Variables scope in python

Question

My question might be simple but I really cannot figure out where I went wrong. I would like to pass one variable from a function to another function. I use return therefore but I'm always getting an error message, that my variable is not defined.

My code is:

url = "http://www.419scam.org/emails/2004-01/30/001378.7.htm"

def FirstStrike(url):
    ...
    return tokens

def analyze(tokens):
    ...

if __name__ == "__main__":
    FirstStrike(url)
    analyze(tokens)

If I run this I got an error message: NameError: name 'tokens' is not defined.

A return statement returns an object, not a name or a "variable". — Sven Marnach
– Sven Marnach, Commented Jun 9, 2012 at 13:38
Rather than making people read your whole source file, a backtrace would have made answering much easier. So would minimizing the code to the smallest bit that fails in a way you don't understand. I have chopped out all but the relevant bits of your code sample, if you did the same, your problem might have been more obvious to you. — msw
– msw, Commented Jun 9, 2012 at 13:44

Simeon Visser · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-09 13:37:11Z

9

When you run the code, you haven't assigned the result of FirstStrike to a variable:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    tokens = FirstStrike(url)
    analyze(tokens)

This is necessary because otherwise tokens is not defined when you call analyze.

answered Jun 9, 2012 at 13:37

Simeon Visser

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shiva · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-09 13:38:18Z

4

tokens = FirstStrike(url)

You must assign FirstStrike return value to tokens variable before calling analyze(tokens)

answered Jun 9, 2012 at 13:38

shiva

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