lst = [0,1,2,3,4] lst[0], lst[4] = lst[4], lst[0] print(lst) #[4, 1, 2, 3, 0]
But, when you assign them to a variable you get a different solution.
lst = [0,1,2,3,4] x = lst[0] y = lst[4] x,y = y,x print(lst) #[0, 1, 2, 3, 4] print(x) # 4 print(y) # 0
My best guess is that it has something to do with were the variables are pointing to in memory.
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Answer
I think the list is confusing you, so here is an equivalent example without a list:
a,b = 1,2 a,b = b,a print(a,b) # 2,1
vs
a,b = 1,2 c,d = a,b c,d = d,c print(a,b) # 1,2 print(c,d) # 2,1
As I hope you can clearly see from the second piece of code, here we are have the values 1 and 2 in a and b respectively, and we are assigning them to c and d, and then swapping c and d. No where did we swap between a and b, so it remains a = 1 and b = 2. Only c and d were swapped.