Repeat A List Within A List X Number Of Times

I'm working on a project and I need to repeat a list within a list a certain number of times. Obviously, L.append(L) just adds the elements again without creating separate lists. I

Solution 1:

No need for any functions:

>>> L = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> [L]*3
[[1, 2, 3, 4, 5], [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]]

However, you should note that if you change one value in any of the lists, all the others will change because they reference the same object.

>>> mylist = [L]*3
>>> mylist[0][0] = 6
>>> print mylist
[[6, 2, 3, 4, 5], [6, 2, 3, 4, 5], [6, 2, 3, 4, 5]]
>>> print L
[6, 2, 3, 4, 5]

To avoid this:

>>> L = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> mylist = [L[:] for _ in range(3)]
>>> mylist[0][0] = 6
>>> print L
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> print mylist
[[6, 2, 3, 4, 5], [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]]

Notice how L didn't change, and only the first list in mylist changed.

Thanks everyone in the comments for helping :).