using list() in this manner feels a bit weird to me. If you want to be truly explicit, why not use the built in copy module? eg: from copy import copy

using list() in this manner feels a bit weird to me. If you want to be truly explicit, why not use the built in copy module? eg: from copy import copy b = copy(a) #or deepcopy(), depending on your needs *edit: I should note that the docs for copy suggest using the slice operator.