6.3.1 Augmented Assignment statements

Augmented assignment is the combination, in a single statement, of a binary operation and an assignment statement:

augmented_assignment_stmt: target augop expression_list
augop:           "+=" | "-=" | "*=" | "/=" | "%=" | "**="
               | ">>=" | "<<=" | "&=" | "^=" | "|="
target:          identifier | "(" target_list ")" | "[" target_list "]"
               | attributeref | subscription | slicing

(See section 5.3 for the syntax definitions for the last three symbols.)

An augmented assignment evaluates the target (which, unlike normal assignment statements, cannot be an unpacking) and the expression list, performs the binary operation specific to the type of assignment on the two operands, and assigns the result to the original target. The target is only evaluated once.

An augmented assignment expression like x += 1 can be rewritten as x = x + 1 to achieve a similar, but not exactly equal effect. In the augmented version, x is only evaluated once. Also, when possible, the actual operation is performed in-place, meaning that rather than creating a new object and assigning that to the target, the old object is modified instead.

With the exception of assigning to tuples and multiple targets in a single statement, the assignment done by augmented assignment statements is handled the same way as normal assignments. Similarly, with the exception of the possible in-place behaviour, the binary operation performed by augmented assignment is the same as the normal binary operations.

See About this document... for information on suggesting changes.