Values and objects

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, May 11, 2014 at 5:10 AM, Ethan Furman <ethan at stoneleaf.us> wrote:
> And if you don't like that argument (although it is a perfectly sound and
> correct argument), think of the module name space:
>
>
> ret = spam
> spam = 23
>
> will net you a simple NameError, because spam has not yet been created.

What about this, though:

ret = int
int = 23

That will *not* net you a NameError, because 'int' exists in an outer
scope (builtins). You can create a new module-scope variable and it
will immediately begin to shadow a builtin; you can delete that
variable and it will immediately cease to shadow that builtin. That's
the difference I'm talking about. With function-local variables, they
all have to exist (as other responses confirmed, that *is* a language
guarantee), even though some of them aren't bound to anything yet.

ChrisA