Python’s built-in id(object) function takes a Python object as an input and returns the identity of an object that is a static, unique integer. The identity is static, it never changes throughout the program’s execution, and unique, no other object has the same identity. It is implemented in cPython by returning the address of the object in memory.
>>> x = [1, 2, 3] >>> id(x) 2205705788488 >>> id(x) == id([1, 2, 3]) False
Python id() Video
Python id() Syntax and Examples
| Argument | object | A Python object for which the identity should be returned. |
| Return Value | int | An integer number associated to the object that is static and unique. |
Input :id('42')Output :3033433182136Input :Output :id(42)140725259659376Input :Output :id(43)140725259659408Input :Output :id(3.41)3033419857088Input :Output :id([1, 2, 3])3033433284680Input :Output :id([1, 2, 3])3033433132552
You can see in the last two examples that if you create two identical list objects, the id is still different because they are different objects in memory.
Python id() to Check Same Object Reference
A frequent use of the id() function is to check whether two or more variables refer to the same object in memory.
a = 5 b = a c = a print(id(a)) print(id(b)) print(id(c))
The output shows that all three names refer to the same object in memory:
140725259658192 140725259658192 140725259658192
You can also see this visualized in this interactive Python memory simulator:
Python id() Example List Objects
If you create multiple list objects with the same elements, they should all have the same unique id, right?
for i in range(10):
print(id([1, 2, 3]))Exercise: Do we print 10 times the same output?
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The output of the code snippet is surprising because it shows that the id must only be unique during the lifetime of the object!
2805153590280 2805153590280 2805153590664 2805153590536 2805153590280 2805153590664 2805153590536 2805153590280 2805153590664 2805153590536
For instance, the first two instances have the same identifiers! The reason is that the lifetime of the object is limited—a list is never used after the creation.
Summary
Python’s built-in id(object) function takes a Python object as an input and returns the identity of an object that is a static, unique integer.
- The identity is static, i.e., it never changes throughout the program’s execution, and
- unique, i.e., no other object has the same identity.
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