修改列表以复制另一个列表而不复制原始列表

Question

I have a program which is an implementation of a sorting algorithm

def myfunction(data):
    x = [sorted elements...]

Input

mylist = [elements...]
myfunction(mylist)
print(mylist)

The function ends up eventually with a list x, with the same elements which have been sorted, but is a copy of mylist. This means that when the program is run, mylist is returned, instead of x.

How can I alter mylist within myfunction so that is the same as x? Surely there is a way to map x and mylist to each other and then iteratively alter mylist until it matches x?

Answer 1

def myfunction(data):
    x = [sorted elements...]
    data[:] = x

This modifies data in-place and sets it to whatever values x contains.