num = [1, 2, 3]
As far as I know, the num list contains references to the int objects. Since the values are in the range [-5, 256], I feel that they should be cached. Am I correct in my assessment?
Does Python intern the elements of a list?
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>>> lst = [1, 2, 3]
>>> 1 is lst[0]
True
Seems to be the case on my build (CPython 3.8).
The interning mechanism should not care about what references (variable names, list positions, ...) point to the object - they are unidirectional anyway.
Any list? No. Most objects are not cacheable.
This list? Yes, because they're integers in the range [-5, 256] like you said.
Keep in mind this is an implementation detail of CPython.
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