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7. Scope: local vs global

First, a friendly reminder:

Important

Rule # 1
Learning about computer programming is like learning to play a musical instrument: you have to do it, not simply read about it.

Now that I have your attention, it is important that you try these on your own before reading further.

Run these programs

First run the following:

# First program
a = 2

def test():
    a = 3
    print("inside test: ", a)

test()

Then, this one:

# Second program
a = 2

def test():
    print("inside test", a)

test()
print("after test", a)

And another one:

# Third program
a = 2

def test():
    print("inside test", a)
    a = 3

test()
print("after test", a)

And yet one more:

# Fourth program
a = 2

def test():
    global a
    print("inside test", a)
    a = 3

test()
print("after test", a)

What is going on? ...

7.1. The need for scope

As I am writing this, the main Javascript program file that powers Reeborg’s World, https://github.com/aroberge/reeborg/blob/master/src/js/reeborg_dev.js, contains approximately 6000 lines of code: this is likely quite a bit more than the programs you have written so far! (There are a few additional program files, including some written in Python, of course!) People working in collaboration will write programs that contains hundreds of thousands if not millions lines of code. As you can imagine, it is impossible to find meaningful names for variables that would have a unique meaning throughout entire programs. Suppose you and I collaborate to write a really, really long program. If I define the variable length to be 32 and you define a variable with the same name elsewhere and give it the value 45, we could have a problem when using this variable.

Python, and most other programming languages, has a solution for this problem: variables that are defined within a function, are known only within this function. Thus, if you write a function and use a variable named length and if I write another function and also use a variable named length, these will be treated as being different variables by Python.

We say that these variables are local to the function, or that they have a local scope.

Let’s look back at the first program above. We define a variable named a inside a function test(). This variable is considered to be local to that function; giving it a value does not affect the value of the variable a outside that function: the two variables are considered to be different.

In the second program, we do not define a variable a inside the function test(); that is, we do not have a line like:

a = something

inside that function. When we print the value of the variable, Python recognizes that it is a variable likely defined outside the function (known as the global scope in Python), looks up in this global scope, finds a variable with that name, and uses it.

Note

Believe it or not, the description here is a simplification. There is another Python keyword, nonlocal, that refers to some intermediate scope between local and global. However, when I wrote this tutorial, I couldn’t find any example relevant to Reeborg’s World where it was useful to use nonlocal.

In the third program, Python finds that there is a variable a local to the function (which means it is defined inside the function) since there is a line:

a = something   # with something equal to 3 here...

So, Python determines that, inside the function, a always refer to the local variable. Since we attempt to print its value before we assign it, Python tells us it, in its own way, that it cannot do this.

Finally, in the fourth program, we have added the line:

global a

global is a Python keyword that tells Python that the variable a used inside the function is the same one defined outside the function (in the global scope). So, it already has a known value when the line:

print("inside test", a)

is executed. The following line, a = 3, changes the value of a so that, after executing test(), a has this new value everywhere.

Important

Whenever an experienced programmer sees a function with one or more variable names listed in a global statement, that programmer begins to worry: instead of just trying to understand that function, the programmer must figure out where else those variables might have been assigned some value, and how this could affect how the function will work.

For this reason, experienced programmers always attempt to use other tools, which you have not yet learned about, to avoid having to use global variables. However, it is important that you learn how to use global variables and, more importantly, when to do so.

7.2. Confused?

Many people find the concept of scope confusing the first time they see it. You may want to run the 4 programs again (and again!) and read the explanation a few times.

Then, even if it is not entirely clear, you can safely move on to the next section. As you write more programs, the concept of scope will become easier to understand.