Confused: Newbie Function Calls

[Michael Torrie]

On 08/11/2010 10:07 AM, fuglyducky wrote:
> I am a complete newbie to Python (and programming in general) and I
> have no idea what I'm missing. Below is a script that I am trying to
> work with and I cannot get it to work. When I call the final print
> function, nothing prints. However, if I print within the individual
> functions, I get the appropriate printout.
> 
> Am I missing something??? Thanks in advance!!!!

Yes.  You are passing sample_string into the functions, but not doing
anything with the return value.

> def gen_header(sample_string):
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The sample_string name is rebound to the parameter now, completely
hiding the global variable, if that's really what you wanted.

> def gen_nia(sample_string):
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Again.

>     NIA = """
>     anothermultilinestringhere
>     """
> 
>     sample_string += NIA
>     return sample_string
> 
> 
> gen_header(sample_string)
> gen_nia(sample_string)

Try this:

sample_string = gen_header(sample_string)
sample_string = gen_nia(sample_string)

You could drop the arguments to your functions and use the "global"
keyword to get access to sample_string from within the functions, but
normally that's a bad idea.