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How did print(*a, a.pop(0)) change?

This code:

a = [1, 2, 3]
print(*a, a.pop(0))

Python 3.8 prints 2 3 1 (does the pop before unpacking).
Python 3.9 prints 1 2 3 1 (does the pop after unpacking).

What caused the change? I didn't find it in the changelog.

Edit: Not just in function calls but also for example in a list display:

a = [1, 2, 3]
b = [*a, a.pop(0)]
print(b)

Prints [2, 3, 1] vs [1, 2, 3, 1]. And Expression lists says "The expressions are evaluated from left to right" (that's the link to Python 3.8 documentation), so I'd expect the unpacking expression to happen first.

10 months ago · Santiago Trujillo

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Accepted Answer · 2022-04-08T04:23:26.982Z

I suspect this may have been an accident, though I prefer the new behavior.

The new behavior is a consequence of a change to how the bytecode for * arguments works. The change is in the changelog under Python 3.9.0 alpha 3:

bpo-39320: Replace four complex bytecodes for building sequences with three simpler ones.

The following four bytecodes have been removed:

BUILD_LIST_UNPACK

BUILD_TUPLE_UNPACK

BUILD_SET_UNPACK

BUILD_TUPLE_UNPACK_WITH_CALL

The following three bytecodes have been added:

LIST_TO_TUPLE

LIST_EXTEND

SET_UPDATE

On Python 3.8, the bytecode for f(*a, a.pop()) looks like this:

  1           0 LOAD_NAME                0 (f)
              2 LOAD_NAME                1 (a)
              4 LOAD_NAME                1 (a)
              6 LOAD_METHOD              2 (pop)
              8 CALL_METHOD              0
             10 BUILD_TUPLE              1
             12 BUILD_TUPLE_UNPACK_WITH_CALL     2
             14 CALL_FUNCTION_EX         0
             16 RETURN_VALUE

while on 3.9, it looks like this:

  1           0 LOAD_NAME                0 (f)
              2 BUILD_LIST               0
              4 LOAD_NAME                1 (a)
              6 LIST_EXTEND              1
              8 LOAD_NAME                1 (a)
             10 LOAD_METHOD              2 (pop)
             12 CALL_METHOD              0
             14 LIST_APPEND              1
             16 LIST_TO_TUPLE
             18 CALL_FUNCTION_EX         0
             20 RETURN_VALUE

In the old bytecode, the code pushes a and (a.pop(),) onto the stack, then unpacks those two iterables into a tuple. In the new bytecode, the code pushes a list onto the stack, then does l.extend(a) and l.append(a.pop()), then calls tuple(l).

This change has the effect of shifting the unpacking of a to before the pop call, but this doesn't seem to have been deliberate. Looking at bpo-39320, the intent was to simplify the bytecode instructions, not to change the behavior, and the bpo thread has no discussion of behavior changes.