Calling variable defined inside one function from another function

Question

if I have this:

def oneFunction(lists):
    category=random.choice(list(lists.keys()))
    word=random.choice(lists[category])

def anotherFunction():
    for letter in word:              #problem is here
        print("_",end=" ")

I have previously defined lists, so oneFunction(lists) works perfectly.

My problem is calling word in line 6. I have tried to define word outside the first function with the same word=random.choice(lists[category]) definition, but that makes word always the same, even if I call oneFunction(lists).

I want to be able to, every time I call the first function and then the second, have a different word.

Can I do this without defining that word outside the oneFunction(lists)?

Answer 1

One approach would be to make oneFunction return the word so that you can use oneFunction instead of word in anotherFunction :

def oneFunction(lists):
    category = random.choice(list(lists.keys()))
    return random.choice(lists[category])

    
def anotherFunction():
    for letter in oneFunction(lists):              
        print("_", end=" ")

Another approach is making anotherFunction accept word as a parameter which you can pass from the result of calling oneFunction:

def anotherFunction(words):
    for letter in words:              
        print("_", end=" ")
anotherFunction(oneFunction(lists))

And finally, you could define both of your functions in a class, and make word a member:

class Spam:
    def oneFunction(self, lists):
        category=random.choice(list(lists.keys()))
        self.word=random.choice(lists[category])

    def anotherFunction(self):
        for letter in self.word:              
            print("_", end=" ")

Once you make a class, you have to instantiate an instance and access the member functions:

s = Spam()
s.oneFunction(lists)
s.anotherFunction()

Answer 2

Everything in python is considered as object so functions are also objects. So you can use this method as well.

def fun1():
    fun1.var = 100
    print(fun1.var)

def fun2():
    print(fun1.var)

fun1()
fun2()

print(fun1.var)

Answer 3

The simplest option is to use a global variable. Then create a function that gets the current word.

current_word = ''
def oneFunction(lists):
    global current_word
    word=random.choice(lists[category])
    current_word = word

def anotherFunction():
    for letter in get_word():              
          print("_",end=" ")

 def get_word():
      return current_word

The advantage of this is that maybe your functions are in different modules and need to access the variable.