What is an object reference in Python?
<p>A introductory Python textbook defined 'object reference' as follows, but I didn't understand:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>An object reference is nothing more than a concrete representation of the object’s identity (the memory address where the object is stored).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The textbook tried illustrating this by using an arrow to show an object reference as some sort of relation going from a variable <code>a</code> to an object <code>1234</code> in the assignment statement <code>a = 1234</code>.</p>

<p>From what I gathered off of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_(computer_science)#Examples" rel="noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>, the (object) reference of <code>a = 1234</code> would be an association between <code>a</code> and <code>1234</code> were <code>a</code> was "pointing" to <code>1234</code> (feel free to clarify "reference vs. pointer"), but it has been a bit difficult to verify as (1) I'm teaching myself Python, (2) many search results talk about references for <em>Java</em>, and (3) not many search results are about <em>object</em> references.</p>

<p>So, what is an object reference in Python? Thanks for the help!</p>