On 18/07/2008, Christopher Spears <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I see what you mean. I have tested it, and I have gotten a weird result: > > >>> def shorten(lst): > ... lst = lst[:-1] > > ... > > >>> lista = [1,2,3,4] > >>> shorten(lista) > >>> print lista > [1, 2, 3, 4] [...] > Strange...why does it work outside of the function but not in it? [...] > Huh, how do you explain that?
Have a look at Alan's tutorial; in particular, the section on namespaces: http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/tutname.htm Or you might find this helpful also: http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/html/book004.html#toc31 (sections 3.8 and 3.9) Also, try this, in a new interpreter session: Python 2.5.1 (r251:54869, Apr 18 2007, 22:08:04) [GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5367)] on darwin Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> def setXTo3(): ... x = 3 ... >>> setXTo3() >>> print x Is that the result you expect? If not, can you explain it after reading the web pages above? If it is what you expect, can you apply the same idea to the shorten(lst) function above? -- John. _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
