This is what is actually happening:
global_list = []
def defineAList():
local_list = ['1','2','3']
print "For checking purposes: in defineAList, list is", local_list
return local_list
def useTheList(passed_list):
print "For checking purposes: in useTheList, list is", passed_list
def main():
# returned list is ignored
returned_list = defineAList()
# passed_list inside useTheList is set to global_list
useTheList(global_list)
main()
This is what you want:
def defineAList():
local_list = ['1','2','3']
print "For checking purposes: in defineAList, list is", local_list
return local_list
def useTheList(passed_list):
print "For checking purposes: in useTheList, list is", passed_list
def main():
# returned list is ignored
returned_list = defineAList()
# passed_list inside useTheList is set to what is returned from defineAList
useTheList(returned_list)
main()
You can even skip the temporary returned_list
and pass the returned value directly to useTheList
:
def main():
# passed_list inside useTheList is set to what is returned from defineAList
useTheList(defineAList())