python scope issue

Question

I'm having problems with python variable scopes.

def getIP(data,address):
 header = Header.fromData(data,0);
 arcount = header._arcount //at this point arcount is some non-zero number

later in the code (still inside the method getIP) I want to see if arcount is zero or not:

...
 elif firstRR._type==RR.TYPE_NS:
 while(nscount!=0):
 print "arcount: ",arcount //here it gives 0. why?
 if(arcount!=0):
 print "arcount isn't 0"
 else:
 print "can't reach header"

And this prints "can't reach header", when I was assuming arcount shouldn't be zero. Why it doesn't see arcount? Thanks

• inspectorG4dget: Are you sure you're not modifying arcount anywhere else in the excluded code? Please post that code
• LSerni: You're modifying arcount, either directly or through a modification of header.

Answer 1

Because Python is strongly typed, and neither u'0' nor '0' are equal to 0.