Calling variable defined inside one function from another function

Question

if I have this:

def oneFunction(lists):
    category=random.choice(list(lists.keys()))
    word=random.choice(lists[category])

def anotherFunction():
    for letter in word:              #problem is here
        print("_",end=" ")

I have previously defined lists , so oneFunction(lists) works perfectly.

My problem is calling word in line 6. I have tried to define word outside the first function with the same word=random.choice(lists[category]) definition, but that makes word always the same, even if I call oneFunction(lists) .

I want to be able to, every time I call the first function and then the second, have a different word .

Can I do this without defining that word outside the oneFunction(lists) ?

Answer 1

One approach would be to make oneFunction return the word so that you can use oneFunction instead of word in anotherFunction :

def oneFunction(lists):
    category = random.choice(list(lists.keys()))
    return random.choice(lists[category])

    
def anotherFunction():
    for letter in oneFunction(lists):              
        print("_", end=" ")

Another approach is making anotherFunction accept word as a parameter which you can pass from the result of calling oneFunction :

def anotherFunction(words):
    for letter in words:              
        print("_", end=" ")
anotherFunction(oneFunction(lists))

And finally, you could define both of your functions in a class, and make word a member:

class Spam:
    def oneFunction(self, lists):
        category=random.choice(list(lists.keys()))
        self.word=random.choice(lists[category])

    def anotherFunction(self):
        for letter in self.word:              
            print("_", end=" ")

Once you make a class, you have to instantiate an instance and access the member functions:

s = Spam()
s.oneFunction(lists)
s.anotherFunction()

Answer 2

Everything in python is considered as object so functions are also objects. So you can use this method as well.

def fun1():
    fun1.var = 100
    print(fun1.var)

def fun2():
    print(fun1.var)

fun1()
fun2()

print(fun1.var)

Answer 3

The simplest option is to use a global variable. Then create a function that gets the current word.

current_word = ''
def oneFunction(lists):
    global current_word
    word=random.choice(lists[category])
    current_word = word

def anotherFunction():
    for letter in get_word():              
          print("_",end=" ")

 def get_word():
      return current_word

The advantage of this is that maybe your functions are in different modules and need to access the variable.

Answer 4

def anotherFunction(word):
    for letter in word:              
        print("_", end=" ")

def oneFunction(lists):
    category = random.choice(list(lists.keys()))
    word = random.choice(lists[category])
    return anotherFunction(word)

Answer 5

def oneFunction(lists):
    category=random.choice(list(lists.keys()))
    word=random.choice(lists[category])
    return word

def anotherFunction():
    for letter in word:             
        print("_",end=" ")

Answer 6

so i went ahead and tried to do what came to my head You could easily make the first function to return the word then use the function in the another function while passing in an the same object in the new function like so:

def oneFunction(lists):
    category=random.choice(list(lists.keys()))
    word=random.choice(lists[category])
    return word

def anotherFunction(sameList):
    for letter in oneFunction(sameList):             
        print(letter)