Importing modules twice in python with different names

Question

I did import the module with a name, and import it again without a name and both seems to be working fine and gives the same class type.

>>> from collections import Counter as c
>>> c
<class 'collections.Counter'>

>>> from collections import Counter
>>> Counter
<class 'collections.Counter'>

How does that works in python, is that a single object points to the same reference? Also why not that the previous name import got overwritten or removed.

I'm not sure about the terminology as well

Answer 1

Using python 2.7.13:

>>> from collections import Counter as c
>>> c
<class 'collections.Counter'>
>>> from collections import Counter
>>> Counter
<class 'collections.Counter'>
>>> id(c), id(Counter)
(140244739511392, 140244739511392)
>>> id(c) == id(Counter)
True

Yes, c and Counter are the same. Two variables (names) that reference the same object.