static keyword

[Daniel Dittmar]

Nick Jacobson wrote:
> I believe the following "static" command would be useful in Python.
[...]
> Just like in C, the variables i and firstcall are only assigned the
> first time foo() is called.  To get this effect currently, one could
> use default arguments or wrapping the whole thing in a class.  Both of
> these solutions seem like hacks, the above method IMO is more
> Pythonic. :)

You could also use funtion properties
>>> def statictest ():
...     statictest.counter += 1
...     print statictest.counter
...
>>> statictest.counter = 0
>>> statictest ()
1
>>> statictest ()
2

But this uses two lookups: one for the function in module scope and one for
the property. Three if you want to do this in a method
(class.method.property).

Just to describe all the possibilities, I probably wouldn't use this myself.

Daniel