Modify list length within for loop

I know it’s not recommended to change a list while iterating over it, but I’m curious as to why the two different codes below give different results:

numbers = [1,2]
for i in numbers :
    if len(numbers)<3:
        numbers.append(3)
    print(i)

and

numbers = [1,2]
for i in numbers :
    if len(numbers)<3:
        numbers = [1,2,3]
    print(i)

The first code outputs 1,2,3 and the seconde code outputs only 1,2.

I would expect both code to behave exactly the same as in both cases I’m modifying the content of the list I’m ranging over.

>Solution :

By writing numbers = [1, 2, 3], you did not change the content of the pre-existing list numbers to [1, 2, 3], you assigned [1, 2, 3] to a new variable.

You need to write numbers[:] = [1, 2, 3] to keep the old list alive and change its content. That will print 1, 2, 3 as you expect.