Question

Is there any type of variable that allows me to increase its value, without the memorized value being overwritten? Example:

def main():
var = 0

  inc = input("Want to increase your variable?")
    if inc == "yes":
      var = var + 1
      main()
      #restart the script from the top
    if inc == "no":
      exit()

When the code restarts, the var will return to its value of “0” without having remembered that “var = var + 1” bit we did, is there any variable type that will update itself to match the changes made in the script?

Answer 1

When you run your function, main(), you’re resetting var back to 0. Notice how it’s inside the function, and so whatever is inside a function will be run.

Here var won’t be changed to 0 every time:

var = 0
def main(number):
    print number
    inc = raw_input("Want to increase your variable?") # Or input() if python 3.x
    if inc == "yes":
        number += 1
        return main(number)
    if inc == "no":
        return number

var = main(var)
print var

var in this case is a global variable. It can be accessed throughout the whole code.

The code above, when run:

python file.py
0
Want to increase your variable?yes
1
Want to increase your variable?yes
2
Want to increase your variable?no
2 #result of printing var at the end

I hope this answered your problems. If you have any other questions, I’ll try answer them ;). I’m a bit of a novice to python.