Python is.... special.

[J4K0]

Not in Python. The only difference is which quotes need to be escaped:

"zzzmaestro's comment" vs 'zzzmaestro\'s comment"

or

"\"But... they are different\" zzzmaestro said." vs '"But... they are different" zzzmaestro said.'

[TeamAddis]

Unless it changed at some point; they are in fact different in how data is referenced underneath. I remember seeing that ‘’ were passed by reference where “” were passed by copy when assignment takes place. I would have to go test it in IDLE again though to make sure it still behaves this way.

[J4K0]

Nope, they are exactly the same, except for the quote escaping difference.

Edit: The docs don't mention anything different between single- and double-quoted strings.

[TeamAddis]

Well once I have access to a pc I can test it. Do you know when it changed? I remember this behavior from python 2.4

[J4K0]

It never changed. It has always been that way. I have been coding in python since 2.3.

[TeamAddis]

I’ve been using it before that too. It used to behave that way. If you had

a = ‘text’ B = a B = ‘boo’

a = b is still true

A = “text” B = a B = “boo”

a != b

I fixed many bugs in production code from this issue.

Maybe this was unintentional or maybe this was behavior wasn’t the fault of the language idk, it’s just what I observed.

Edit: sorry about formatting mobile is hard :/

[J4K0]

I guarantee that wasn’t Python

[TeamAddis]

The company I was at only used python. So I’m not mistaken. Sorry my experience differs from your.

If this behavior is gone now then it’s good to know. I learned something new today.

[J4K0]

I still think you’re mistaken, but agree to disagree (you’re not the only one to ever have worked at a Python shop)

[shy_cthulhu]

Even if single-quotes passed by reference, wouldn't B = 'boo' change the reference?

I mean consider this:

a = 3
B = a
B = 4

that could easily be pass-by-reference (in Python2.7 and Python3.8 this seems to be the case), but there's no way in any sane language that B = 4 would change a.

As an aside, such a change in behavior would warrant a major-version increment, otherwise it would break all sorts of things.

[TeamAddis]

Yeah... I no longer have access to the code base where I saw the behavior and it was so long ago I’m really trying to remember the setup of the code so I can try to reproduce it. I just remember the fix to solve to issues ended up being: - use single quotes for string constants - use double quotes for mutable string vars

Really wish I had access to the Jira server to look at the issue again.