• There is another way to get all of the variables without using *args or *kwargs at all.
    • We can do that using the locals() function.
  • For example: 
    def performOperation(num1, num2, operation='sum'):
       print(locals())
performOperation(1, 2, operation='multiply')
  • The output will be a dictionary of all of the variables that have been passed in, doesn’t matter if they are positional arguments or keyword arguments: 
    {'num1': 1, 'num2': 2, 'operation': 'multiply'}
  • The fuction is called locals, because the variable names are available inside the function.
  • In Python, we usually talk about ‘local variables’ (things that are assigned within the function).
  • Global variables - things that are assigned outside of the function in the main body of the code.
    • There is a built-in Python function called globals which provides these variables.
  • Example of the globals() function is below: 
    # Shows all the globally available variables in the program
globals()
  • When you’re talking about which variables that you have access to in a particular line of code, that is called the scope.
    • Terminology is global variable scope , local variable scope or the scope of variables within a function.
  • To check how global and local variables interact each other, we can use the following function: ``` message = ‘Some global data’

Each functions has its own variable scope

They also have access to the global variables as well

def function1(varA, varB): print(message) print(locals())

def function2(varC, varB): print(message) print(locals())

function1(1, 2) function2(3, 4)

* What if `varA` is defined in the global scope.

message = ‘Some global data’ varA = 2

Each functions has its own variable scope

They also have access to the global variables as well

def function1(varA, varB): print(varA) print(message) print(locals())

def function2(varC, varB): print(varA) print(message) print(locals())

function1(1, 2) function2(3, 4)

* You will receive an output of:

1 Some global data {‘varA’: 1, ‘varB’: 2} 2 Some global data {‘varC’: 3, ‘varB’: 4}

* When Python goe sto look up the data associated with the variable name, it checks the `local scope` first and then if that is not defined, go to the `global scope`
* Can also redefine the message, so that the first function gets its own value for message.

message = ‘Some global data’ varA = 2

Each functions has its own variable scope

They also have access to the global variables as well

def function1(varA, varB): # This was added here message = ‘Some local data’ print(varA) print(message) print(locals())

def function2(varC, varB): print(varA) print(message) print(locals())

function1(1, 2) function2(3, 4)

* We can also declare a function within another function:

def function1(varA, varB): # This was added here message = ‘Some local data’ print(varA) def inner_function(varA, varB): print(f’innner_function local scope: {locals()}’)

	 inner_function(123, 456)

function(1, 2)

* Will output:

1 inner_function local scope: {‘varA’: 123, ‘varB’: 456}

* In the above, we cannot call `inner_function` outside of `function1`.
* Another thing we can do is:

def function1(varA, varB): # This was added here message = ‘Some local data’ print(varA) def inner_function(varA, varB): print(f’innner_function local scope: {locals()}’)

	 print(locals())
	 inner_function(123, 456)

function(1, 2) ```

  • inner_function is defined as a variable.

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