Calling variables from inside functions in Python

Question

I know I have already asked a question like this before but I have made my code much cleaner and I am still coming up with a problem.

My code goes like this:

 class Email_Stuff:
 def Get_From_Email():
 #code to open up window and get email address
 emailaddr = #the input
 return emailaddr
 def Get_To_Email():
 #code to open up window and get to email address
 recipaddr = #the input
 return recipaddr
 def Get_Email_Address():
 #code to open up window and get email username
 EmailUser = #the input
 return EmailUser
 def Get_Email_Password():
 #code to open up window and get email password
 EmailPass = #the input
 return EmailPass
 def Send_Email():
 import smtplib
 server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
 server.login((EmailUser),(EmailPass))
 message = "Python Test Email"
 server.sendmail(emailaddr,recipaddr,message)

I need to get the variables: emailaddr, recipaddr, EmailUser, and EmailPass into the function Send_Email. I'm not sure how I could do that though because when I run this code, it tells me that "the global name isn't defined".

Any ideas?

• Ron: Do you intend the methods to be static?

Answer 1

Make emailaddr, recipaddr, EmailUser, and EmailPass become instance variables by adding prefix "self.".

class Email_Stuff():
 def Get_From_Email(self):
 #code to open up window and get email address
 self.emailaddr = #the input
 def Get_To_Email(self):
 #code to open up window and get to email address
 self.recipaddr = #the input
 def Get_Email_Address(self):
 #code to open up window and get email username
 self.EmailUser = #the input
 def Get_Email_Password(self):
 #code to open up window and get email password
 self.EmailPass = #the input
 def Send_Email(self):
 import smtplib
 server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
 server.login((self.EmailUser),(self.EmailPass))
 message = "Python Test Email"
 server.sendmail(self.emailaddr,self.recipaddr,self.message)
instance = Email_Stuff()
instance.Get_From_Email()
instance.Get_To_Email()
instance.Get_Email_Address()
instance.Get_Email_Password()
instance.Send_Email()

BTW, name of methods should be lowercase.

• micma: ok i tried this and now I am getting this error message: TypeError: Get_From_Email() missing 1 required positional argument: 'self'
• icodesign: be careful. Send_Email has a param 'self'.
• icodesign: And Send_Email must be called by an instance. You can new an instance by instance = Email_Staff()
• micma: where would I put that @LeeWong
• micma: is there any way to hook this code up to a button so that it would run as soon as I run the application?

Answer 2

First, if you want these functions to methods associated with an instance of this class, then each method will need a reference to the instance itself as the first argument, usually designated as self, though you can name it anything you like.

For example:

 def Get_Email_Password(self):
 #code to open up window and get email password
 EmailPass = #the input
 return EmailPass

Next, you have two options to get the values ready for sendmail. You can either call each method from within the Send_Email method and store the returned values for each one. That would look like this:

def Send_Email(self):
 emailaddr = self.Get_For_Email()
 recipaddr = self.Get_Email_Address()
 ...

Or you can store the values, instead of returning them, as instance variables. So, you would have something like this:

 def Get_Email_Password(self):
 #code to open up window and get email password
 EmailPass = #the input
 self.emailaddr = EmailPass

And then, in your Send_Email method, you would reference the instance variables you have saved:

def Send_Email(self):
 ...
 server.sendmail(self.emailaddr, self.recipaddr, self.message)

How you choose to do it is up to you, but I prefer the first way. I also suggest you read up on PEP8