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Where do nested functions live?

Ben Finney bignose+hates-spam at benfinney.id.au
Sat Oct 28 04:05:44 EDT 2006 
"Steven D'Aprano" <steve at REMOVE.THIS.cybersource.com.au> writes:

> I defined a nested function:
>
> def foo():
>     def bar():
>         return "bar"
>     return "foo " + bar()
>
> which works. Knowing how Python loves namespaces, I thought I could
> do this:
>
> >>> foo.bar()
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
> AttributeError: 'function' object has no attribute 'bar'
>
> but it doesn't work as I expected.

Functions don't get attributes automatically added to them the way
class do. The main exception is the '__doc__' attribute, referring to
the doc string value.

> where do nested functions live?

They live inside the scope of the function. Inaccessible from outside,
which is as it should be. Functions interact with the outside world
through a tightly-defined interface, defined by their input parameters
and their return value.

> How can you access them, for example, to read their doc strings?

If you want something that can be called *and* define its attributes,
you want something more complex than the default function type. Define
a class that has a '__call__' attribute, make an instance of that, and
you'll be able to access attributes and call it like a function.

-- 
 \          "Writing a book is like washing an elephant: there no good |
  `\        place to begin or end, and it's hard to keep track of what |
_o__)                           you've already covered."  -- Anonymous |
Ben Finney
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