 'ahmed'
>>> 'Address of a is:{}'.format(id(a))
'Address of a is:64281600'

In this example we can see that when we assign different value in a it doesn't modify.A new object is created.
And it can't be modified. Example:

  >>> a[0] = 'c'
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
    **TypeError**: 'str' object does not support item assignment

A error occurs.

Answer 5

'mutable' means that we can change the content of the string, 'immutable' means that we can't add an extra string.

Answer 6

Variables can point to anywhere they want.. An error will be thrown if you do the following:

a = "dog"
print a                   #dog
a[1] = "g"                #ERROR!!!!!! STRINGS ARE IMMUTABLE