How to update dictionary values present within local symbol table?

Question

I have written the below program wherein I am trying to modify the dictionary values present in local symbol table:

def modify_locals():
    str = True
    print(locals())
    locals()['str'] = False
    print(locals())

modify_locals()

Output:

{'str': True}
{'str': True}

Please let me know why locals()['str'] = False is not updating the local symbol table?

https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#locals `The contents of this dictionary should not be modified; changes may not affect the values of local and free variables used by the interpreter.` — Iain Shelvington, Dec 29 '21 at 04:19
Duplicate of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37600997/python-locals-update-not-working — Zach10za, Dec 29 '21 at 04:20

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 29 '21 at 04:22

globals() returns an actual reference to the dictionary that contains the global namespace.

locals(), on the other hand, returns a dictionary that is a current copy of the local namespace, not a reference to it. So you can’t modify objects in the actual local namespace using the return value from locals().

This is fully explained in this article: https://realpython.com/python-namespaces-scope/#the-locals-function

How to update dictionary values present within local symbol table?

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