Please, read this https://nedbatchelder.com/text/names1.html
the way you initialize it is a problematic, because actually every row is a reference to the same 26-element list (row).
the way you initialize it is a problematic, because actually every row is a reference to the same 26-element list (row).
>>> mat = [[0]*6]*5 >>> print mat [[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]] >>> mat[1][1]=1 >>> mat [[0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]] >>> mat = [[0]*6 for _ in range(5)] >>> mat [[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]] >>> mat[1][1] = 1 >>> mat [[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]] >>>