Inner workings of lists

At the end of the video, Hugo explained how Python lists work behind the scenes. In this exercise you'll get some hands-on experience with this.

The Python code in the script already creates a list with the name areas and a copy named areas_copy. Next, the first element in the areas_copy list is changed and the areas list is printed out. If you hit Run Code you'll see that, although you've changed areas_copy, the change also takes effect in the areas list. That's because areas and areas_copy point to the same list.

If you want to prevent changes in areas_copy from also taking effect in areas, you'll have to do a more explicit copy of the areas list. You can do this with list() or by using [:].

Change the second command, that creates the variable areas_copy, such that areas_copy is an explicit copy of areas. After your edit, changes made to areas_copy shouldn't affect areas. Hit Submit Answer to check this.

Take Hint (-30 XP)

Exercise

Inner workings of lists

Instructions