How does Python find the value referenced by a variable? Python stores bindings in a Namespace.

You can also think about a namespace as a sort of dictionary containing all defined variable names and the corresponding reference to their values.

Therefore you do not have to know where exactly your value can be found in memory, Python handles this for you via variables.

Figure 2.1 shows a representation of some namespace. Values which have not been referenced by a variable, are not accessible to you, because you can not access the memory space directly. So if a result of a calculation is returned, you can use it directly and forget about it after that. Or you can create a variable holding this value and then access this value via the variable as often as you want.

>>> from string import *
>>> cds = """atgagtgaacgtctgagcattaccccgctggggccgtatatcggcgcacaaa
tttcgggtgccgacctgacgcgcccgttaagcgataatcagtttgaacagctttaccatgcggtg
ctgcgccatcaggtggtgtttctacgcgatcaagctattacgccgcagcagcaacgcgcgctggc
ccagcgttttggcgaattgcatattcaccctgtttacccgcatgccgaaggggttgacgagatca
tcgtgctggatacccataacgataatccgccagataacgacaactggcataccgatgtgacattt
attgaaacgccacccgcaggggcgattctggcagctaaagagttaccttcgaccggcggtgatac
gctctggaccagcggtattgcggcctatgaggcgctctctgttcccttccgccagctgctgagtg
ggctgcgtgcggagcatgatttccgtaaatcgttcccggaatacaaataccgcaaaaccgaggag
gaacatcaacgctggcgcgaggcggtcgcgaaaaacccgccgttgctacatccggtggtgcgaac
gcatccggtgagcggtaaacaggcgctgtttgtgaatgaaggctttactacgcgaattgttgatg
tgagcgagaaagagagcgaagccttgttaagttttttgtttgcccatatcaccaaaccggagttt
caggtgcgctggcgctggcaaccaaatgatattgcgatttgggataaccgcgtgacccagcacta
tgccaatgccgattacctgccacagcgacggataatgcatcgggcgacgatccttggggataaac
cgttttatcgggcggggtaa""".replace("\n","")

>>> float(count(cds, 'G') + count(cds, 'C'))/ len(cds)
0.54460093896713613
      

Here the result of the gc-calculation is lost.

>>> gc = float(count(cds, 'G') + count(cds, 'C'))/ len(cds)
>>> gc
0.54460093896713613
      

In this example you can remember the result of the gc calculation, because it is stored in the variable gc.