Python Scope Basics

Now that you’re ready to start writing your own functions, we need to get more formal about what names mean in Python. When you use a name in a program, Python creates, changes, or looks up the name in what is known as a namespace—a place where names live. When we talk about the search for a name’s value in relation to code, the term scope refers to a namespace: that is, the location of a name’s assignment in your code determines the scope of the name’s visibility to your code.

Just about everything related to names, including scope classification, happens at assignment time in Python. As we’ve seen, names in Python spring into existence when they are first assigned values, and they must be assigned before they are used. Because names are not declared ahead of time, Python uses the location of the assignment of a name to associate it with (i.e., bind it to) a particular namespace. In other words, the place where you assign a name in your source code determines the namespace it will live in, and hence its scope of visibility.

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Besides packaging code, functions add an extra namespace layer to your programs—by default, all names assigned inside a function are associated with that function’s namespace, and no other. This means that:

 

 
  • Names defined inside a def can only be seen by the code within that def. You cannot even refer to such names from outside the function.
  • Names defined inside a def do not clash with variables outside the def, even if the same names are used elsewhere. A name X assigned outside a given def (i.e., in a different def or at the top level of a module file) is a completely different variable from a name X assigned inside that def.

In all cases, the scope of a variable (where it can be used) is always determined by where it is assigned in your source code and has nothing to do with which functions call which. In fact, as we’ll learn in this chapter, variables may be assigned in three different places, corresponding to three different scopes:

 

 
  • If a variable is assigned inside a def, it is local to that function.
  • If a variable is assigned in an enclosing def, it is nonlocal to nested functions.
  • If a variable is assigned outside all defs, it is global to the entire file.

We call this lexical scoping because variable scopes are determined entirely by the locations of the variables in the source code of your program files, not by function calls.

For example, in the following module file, the X = 99 assignment creates a global variable named X (visible everywhere in this file), but the X = 88 assignment creates a local variable X (visible only within the def statement):

X = 99

def func():
    X = 88

Even though both variables are named X, their scopes make them different. The net effect is that function scopes help to avoid name clashes in your programs and help to make functions more self-contained program units.