How to store functions return value inside other function

Question

I have two functions in flask I am not really sure if this is good approach or not ? First one is template renderer

@app.route('/displayreports')
def display_report():
   
    return render_template('Displayreports.html', reports=reports)

Second one is api function to update the data called from html by button. I want to store function_last_used_date value in server side to show it later at display report. Is there anyway to store it outside a function without calling it ?

@app.route('/displayreports/data')
def api_get_reports():
    import datetime

    function_last_used_date = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
    get_reports()
    
    return {'reports': list(reports), 'last_updated_date': updated_date}

Answer 1

You probably want to store the variable datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")

• using Session data (see https://pythonbasics.org/flask-sessions/ )

Flask Session saves data specific to a browser session initiated by a user and eliminates the need for global variables.

• or in a simple database.