Variables in C++ vs Python [duplicate]

This question already has an answer here: “is” operator behaves unexpectedly with integers 10 answers #include <iostream> using namespace std; int main() { int a = 1; int b = 1; printf("%pn",(void*)&a); printf("%pn",(void*)&b); return 0; } Returns 0xbfa7b1c8 and 0xbfa7b1cc However, the equivalent code in python: a = 1 b = 1 print(id(a)) print(id(b)) returns 31093816L and 31093816L. From what I understand, python creates only one instance of 1 and both a and b are pointing to it. What are the pros and cons of the two approaches?