Today I Learned

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Python global closure scoping oddity

Beware closuring in global variables.

world = 'Endor'

def world_name():
    def world_knower():
      print(world)
    world = 'Hoth'
    return world_knower

knower = world_name()
knower()
# Hoth
Python

In the above example, the reference the local world was closured in to world_knower, and the value was changed after the world_knower declaration.

What if we use the global keyword to let python know we want to use the global version of this variable?

world = 'Endor'

def world_name():
    global world
    def world_knower():
      print(world)
    world = 'Hoth'
    return world_knower

knower = world_name()
knower()
# Hoth
Python

Yikes, the inner function still uses the outer functions local reference. I guess if we truly want to ignore the local reference, we need to declare that world is global in the inner function.

world = 'Endor'

def world_name():
    def world_knower():
      global world
      print(world)
    world = 'Hoth'
    return world_knower

knower = world_name()
knower()
# Endor
Python
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