Why it appears that my variable is not defined if I defined it above in python

Question

I'm starting to learn Python and I would like to know why even if I defined my variable counterofplays above the function it is not being recognized in it.

counterofplays = 0  # this variable should be defined below

def tiktaktoe():
    while playing:
        isdigit = False
        inRange = False
        while not isdigit or not inRange:
            playable = True 
            print(firstchoice,"turn")
            index = input("Choose the index:\n" +
                        "1 | 2 | 3\n" +
                        "4 | 5 | 6\n" +
                        "7 | 8 | 9\n")

            if index.isdigit():
                isdigit = True
                index = int(index)
                if index in range(1,4) and row1[index-1][0] == ' ':
                    inRange = True
                    row1[index-1] = firstchoice if index == 3 else firstchoice + " | "
                    counterofplays += 1 # and here it marks error
                elif index in range(4,7) and row2[index-4][0] == ' ':
                    inRange = True
                    row2[index-4] = firstchoice if index == 6 else firstchoice + " | "                
                    counterofplays += 1
                elif index in range(7,10) and row3[index-7][0] == ' ':
                    inRange = True
                    row3[index-7] = firstchoice if index == 9 else firstchoice + " | "                
                    counterofplays += 1
                else:
                    inRange = False
                    playable = False
            else:
                isdigit = False
                playable = False
                print("You've to choose a number")
                sleep(1.3)

Answer 1

You should try defining counterofplays Directly inside TikTakToe() as global And it shouldn't cause any problem. Since it doesn't seem that you use that variable outside of the aforementioned function you could also not set it as global