Question

Is there a way to access the local variable of a function from a function that is defined within said function?
Y is a tuple with strings, and I want whatever caps becomes when a condition is met to stay the same for the next call with the next item in y. I tried to use the built-in function global, but I guess that only works for globals.

def cap_sentence(y):  
    caps = "on"  
    def func(x):  
        if caps == "on"
            caps = "off"
            return x.capitalize()
        elif "." in x:
            caps = "on"
    return tuple(map(func, y))

Answer 1

Use nonlocal in Python 3.x:

def cap_sentence(y):  
    caps = "on"  

    def func(x):  
        nonlocal caps 
        if caps == "on":
            caps = "off"
            return x.capitalize()
        elif "." in x:
            caps = "on"

    return tuple(map(func, y))

In python 2.7:

def cap_sentence(y):  
    cap_sentence.caps = "on"  

    def func(x):  
        if cap_sentence.caps == "on":
            cap_sentence.caps = "off"
            return x.capitalize()
        elif "." in x:
            cap_sentence.caps = "on"

    return tuple(map(func, y))