Why does refs increase 2 for every new object in Python?

Question

It is a little weird to me that the refs number in the interactive environment increases 2 after a new object is defined. I created only one object, isn't it?

>>> v
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'v' is not defined
[41830 refs]
>>> v = "v"
[41832 refs]

Answer 1

Your assignment worked by creating an entry in the globals() dictionary that has v as a key and "v" as a value. That's two references (one for the key and one for the value) although in this case they probably both refer to the same string "v".