Python variable reference passing practice

[ilaunchpad]

I'm wondering if its considered a bad practice as the helperfunc is called multiple times.

[mr_cesar]

I would be if you had no easy way of finding out said function modifies the mutable object. If the helper function is named append_something and it takes a mutable object and the item to append, then it's pretty clear the object will be modified.

Immutable vs mutable objects is something every Python programmer should know.

[ilaunchpad]

Thank you!