Importing from a file to use contained variables

[Anthony Borla]

"Jeff Wagner" <JWagner at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ks4gsvkgs50a2ic9e7a48jf0hcufer42r7 at 4ax.com...
>
> I am importing a file which contains a persons name (firstName,
> middleName, etc). If I define a function to do this, how can I
> use the variables outside of that function?
>

You can simply return data from a function. Examples:

    def returnString():
        return "ABCDE"

    def returnInteger():
        return 5 + 5

    def returnList():
       return ['a', 'B', 1, 3, 5]

>
> Here is the code:
>
> import string
>
> def getName():
>
>     data = open("enterName.txt")
>     allNames = data.readlines()
>     data.close()
>
>     fName = string.lower(allNames[0])
>     mName = string.lower(allNames[1])
>     lName = string.lower(allNames[2])
>     nName = string.lower(allNames[3])
>     pName = string.lower(allNames[4])
>
> I need to use these variables in another function (routine)
> to calculate the associated numbers.
>
> Since these are local to the function, how is this done?
> Can I make them global or something?
>

Global data is, probably, best avoided [this is a general program design
principle, not something specific to Python]. As shown in the earlier code,
you can return any data type, so, why not return data in the most convenient
form, the one that best suits your purposes ?

You now have enough enough information to design a solution. May I simply
suggest, however, that you distinguish between a single entity, and a group
of entities. By this I mean you would write function(s) to manipulate the
data belonging to a single entity [the names of a person], and function(s)
to manipulate groups of persons [you will probably want to, later on, store
multiple persons in a file].

I hope this helps.

Anthony Borla