Default scope of variables

[Neil Cerutti]

On 2013-07-07, Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Fri, 05 Jul 2013 13:24:43 +0000, Neil Cerutti wrote:
>
>> for x in range(4):
>>    print(x)
>> print(x) # Vader NOoooooOOOOOO!!!
>
> That loops do *not* introduce a new scope is a feature, not a bug. It is 
> *really* useful to be able to use the value of x after the loop has 
> finished.

I don't buy necessarily buy that it's "*really*" useful but I do
like introducing new names in (not really the scope of)
if/elif/else and for statement blocks.

z = record["Zip"]
if int(z) > 99999:
    zip_code = z[:-4].rjust(5, "0")
    zip4 = z[-4:]
else:
  zip_code = z.rjust(5, "0")
  zip4 = ""


As opposed to:

zip_code = None
zip4 = None
z = record["Zip"]
if int(z) > 99999:
    zip_code = z[:-4].rjust(5, "0")
    zip4 = z[-4:]
else:
    zip_code = z.rjust(5, "0")
    zip4 = ""

-- 
Neil Cerutti