variable assignment within a loop

[Michael Surette]

On Mon, 03 Nov 2003 15:37:28 -0500, hokieghal99 wrote:

> I have this for loop in a program that I'm writing:
> 
>          for bad_dir_char in bad_dir_chars:
>              newdir = dir.replace(bad_dir_char,'-')
> 
> Now, when I use this if statement:
> 
>          if newdir != dir:
>              old_dir_path = os.path.join(root,dir)
>              new_dir_path = os.path.join(root,newdir)
>              os.rename(old_dir_path,new_dir_path)
>              print "replaced:	",bad_dir_char,"
> 
> I get a "local variable 'newdir' referenced before assignment" error.

This has nothing to do with where variables live.  What is happening is
when bad_dir_chars is empty, newdir doesn't get assigned in your for loop.