Function not changing global variable

Question

my code is as follow:

done = False  def function():     for loop:         code         if not comply:             done = True  #let's say that the code enters this if-statement  while done == False:     function() 

For some reason when my code enters the if statement, it doesn't exit the while loop after it's done with function().

BUT, if I code it like this:

done = False  while done == False:     for loop:     code     if not comply:         done = True  #let's say that the code enters this if-statement 

...it exits the while loop. What's going on here?

I made sure that my code enters the if-statement. I haven't run the debugger yet because my code has a lot of loops (pretty big 2D array) and I gave up on debugging due to it being so tedious. How come "done" isn't being changed when it's in a function?

Answer 1

Your issue is that functions create their own namespace, which means that done within the function is a different one than done in the second example. Use global done to use the first done instead of creating a new one.

def function():     global done     for loop:         code         if not comply:             done = True 

An explanation of how to use global can be found here

Answer 2

done=False def function():     global done     for loop:         code         if not comply:             done = True 

you need to use the global keyword to let the interpreter know that you refer to the global variable done, otherwise it's going to create a different one who can only be read in the function.