the basics of python variable terminology even though variable in python stores reference to an objectit is quite common in programming to use phrases such as "the value is assigned to ""idnum contains "and "name contains stringin all such casesthese phases should be understood as referring to the object referenced by the variable and not the variable itself variables computers manipulate and process data in pythonall data is stored in objectswhich are created from various class definitions objects can store single value or multiple values but no matter the sizewe must have some means to access the object after it' been created variable is named storage location that associates name with an object variables do not store data themselvesbut instead store references to the objects that contain the data reference is simply the memory address of the location where the object is stored assignments variables in python are created when they are first assigned an object reference consider the following assignment statementsname "john smithidnum avg which creates three variables and assigns references to each of the given literal values note that reference to an object is commonly illustrated as directed edge leading from the variable to the objectidnum avg name "john "john smithsmithin pythonobjects are automatically created for literals and initialized with the given value each unique literal within program results in unique object variable itself does not have type and thus can store reference to any type of object it is the objectthat has data type variable cannot be used before it has been created by an assignment of reference to some object attempting to do so will generate an error as shown in the previous code segmentpython uses single equal sign (=for assigning an object reference to variable when an assignment statement is usedthe righthand side is evaluated and reference to the resulting value is stored in the variable on the lefthand side when new reference is assigned to an existing variablethe old reference is replaced for examplesuppose we assign new value to variable idnum using the assignment statement idnum which results in the original reference to value being replaced by reference to value idnum avg name "john "john smithsmith