Question

When I try this code:

a, b, c = (1, 2, 3)  def test():     print(a)     print(b)     print(c)     c += 1 test() 

I get an error from the print(c) line that says:

UnboundLocalError: local variable 'c' referenced before assignment 

in newer versions of Python, or

UnboundLocalError: 'c' not assigned 

in some older versions.

If I comment out c += 1, both prints are successful.

I don’t understand: why does printing a and b work, if c does not? How did c += 1 cause print(c) to fail, even when it comes later in the code?

It seems like the assignment c += 1 creates a local variable c, which takes precedence over the global c. But how can a variable "steal" scope before it exists? Why is c apparently local here?

---

_{See also Using global variables in a function for questions that are simply about how to reassign a global variable from within a function, and Is it possible to modify a variable in python that is in an outer (enclosing), but not global, scope? for reassigning from an enclosing function (closure).}

_{See Why isn't the 'global' keyword needed to access a global variable? for cases where OP expected an error but didn’t get one, from simply accessing a global without the global keyword.}

_{See How can a name be "unbound" in Python? What code can cause an `UnboundLocalError`? for cases where OP expected the variable to be local, but has a logical error that prevents assignment in every case.}

Answer 1

Python treats variables in functions differently depending on whether you assign values to them from inside or outside the function. If a variable is assigned within a function, it is treated by default as a local variable. Therefore, when you uncomment the line, you are trying to reference the local variable c before any value has been assigned to it.

If you want the variable c to refer to the global c = 3 assigned before the function, put

global c 

as the first line of the function.

As for python 3, there is now

nonlocal c 

that you can use to refer to the nearest enclosing function scope that has a c variable.