Python’s Function Static Variable

So you want a variable that stays between different calls of a function. Not the sexiest thing ever but always handy in small programs.

There’s tons of ways of doing this. You can embark on a quest to find the meaning of Pythonic or take this method that’s relatively simple:

def a():
    if not hasattr(a, "b"): a.b = 0
    a.b += 1
    print a.b

Calling a(), you’ll get 1, 2, 3, …

Note attribute ‘b’ of ‘a’ does not exist until you declare it for a first time. My main preference here is that ‘static’ variables used this way does not spill onto the rest of your code. Also, it’s clean, no classes, no data structures.

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