Question

here’s a sample code:

def foo():
    def bar():
        foobar = 'foobaz'

    foobar = 'foobar'
    print foobar
    bar()
    print foobar

foo()

I want to change variable foobar inside foo by function bar. The code above will not work, since foobar inside bar is in separate namespace with foobar in foo. A simple workaround would be making a global foobar and have both foo and bar can access it, but I hope there would be simpler workarounds.

Answer 1

On python 3.x you can use nonlocal and for python 2.x try using function attributes:

def foo():
    def bar():
        foo.foobar = 'foobaz'  #change the function attribute

    foo.foobar = 'foobar'     #declare as function attribute
    print foo.foobar
    bar()
    print foo.foobar
foo() 

output:

foobar
foobaz