Persistent variables in python

[Lee Harr]

> Found out a quite fun way to store persistent variables in functions in
> python.
>

> Is this concidered bad coding practice since I guess persistent
> variables in functions are not meant to be?


I am using is in one of my recent projects. I was thinking of
it sort of like "static" variables in C.

I use a decorator to create the variables ...


def static(**kw):
    '''
    Used to create a decorator function that will add an
    attribute to a function and initialize it.

    >>> @static(foo=5)
    ... def bar():
    ...     print bar.foo
    ...     bar.foo += 1
    ...
    >>> bar()
    5
    >>> bar()
    6
    '''

    def decorator(f):
        f.__dict__.update(kw)
        return f
    return decorator