global variables ?

[ruari mactaggart]

thank you ! It works now. This is very satisfying.

John Roth <newsgroups at jhrothjr.com> wrote in message
news:vq78f2gc8bgv59 at news.supernews.com...
>
> "ruari mactaggart" <ruari at charliefortune.com> wrote in message
> news:bo04ou$382$1 at news8.svr.pol.co.uk...
> > how do I assign a value to a variable inside a function then use it in
the
> > main body ?
> >
> > i am trying to unpickle a dictionary in a function to use it in the
> program
>
> Since Alex has already mentioned the 'global' statement,
> I won't dwell on it. I'd just mention that it's a whole lot
> simpler to use a global dictionary or an object instance
> than to use a simple variable that has to be rebound.
>
> For example:
>
> foobar = "huh?"
>
> def snafu():
>     global foobar
>     foobar = "what?"
>
>
> Using a dictionary, it looks like this:
>
> foodict = {foobar: "huh?"}
>
> def snafu():
>     foodict["foobar"] = "what?"
>
> That lets you consolidate all of those messy global variables
> in one place as well as giving you a name you can use for
> better internal documentation.
>
> John Roth
> >
> > ruari
> >
> >
>
>