Why is it bad idea to modify locals in python?

Question

Related to this reply here. Locals' doc here.

The docs mention that the dictionary should not change, not sure what it means but would locals() be applicable in lab-reports where data won't change, for example in measurements?

Answer 1

What documentation says is that when you have a local x variable and do locals()['x'] = 42, then x may still point to the old object.

def foo():
    x = 0xABCD
    locals()['x'] = 42
    print(x)

foo()